RCAF Radar Personnel in WWII -North Atlantic Region-

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1RUWK $WODQWL 5HJLRQ Olfus, too, had wind problems. Nissen huts had to be banked with sod to streamline their contours and so prevent ‘lift-off’; unit personnel did the manual labor involved. Adjustment to tower guy wires was critical. Installation of the TRU gear and erection of towers was done by unit personnel ( no fitting party!); the task was not made easier by the fact that ‘instructions’ appear to have been sent to West Africa - none ever arrived at Olfus. Somehow the job was done and Olfus became operational in late Aug. 1941; Headquarters Iceland said “ . . .bloody good show . . .” and the station settled into a routine of plotting Hudsons flying out of nearby Kaldadarnes; Mount Hecla, one of Iceland’s active volcanoes, provided a steady PE (permanent echo) - a useful indication of current plotting capability. RAF OLFUS (looking inland) ,9
North Atlantic Region Winter weather came to be a bit monotonous - ‘snow and wind’ alternating with ‘rain and wind’. Spirits were raised when word leaked out that “ . . .the Americans are coming so we can go home . . .” The TRU’s ‘fixed aerials and goniometer’ system initially bemused the US Signal Corps officers, radar techs and radar operators who arrived in early 1942 to man the station, as provided by the terms of the UK-US treaty mentioned earlier. Sometime in April, ‘RAF Olfus’ became ‘Camp Hughes.’ Similar take-overs took place at Vik, and at the COL near Reykjavik; by mid-1942 the RCAF radar presence in Iceland was entirely ‘Air.’ RCAF Radar (Air) Personnel in the North Atlantic Air operations in the North Atlantic during WWII were primarily anti-submarine and meteorological; no fighter, bomber or transport squadrons of either RCAF or RAF were based there. So the work of RCAF Radar (Air) personnel in that region was essentially that of maintaining radar gear carried by RAF/RCAF Coastal squadrons flying Hudsons, Liberators and Cansos. An account written by David Roumieu of Smithers, BC, who served on RAF Sqd.86 based at Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1944, includes reference to earlier service at Aldergrove, Northern Ireland, where he was assigned to the Base Radar Section staffed by radar mechs from two RAF squadrons (86 and 59). David noted that the section was “ . . .95 percent Canadian . . .” This very high ratio, RCAF to RAF, was unusual, but it was a fact that RAF squadrons everywhere came to rely heavily on RCAF radar mechs(air); ground radar which, in the UK, expanded earlier than did airborne radar, had nearly exhausted the supply of UK recruits possessing the qualifications for maintaining airborne radar which was brought into service later. E.V. (Bud) MacLachlan, of Ingersol, Ont, served on RCAF Sqd.162 based at Reykjavik from Jan. 1944, onward. He wrote of meeting Canadians there, serving on RAF squadrons, who “ . . .were glad to see a Canadian squadron arrive . . ..” He also mentions (with obvious pride) that his squadron received credit for 5 and a half ‘sub-sinkings’, that it was the first squadron to photograph a U-boat Snorkel, and that one of the pilots won a VC. Some RCAF radar mechs (air) drew ‘ground duties.’ Bill James, of Barrie Ont, maintained a radar beacon used as a landing aid by his squadron when based at Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides; apparently he felt lonely - he was the only mech. and the only Canadian there! Another Canuck, Warren Guscott of Kleinburg, Ont. was assigned to RAF Sqd.519, a meteorological unit based at Wick, Scotland, flying sorties up the coast of Norway, west to Iceland and back to Scotland. Warren’s ground chores - maintaining radar nav beacons - carried a bonus: it involved a pleasant drive across moors and highlands with stops at crofters’ homes to buy real hens’ eggs ‘in the shell.’ These, Warren reported, “ . . .were very popular when we went south on leave - almost as good as silk stockings . . .” IV-13
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RCAF Radar Personnel in WWII -North Atlantic Region-

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