Mystery trunk in N.B. reveals treasure trove of Hurricane pilot's memoirs

Nov 29, 12:18 PM

By Chris Morris, The Canadia Press FREDERICTON

New Brunswick writer Barbara Gill was in her early teens before she was able to peek inside a mysterious trunk that her grandmother kept locked and off limits during her childhood.

She grew up wondering what dark secrets lay hidden in the strangely marked box, not realizing that the military footlocker contained the most terrible truths there are about war - heartbreak and loss.

When she was finally able to open the trunk, after it was passed down to her father, Gill lifted the lid on a bygone world and on a young relative she had never known but whose letters touched her deeply.

"Hurricane Pilot," published by Goose Lane Editions, is a war-time memoir in its purest and most personal form - letters written home by Canadian hero Harry Gill, recipient of the Distinguished Flying Medal.

Few would know of Gill, although some people in Nunavut might recall that Gill Lake was named after the Hurricane ace. As well,older folks in the Fredericton area might remember the shy young man who went to war in 1940 when he was just 18, and who never came home.

But readers will know him well after perusing his correspondence, most of it written to his loving mother, Mabel. She was the grandmother who kept her dead son's letters and memorabilia locked up, knowing it would be too painful to revisit memories of her first-born child.

"It was a closed book," says Gill, Harry's niece and a resident of Fredericton.

"We didn't talk about Harry. We didn't go to Remembrance Day services or anything like that because my grandmother did not want to revisit that pain every year. Losing Harry broke their hearts."

It's hard to describe what is so moving about these letters, edited, with Gill, by historian Brent Wilson of the Centre for the Study of War and Society at the University of New Brunswick.

The letters are not poetic or heroic or filled with daring deeds. Censors kept Harry from revealed details of his missions in such places as Europe, India and Burma.

We do know that Harry enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in Moncton, N.B,, in 1940. He was among the first to pass through the British Commonwealth Air Training Program set up to train pilots from around the world in the safety of Canadian airspace.

After training, he was posted to 607 Fighter Squadron of the Royal Air Force in England, flying the single-seat Hawker Hurricane fighters which were so critical in the Battle of Britain.

In February 1942, Gill's squadron of Hurricanes attacked the German warships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau during the infamous "Channel Dash."

Gill's bravely and flying skill in that action won him a Distinguished Flying Medal, one of the highest awards given for valour.

In June 1942, Gill travelled with his squardron to India to shore up Commonwealth defences against the Japanese. On Jan.17, 1943, at the age of 20, Harry was shot down during an engagement with four Japanese Zero fighters and killed in action.

He is buried in Bangladesh.

The letters in "Hurricane Pilot" are plain and sweet - evoking the life and thoughts of one young man who, like so many, left the safety of home to fight and die in a far away land. It's a story that resonates today becacuse of Afghanistan.

Harry was often short of money, worried about his insurance and longed for home cooking and the latest issues of his local newspaper from home.

He had a girlfriend he wanted to marry and a life he yearned to live when he finally returned home.

"I have been living such a high, wide and handsome life for the last couple of years that I want to quiet down a bit," Harry wrote in one of his last letters.

He must have known there wasn't much chance of getting home since the average lifespan of a Second World War RAF fighter pilot was measrued in days and weeks. But he never let on to his family.

Harry Gill's letters bring a global war home to small-town Canada, reminding us that for many young soldiers the homefront was as critical in the war effort as the front lines.