Karl Kiarsgaard
Director: Halifax 57 Rescue (Canada)
Bomber Command Museum of Canada
John ‘Pee Wee’ Phillips and Crew of Halifax HR871
Navigator Graham Mainprize; Flight Engineer Herbert McLean; Rear Gunner Lloyd Kohnke
(all three from Saskatchewan); Wireless Operator Ron Andrews from London;
Mid-Upper Gunner Joe King from Ontario, and Bomb Aimer Vernon Knight from Wales.
Courtesy: Bomber Command Museum of Canada
Halifax HR871 of the RCAF 405 Squadron went down during what was to become known as ‘The Night of the Great Storm’ on the night of 2 August 1943. It was on its way home from a raid on Germany. The British pilot, John ‘Pee Wee’ Phillips, is still alive and remembers it well. In an interview with author and historian Ted Barris of Toronto he explained what happened:
‘On that fateful night, Pee Wee and his crew flew to northern Germany to mark targets around Hamburg. But Bomber Command’s meteorological experts had badly underestimated the poor flying conditions. Their flight path took them into thunderheads that towered 30,000 into the air, violent wind gusts and St Elmo’s fire that shot forks of lightning at their aircraft.’
John ‘Pee Wee’ Phillips recalled:
‘There was one hell of an explosion! We were blinded by it. Bits of aircraft were flying all over the place.’
He aimed the crippled aircraft northward across the Baltic toward Sweden. At as low an altitude as he dared, along the coast of the neutral country, ‘Pee Wee’ instructed his crew to bail out, and they all parachuted to ground safely. Then he locked the control stick of Halifax HR871 in place and aimed it out over the ocean, never expecting to see it again, before baling out himself. The Halifax flew out to sea, then plunged into the waves and has lain there ever since, 15 metres below the surface, partly buried in sand.
It was a Swedish diving crew which stumbled across the remains a couple of years ago, and the recovery was put in motion.
Courtesy: Bomber Command Museum of Canada
The story is taken up by Karl Kiarsgaard, Director of the Halifax 57 Rescue (Canada), Bomber Command Museum of Canada who explains how the Halifax Bomber Recovery has been going.
‘Many people around the world contact us for help to find lost Bomber Boys’ histories. Thanks to archives and research of the Bomber Command Museum of Canada (BCMC), we receive vital Reports of these airmen which are passed to grateful families and friends. For example, there were 8,864 Americans in the RCAF. Many USA families have asked about their airmen and we have provided much information on their RCAF Americans.
Now the BCMC, partnered with Halifax 57 Rescue (Canada), have set up a Project to save this RCAF Halifax bomber underwater off the coast of Sweden. We have already dived several times and are now ready for digging and lifting the airframe which has rested in 50 feet of water for 75 years!
As of June, this year, recovery of Halifax HR871 from the Baltic Sea was started with the intention of bringing the airframe home to the BCMC in Nanton, Alberta, for restoration and to display beside their already restored Lancaster. Halifax 57 Rescue is an aircraft recovery group, partnered by Swedish Coast and Sea Center and Havsresan of Sweden.
Funding remains critical. Enough funding was available to start the recovery, but not enough to finish it. Our diving team and crew proposes to continue to do their best till we run out of funds. Our special crowdfund called FUNDRAZR is set up and doing great things towards saving this Halifax bomber. The link is:
Here you will find tons of great videos and articles if you wish to learn more about this special Project and see what we have done so far. Your help would be most welcome.
On 8 June this year, as Project Manager, I was happy to report that, a little over 10 days previous, the SCSC dive team led by Jan Christensen did a complete recon underwater dive of the Halifax site to confirm all is good to go on the gathering of airframe and parts of the Halifax. Special attention was focused on future excavation plans to dig the Halifax out of the sand using underwater excavation equipment we already have on hand.
The dive team were able to take some very good underwater video on the Halifax and this newest video link from YouTube will show you exactly what is happening:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ghda4qmIXQ&feature=youtu.be
Jan Christensen has a new boat being added to the list of dive boats, plus we have the big salvage boat to use later. There are some big and separate parts, like the Halifax rudder (6 feet by 12 feet) we can recover soon and go into freshwater pools at our recovery warehouse in the Port of Trelleborg to conserve and protect these parts from rusting. (Below: Swedish dive team finds bomb door.)
Media interest in our Halifax Project in Sweden continues, and in Spring this year, a CBC video crew came out to the Bomber Command Museum. An Interview with me went out on CVC TV Calgary News in March:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/halifax-bomber-nanton-sweden-1.4582097
I have also been to Ottawa visiting the REBUILDSHOP of Knox Tech where our core-backbone of a Halifax – our center-section (29 feet by 8 feet) – is being rebuilt by Scott and his team. The MAIN spar is rebuilt and ready, the 10th and final giant wing rib was being done that same week. We then went on to the rebuild of the REAR spar of the center-section which Scott and team must prepare to shape and fit on to the back edge of this center-section.
Knox Tech is so serious about their Halifax work and rebuild that they have in past months completed an entire renovation of the REBUILDSHOP which has freed up an additional 40% of floor space so that the center-section and all future airframe sections can be built on their floor without restrictions on airframe section size … while final assembly of all Halifax airframe sections will be at the Bomber Command Museum in Alberta.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8UiNxZHjds&feature=youtu.be
For anyone wishing to see all Knox Tech has done and is doing for our Halifax rebuild visit:
https://www.facebook.com/Rebuildshop-1533756926866315/
There were thousands of young air crew who died fighting for Freedom wielding this true Canadian aluminium sword. In fact, the majority of our RCAF Bomber Boys who flew into battle were on the Halifax. I started realising this over 25 years ago, and how important the Halifax was to Canada; more importantly how beloved the Halifax was to veterans who survived, hearing them bless their ‘Halis’ for helping them survive. It reminds me why we are doing this!
While visiting the UK in April on behalf of the Bomber Command Museum of Canada, I had a most poignant phone call with one of the last Bomber Boys I know.
Bill Burrell was a rare mid-under air-gunner on Halifaxes with 420 Squadron at RCAF Tholthorpe, Yorkshire. He completed 32 combat trips and survived! I promised Bill I would call him in Toronto from his old base at Tholthorpe while on my UK trip. I kept my promise while sharing it with three friends who also believe Tholthorpe to be a special place. This link shares these moments:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nhm5DbOnNVA
It is for Bill, his crew and all the thousands of other crews who flew Halifaxes to Allied Victory that we will bring Halifax HR871 home.
Our motto: ‘We leave no Halifax behind!’
Project Update: October 2018
Halifax 57 Rescue and Havsresan are pleased to announce after months of negotiations we now have official Swedish Government permission to salvage this RCAF Halifax bomber.
Bad weather, lack of boats, and Swedish Coast and Sea Center (SCSC diver manpower) put us behind on the Halifax HR871 recovery in Sweden with only a few dives performed this summer. There may be one more SCSC dive this Fall, but Spring 2019 we aim to continue recovery.
To this end, as Project Manager, in late September I worked out a solution with our friend of the Project, Gustav in Denmark, who owns a 50-foot tugboat: ‘River Thames’. Gustav agreed we use his boat one week at a time starting next Spring, anchoring over the Halifax in moderate to big waves and winds to continue excavating it out of the ‘sands of Time’. The rebuilt diesel tug ‘River Thames’ worked for many years in London. The cost of using this tug boat as the diving platform to do sand excavation; would be approximately $500/day = 3,000 Swedish krona, compared with commercial rates of about $2,500/day = 15,000 Swedish krona for a boat to do the same.
On 21/22 September, our Halifax Project Event at the BCMC in Nanton was a great success. Halifax fans and supporters came to see my presentation on all the topics and adventures we are having to recover, restore and display to the world, especially Canada, the great history and merits of the Halifax heavy bomber. Several donations came after the program to ensure enough funding to save a Halifax for the BCMC. New member this week, Winnifred Litster – sister of Allison Dixon, RCAF Navigator, killed in action on Halifax MZ508 – generously donated $500 for ‘River Thames’.
On the issue of work boats, we will consider using BJORN the crane-barge and paying higher prices when it is time to lift and recover to land all the Halifax we excavate. But we cannot afford to keep the crane boat on site for one week at a time. It is after we have Halifax airframe parts ready to lift and transport to our warehouse at the Port of Trelleborg that we will use it. The ‘River Thames’ is still the best solution (job-wise and budget-wise) for digging out the Halifax.
Due to delays of SCSC working on the Halifax, I flew to the UK from Sept. 23-29, sniffing out Halifax treasure, to the best of my scrounger abilities, coming up with some real gems. I found a Halifax propeller blade to be the template for building more blades as these are super rare. Then went to see Dave and Richard Woods, leaders of the Shackleton WR963 Group in Coventry, who generously donated two new tires-wheels-brakes that will fit both the Halifax and Lancaster of BCMC. These were transported from Coventry to East Kirkby – home of our friends, the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Center – and readied for shipment to us in Canada. I drove back to my Halifax parts warehouse in Sandy, UK, to load 500 pounds of Halifax propeller hubs gathered from across the UK, into a crate to bring to Canada. These were hauled down to Air Canada Air Cargo at Heathrow, shipped at special cargo rates, and fired off to Calgary, delivered last Monday.’
Karl Kiarsgaard is passionate about the Project to raise Halifax HR871, appealing for help with funding. They had to convince the Swedish Government to give them salvage rights to the airplane, and to organise a dive and recovery crew, as well as a sonar vessel for detailed maps of the seabed and wreck site. He’s working with the Swedish Coast & Sea Centre and a local University. 3,000 photos were taken of the seabed to piece together the site ahead of recovery, which will cost around $110,000 in total. Work first started in 2015, and progress has been understandably slow, with the weather and working with such precious parts covered in layers of sand on the seabed. But Kiarsgaard says the salvage team is now finally ready to bring this Halifax to the surface.
Karl Kiarsgaard
Project Manager, Halifax 57 rescue (Canada)
This article is from the Winter 2018 issue of Confound and Destroy
