RCAF Radar Personnel in WWII -North Atlantic Region-

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