HughAHalliday
27th December 2013, 15:54
RCAF photo PL-27002 (formerly UK-8922 dated 20 March 1944) is captioned as follows:
“After ditching an aircraft in the shark-infested Indian Ocean there is nothing like a spot of leave and your RCAF pilot shown above - Pilot Officer A, Hawkshaw (J19515) of Cornwall, Ontario figures there is not better place for leave than Colombo. He is shown enjoying the sights of Ceylon’s colourful capital in a rickshaw. Only 22 and a school teacher at Russell, Ontario, before joined the RCAF, Al d ditched two twin-engined aircraft within the last four months after one motor ‘conked out’ in each case. On his last seaward venture Al and his crew of three RAF fliers were rescued by a ship after four hours of drifting in a dinghy. But on their first dunking they were not so lucky and spent more than 24 hours clinging to a tyred wheel which had broken off their aircraft, before being rescued by a grain-laden vessel.
“A graduate of Ottawa Normal School, Al has served in Ceylon for one year and hopes to complete his Far Eastern Tour in dry clothes. Once ashore after the second ditching, Pilot Officer Hawkshaw thought there was some mistake when he was invited to an Officer’s Mess at an RAF station but all was in order. Just about the time his bomber made contact with the ocean his commission came through - when he took off he was still a warrant officer.
“While Al and his crew clung to the wheel during their first ditching, ‘a large fish with a knowing look kept fastening its gills to the side of the wheel’. Every time the boys forced the fish away from one spot, it bobbed up in another, and “we got the idea it was the type of pilot fish which guides sharks to a good square meal.’ When the dhow, carrying 40-feet sail, pulled alongside, the fliers were too weak to climb aboard and the Indian crewmen dove into the ocean to assist them.”
Hawkshaw died in 2005. His obituary mentioned his having served in a Beaufort squadron, and I assume this would be the unit in which he experienced these incidents - either No.22 or No.217 Squadron. Before I purchase ORB extracts from the British Archives, I would like to narrow down which unit it might have been and the approximate time frame (the date on the caption suggests December 1943 to March 1944 but it might have been earlier).
“After ditching an aircraft in the shark-infested Indian Ocean there is nothing like a spot of leave and your RCAF pilot shown above - Pilot Officer A, Hawkshaw (J19515) of Cornwall, Ontario figures there is not better place for leave than Colombo. He is shown enjoying the sights of Ceylon’s colourful capital in a rickshaw. Only 22 and a school teacher at Russell, Ontario, before joined the RCAF, Al d ditched two twin-engined aircraft within the last four months after one motor ‘conked out’ in each case. On his last seaward venture Al and his crew of three RAF fliers were rescued by a ship after four hours of drifting in a dinghy. But on their first dunking they were not so lucky and spent more than 24 hours clinging to a tyred wheel which had broken off their aircraft, before being rescued by a grain-laden vessel.
“A graduate of Ottawa Normal School, Al has served in Ceylon for one year and hopes to complete his Far Eastern Tour in dry clothes. Once ashore after the second ditching, Pilot Officer Hawkshaw thought there was some mistake when he was invited to an Officer’s Mess at an RAF station but all was in order. Just about the time his bomber made contact with the ocean his commission came through - when he took off he was still a warrant officer.
“While Al and his crew clung to the wheel during their first ditching, ‘a large fish with a knowing look kept fastening its gills to the side of the wheel’. Every time the boys forced the fish away from one spot, it bobbed up in another, and “we got the idea it was the type of pilot fish which guides sharks to a good square meal.’ When the dhow, carrying 40-feet sail, pulled alongside, the fliers were too weak to climb aboard and the Indian crewmen dove into the ocean to assist them.”
Hawkshaw died in 2005. His obituary mentioned his having served in a Beaufort squadron, and I assume this would be the unit in which he experienced these incidents - either No.22 or No.217 Squadron. Before I purchase ORB extracts from the British Archives, I would like to narrow down which unit it might have been and the approximate time frame (the date on the caption suggests December 1943 to March 1944 but it might have been earlier).