William Robert Mattless

Bill Mattless' father John Robert Mattless was born in 1892 near Bathurst and Bloor, the only Mattless family living in Toronto at the time. John grew up in the Bathurst neighbourhood and married Lucy May Tovell (“Mae”), a Guelph girl two years his junior, on June 30, 1913. He worked in the CPR yard in the Junction. The couple settled in the west end and had three sons, John Vincent, Earl Alfred and James Arnold before Bill was born on May 23, 1923. The family was living at 621 Durie Street. Three year old Bill had a bout of scarlet fever and he was known to suffer from the occasional earache throughout his childhood.

By 1927 the family had purchased 142 Gilmour Avenue and two year later Bill started school at Strathcona. The Mattlesses were Baptists, members of the Runnymede Road Baptist Church. John belonged to the Masons. In the early 1930s another brother, Leonard, was born.

Bill graduated from Strathcona in the Class of 1937 and entered Grade 9 at Western Commerce. He was a boy with no hobbies, but he occasionally played hockey, rugby and baseball. He admitted he was not much of a student and he left school at 16, in 1939, finding work at Canada Bread, manning the slicing machine. In 1941 he moved to a better job as a payroll clerk at the United Steel Corporation on Pelham Avenue near Davenport and Symington.

Although Bill enlisted in the RCAF on November 27, 1942, he didn't have to report for duty to Lachine, Quebec until March 15, 1943. His two oldest brothers had been rejected for service for medical reasons. His brother, James Arnold, known as Arnold, joined the signal corps, eventually serving in Italy. When Bill enlisted, he hoped to return to his payroll clerk job after the war. The recruiting officer found him to be pleasant, but Bill presented a nervous temperament including a fast pulse, sweating hands and elevated blood pressure. Perhaps he was anxious about the whole recruiting procedure.

In Lachine, Bill did two months of basic training and then was assigned to the supply depot in Moncton. He was sent to Montreal for Pre-Aircrew Education at McGill University. After completing the course on October 4, he started flying lessons at the Service Flying Training School in St. Hubert. Usually the course took 16 weeks, but Bill left after four weeks. It's possible that he didn't really want to be a pilot, that there was an error in the assignment or that Bill was determined not to be a good fit as a pilot. He continued to Air Observer school for navigators and gunners in Quebec City on October 30. This was mainly classroom work. After completing this course, he took a train to Manitoba and arrived at No. 3 Bombing and Gunnery School in Macdonald on December 12. Most of the bombing and gunnery schools were located close to a large body of water where their ranges were located. In this case it was Lake Manitoba. Not long after arriving, Bill was granted a five day leave for Christmas. Since the leave was so short, it is unknown whether he returned to Toronto.

He won his Air Gunner's badge on January 28, 1944 and returned to Toronto for a short leave before reporting to Mountain View air base in Prince Edward County, Ontario. There he trained in advanced gunnery exercises. On April 7, he returned to Toronto for his embarkation leave. At home, plans for his brother Earl's wedding in June were taking place. Bill knew he would be leaving for Europe soon and regretted that he would miss the celebration. His next stop was the Aircrew Graduate Training School in Trois Rivières on April 22. He trained under Army Commando officers to get him and his fellow gunners in shape. It was a three week course and the most realistic exercise required the students to crawl on the ground while live weapons fire sailed over them. The school also sent the men to the docks to load ships with grain destined for Britain. From this school, Bill and the others in his group went to the RCAF depot in Lachine to board trains for Halifax from where they sailed on June 2. The Empress of Scotland sailed from Halifax around this time, carrying over 5000 military personnel and it is possible that Bill was on that sailing. He landed on June 10 and reported to the Personnel Reception Centre in Bournemouth. England. All RCAF crew arriving in Britain were provided with their postings from the centre. On July 11, Bill reported to No. 24 Operational Training Unit.

Wellington bomber. Source: United Kingdom government.

The unit was based at RAF Honeybourne, approximately 15 kilometres southwest of Stratford-upon-Avon and was training RCAF crews on the Wellington night bomber. Within a few days, the men were encouraged to form crews and usually they stayed together for their entire tour of duty. Bill teamed up with Pilot Edward John Kennedy, a Montreal boy a month younger than Bill. Navigator Ian Taylor Cromb was a 20 year old from St. Catharines, Ontario. Their bomb aimer was James Wesley Irwin, a 19 year old from Manitoba and the wireless operator was Edric La Dell Dunn, a 25 year old from Regina. The rear gunner was Basil Andrew Skebo, 19, from Wilno, Ontario, which is about 55 kilometres southeast of Pembroke and the oldest Polish settlement in Canada. Basil's father, like Bill's, worked for the railroad. Basil had lost a brother, Patrick, the previous February. He had been a gunner in a Lancaster which had gone missing.

The first few weeks of training were spent on the ground for the crew, except for the pilot who was getting the hang of flying the large aircraft. Bill bought a bicycle to get around the base.

On September 15, the crews were briefed that they would be undertaking a Bullseye exercise that evening. The Wellingtons had to navigate to a target and to try to evade searchlights. If the plane was caught (“coned”) in the lights, the crew had to figure out how to deal with it. It was also an exercise for the ground defences. Bill's Wellington took off at 2215 hrs. The night was clear and the crew had to fly over a couple of targets. All was fine until they flew over the Isle of Wight off England's south coast. The searchlights coned the Wellington and Pilot Kennedy took evasive action. He tried to lower his seat so as not to be blinded by the lights. He put the aircraft into a climb and when he made a second attempt to adjust his seat lower, the seat shot up and he was completely blinded. The plane was in a very steep climb and risked stalling. The pilot tried to correct the plane, but rolled it on its back. Then the Wellington began a steep dive. Kennedy lost control and ordered the crew to put on their parachutes. The plane had dropped 5000 feet to 13000 feet and Kennedy gave the order to jump. Wireless operator Dunn jumped from the main hatch. Rear gunner Basil Skebo jumped from his turret and Bill, the upper gunner, jumped from the rear escape hatch. Kennedy regained control at 10500 feet and ordered the rest of the crew to remain. Dunn and Skebo landed safely on the Isle of Wight but Bill landed in the ocean and drowned. His body was recovered later that day and he was buried in Brookwood Cemetery on September 20.

Bill's grave, Brookwood Cemetery, England. Photo: Retired QA from findagrave.com.

An inquiry was held into the circumstances surrounding Bill's death. His safety equipment was found on him and inflated. Twenty-one year old Pilot Kennedy gave a written statement of the events of the evening. The inquiry concluded that he wasn't at fault, but suggested that his inexperience might have caused the incident and for the same reason the Wellington didn't send the signal to the ground so the searchlights could have been doused. Kennedy wasn't able to attend the formal hearing as he and the rest of the crew went missing over the North Sea during another Bullseye exercise eight days after Bill's death.

Bill's father John passed away in 1962 and Mae was still living at 142 Gilmour in 1969. She passed away in 1987.