George Andrew Deering

(Not mentioned on Norway's Roll of Honour, but is commemorated on Essex's.)

George Deering arrived in Toronto with his family in 1927. His parents Samuel and Martha (née Ballagh) were Irish Protestants who married in England in 1905 and soon after moved to Kirkintilloch, Scotland where their first daughter Sarah was born in 1906. Sam worked as an attendant at Woodilee Hospital, a large psychiatric institution. Kirkintilloch is located approximately 10 kilometres northeast of Glasgow and in the early 1900s, it was an industrial community, with several shipbuilders and a foundry.

George with his sister Margaret, ca. 1926. From The Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

Sam and Martha had three more children: Charlotte in 1908, Margaret in 1917 and George in 1919. When George was three years old he had a cancer scare, but the tumour was successfully removed from his neck. The family moved to Toronto at a time of tremendous growth which began after World War I. For Grade 1, George attended Givins Street school near Trinity Bellwoods Park. The next year, 1928, the family was living at 312 Kenilworth Avenue and George was taught Grade 2 at Norway. At the time, his father worked at Durant Motors, an automobile factory in Leaside. George left Norway at the end of Grade 2 and continued school at Essex Street when his family moved to 102 Pendrith Street near Christie Pits. Martha died August 7, 1930 from heart trouble and Charlotte took her mother's place as housekeeper and caregiver to Margaret and George. Older sister Sarah was working as a stenographer at Eaton's department store. In 1931, Charlotte nursed George through a bout of scarlet fever.

George ca. 1935. From The Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

George's school career ended at Grade 8 in 1935. He liked to skate and played baseball and badminton and was involved in the youth group at his neighbourhood Anglican church. He attended Shaw's Business College for two years studying Shorthand and Typing. George's passion was aeronautics and his father paid for him to take flying lessons at the Toronto Flying Club where he amassed 14 hours of solo flying. He was grounded for two months after making an emergency landing in a field. George also became a member of the Air League of the British Empire. Sam lost his job in the early 1930s when the Durant company went out of business. He worked as a general labourer for several years before running a cigar and stationery store at 910 Bathurst Street, north of Bloor. By 1940, the family had moved into the building. Eldest sister Sarah, who presumably had married, had died unexpectedly of a heart attack at age 33.

When George finished school, he took a job at the Blachford Shoe Manufacturing Company on Carlaw near Dundas. He worked in the sole leather department and his employer found him to be intelligent, industrious and hard working. At night, George took an Aeronautical Engineering correspondence course.

Two weeks after the Second World War began, George tried to enlist with the RCAF. Knowing how to fly made him an ideal candidate at the beginning of the war, but he needed to have the equivalent of a couple of grades of high school. He began classes to help him to meet the required standards and passed them the next March. On Dominion Day (Canada Day) 1940, George joined the RCAF with the hope of becoming a pilot.

He did his basic training in Toronto, but his tests must have indicated that he would better serve the force as a gunner, rather than as a pilot. In September 1940 he began studying at the wireless school in Calgary and in January 1941 he went to the bombing and gunnery school in Jarvis, Ontario, graduating as a gunner in February. He shipped overseas from Halifax on April 6 and was sent to the No. 21 Operational Training Unit (OTU) in Moreton-in-Marsh, about 40 kilometres northwest of Oxford. Here crews were trained on Wellington bombers for night fighting.

In August, George joined the RAF's 103 Squadron, located near Hull on the English eastern coast, as part of a Wellington crew. A tour of duty for bomber crew in the RAF was 30 sorties. George successfully completed his tour and he was transferred to No. 22 Operational Training Unit in May 1942 to instruct the new crews on the Wellingtons. The next month he was part of two bombing missions over Germany, part of the “thousand-bomber raids.” On June 27, he was sent to No. 11 Operational Training Unit for temporary duty with navigational flight, but he remained with the 22 OTU until March 1943. On February 14, he was given his commission as Pilot Officer.

George, third from left, with one of his earlier crews. From The Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

Prior to the war, the British Air Ministry recognized that the German industrial strength would need to be thwarted. It had identified the Ruhr Valley in Western Germany as a target. The valley was home to war factories, protected by dams which provided hydroelectric power and water for the steel industry. The ministry knew that the dams could be destroyed with large bombs, accurately targeted in a one-off attack. They didn't yet have the weapon for the job.

The Allies had planes that could drop torpedoes which had been successful in destroying German ships. Unfortunately the dams were protected by torpedo nets. A special 10,000 kilogram bomb was devised which was cylindrical and looked like a depth charge. When dropped spinning from 18 metres at 390 km/h, it could skip over the water's surface, hitting the dam wall and then the back spin would send it underwater to the dam's base where it would explode. The first trials were in January 1943 and 30 modified Lancaster bombers were to be used for the attacks in May.

One of the modified Lancasters. George would have sat in the bubble in the nose. From Wikipedia.

One of the Lancasters with the special spinning bomb, code-named Upkeep. Imperial War Museum photo.

A new squadron, which was initially called Squadron X but later No. 617, was quickly mustered with members of the British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand air forces who had volunteered for the mission. The squadron airfield was located at RAF Scrampton, about 8 kilometres north of Lincoln, England. RAF Wing Commander Guy Gibson, a 25 year old veteran of over 170 bombing missions was put in charge of the squadron and tasked with creating 21 bomber crews. George joined the squadron on March 29 and Gibson chose him to be his front gunner. By the beginning of April, the Lancasters arrived. They had had most of the internal armour and the turret on the middle of the plane removed to reduce weight. The bomb-bay doors had to be removed so the bomb could hang under the plane. A motor was attached to the bomb so that it could get spun up to the required speed.

Daily training began with long cross-country flights to hone navigation skills. Once accomplished, the squadron practised low flying over water. By the end of April, over a thousand flying hours were completed and Gibson was able to tell the highers up that the squadron could fly from pinpoint to pinpoint and fly over water at night at 18 metres. At the beginning of May, training became tactical and crews flew dress rehearsals over British dams. The first accurate and successful live bomb was dropped on May 11.

At 1430 hrs on May 16, 1943, George attended a briefing for the bomb aimers and gunners about the mission, which was code-named Chastise. At 1800 hrs, all of the aircrew had a final briefing. Gibson explained that they were to attack the German dams and that no crew was to return with its bomb. The squadron was split into three formations. Nine aircraft were to bomb the Möhne Dam, five were to attack the Sorpe Dam and five more were to take off two hours after the rest and attack the main dams if they hadn't been breached, or secondary targets if they had. At 1930 hrs the meeting broke up and the crewmen had their meal. George, on Gibson's crew, was to bomb the Möhne Dam.

Prior to take off, May 16, 1943. Left to right: Flight Lieutenant R D Trevor-Roper DEM; Sergeant J Pulford; George; Pilot Officer F M Spafford DFM RAAF; Flight Lieutenant R E G Hutchison DFC; Wing Commander Guy Gibson; Pilot Officer H T Taerum RCAF. Imperial War Museum photo.

George's Lancaster, piloted by Gibson, took off in the first wave at 2139 hrs. They experienced some flak from barges on the Rhine River. Gibson made a pass over the dam to survey it. Technically, George was the first Allied flyer over the dam, being in the front gunner seat. Gibson made his bombing run, but his bomb fell short. His Lancaster pulled clear and he radioed for the next plane to try. It released its bomb, but it overshot the dam. The aircraft was hit by flak, caught fire and exploded. Gibson called in the third plane and flew parallel with it, but slightly ahead, to draw off the flak. This bomb was unsuccessful. The fourth Lancaster breached the dam.

Gibson flew with the remaining aircraft which still had their mines to the secondary target of the Eder Dam. After two misses, the third Lancaster's bomb blew it up. Gibson and his crew landed safely back in England at 0415 hrs. Eight of the Lancasters did not return, some crashing into power lines due to the low altitude at which they needed to fly.

The Dam Busters were heroes. They had succeeded when many in the Air Ministry had believed the rotating bomb and the mission were folly. King George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth visited the base on May 27 for a lunch with the men. On June 22, George went to London with the others to receive his Distinguished Flying Cross from the King.

At Buckingham Palace, June 1940. George is second from right in the front row, flanked by Guy Gibson to his right and Torger “Terry” Taerum to his left. From Canada's Weekly magazine, July 9, 1943.

L to R: Wing Commander Guy Gibson, RAF, pilot; Pilot Officer Frederick Spafford, RAAF; Flight Lieutenant Richard Hutchison, RAF, wireless operator; George; Pilot Officer “Terry” Taerum, RCAF, navigator. From The Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

George continued to fly with the squadron. In August Gibson was sent on a goodwill tour of Canada and the United States and his post was handed to Wing Commander George Walton Holden, a 30 year old Englishman who had been in the RAF since 1934. George became Holden's front gunner. Three others who had also been on Gibson's crew were also with Holden: 23 year old navigator Torger Harlo “Terry” Taerum from Calgary; wireless operator Robert Edward George “Bing” Hutchison, 25, from Liverpool, England and Frederick Michael Spafford, the 25 year old bomb aimer from Australia. Rounding out the crew were Dennis John Dean Powell, 21 years old from Kent, who was the flight engineer and RAF members Henry James Pringle and Thomas Alfred Meikle, the middle and rear gunners, respectively.

Holden's crew flew three missions. The fourth was named Operation Garlic, to raid the Dortmund-Ems Canal in western Germany. Eight Lancasters were sent to destroy the canal which was an important transportation route for industry. The night raid was scheduled for September 14/15 but the planes were recalled over the North Sea due to fog. The next night they flew again, with six Mosquito aircraft for protection from flak. George, on Holden's Lancaster, took off at 2356 hrs. The visibility was poor over the target and Holden's plane was taken down by flak, crashing at 0256 hrs on September 16 near the town of Nordhorn, a couple of kilometres from the canal. Only George's and Holden's bodies were identifiable. The Holden crew was one of the most decorated to be lost. They are buried in the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery.

Probably from The Toronto Telegram, 1943. From The Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

In 1955 the British film The Dam Busters was released, recounting Operation Chastise and George was played by actor Peter Assinder. A recent book was published (August 2020) about George called Dambuster Deering: The Life and Death of an Unsung Hero by Chris Ward and Clare Bennett (Bomber Command Books).

George's father Sam moved to Belsize Drive in North Toronto and passed away in 1960.