Frank Godfrey Truscott

Frank “Lucky” Truscott was born June 28, 1917 in Toronto, the youngest of seven children to Lewis Alexander Truscott and Kate Evelyn Foulds (“Evelyn”). Lewis was born in 1876 near Port Hope, Ontario, the son of a labourer. Evelyn had been born in 1879 in Chesterfield, England, the daughter of a physician. Her father died in 1885 at the age of 50 and her mother Eleanor brought Evelyn and her two sisters to Toronto in 1891 to live with her brother, Leonard. Evelyn became a stenographer. Lewis and Evelyn married in Toronto in 1901. The family was living on Indian Road near High Park until the early 1920s when they settled at 335 Woodbine Avenue. Grandmother Eleanor lived with them until she died, aged 91, in 1929. Lewis was the manager of the Toronto branch of a company that made leather belts for machinery and was an active Freemason.

Frank attended Norway, most likely in the Class of 1931 and for high school he went to Riverdale. After graduating, he worked as a machinist at the Canadian Radiator Company on Wellington Street. He loved skiing and was a member of the Fairmount Cycle club. Frank was also involved with the young men's bible class at Kew Beach church.

When he was 17 he tried to join the RAF, to no avail. This would have been in the mid 1930s, a time when the RAF wasn't needing recruits from overseas. When war broke out, he tried to join the RCAF but at the time it was only taking university graduates or those who had a flying licence. Instead, he joined the York Rangers, a Canadian army reserve regiment. It was put on local protection service at the beginning of the war. Frank was eager to get overseas to fight and asked for permission from his commanding officer to quit so he could go to England. In April 1940 Frank worked on an oil tanker that was crossing to Britain. It would have been a perilous voyage as Nazi submarines were routinely patrolling the waters, looking to sink Allied and merchant ships. When he landed, Frank enlisted with the RAF, which was a surprise to his family when he informed them. He would have been subjected to the physical and personality tests which determined the best role for him in the force. He was trained as a wireless operator/air gunner and was assigned to train on Wellington bombers. Frank's job was to transmit messages from the Wellington to the base. Most operations were conducted in wireless silence so he also would have served as a gunner and have dealt with any minor emergencies in any part of the aircraft.

Vickers Wellington bombers. From www.tangmere-museum.org.uk.

Frank, back row, first on the left with his classmates during training, circa 1941. From: www.214squadron.org.uk.

By early October 1941 Frank had been assigned to RAF's 214 Squadron which was the squadron of the Federated Malay States located at RAF Stradishall in Suffolk, about 25 kilometres southeast of Cambridge. By November his crew members included two Canadians, flying for the RCAF – the pilot George Hamilton Webster, 22, from Winnipeg and the second pilot Francis Alexander Tait, 19, from Dilke, Saskatchewan. The rest of the crew were RAF Volunteer Reserve members Sergeant E. W. Self; George Marsh Robinson, 20, from Wigston, Leicestershire; and Peter Gray Milton. The weather in November 1941 was poor and few bombing missions were carried out that month.

Frank in his flight suit, 1941. From: www.214squadron.org.uk

The squadron was flying Wellingtons at the time, undertaking night bombing missions. It had eighteen Wellingtons. Frank's crew's first sortie was on October 12 to Boulogne, across the English channel in France, to bomb the docks. In December the target was shifted to Brest on the western tip of France, again to bomb the docks. On December 17 when the crew returned from Brest, they had some mechanical troubles with their plane and landed in Exeter in the southwest of England, about 400 kilometres from their home base. The weather on New Year's Day 1942 was too poor for flying, but the squadron had a rugby match between the officers and the men. The men won.

Frank's crew started the new year with a different Wellington, X9890. Prior to this they did not have an aircraft that they used repeatedly. On January 11, the squadron was still bombing Brest's docks and the German battle cruisers that were in port. Again on the return, the crew had to land at Exeter owing to engine trouble. They experienced intense flak and the usual searchlight activity, but they were successful in dropping six 500 pound bombs from 16000 feet.

There is an account of their bombing mission on January 26. Harry Ward, a navigator for the squadron, was a floater as his pilot was on sick leave and Frank's crew's navigator, Sgt. Self was on sick leave. Harry was attached to this crew for the 26th. That night Brest waterfront was once again the target where the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisnau and the cruiser Prince Eugen were tied up.

The following is his account of the mission:

Airborne at 1949 hours and the met forecast of clear skies and land brilliantly lit by the near full moon was extremely accurate. As they crossed the Channel, George Webster reminded the two air gunners to be more watchful than usual for fighters because of the clear conditions. Harry remembers seeing the light on Start Point flashing brightly as they steadily climbed. At this stage, Harry changed places with the second pilot, Frank Tait and stood next to George, map in hand and looking ahead for the first sign of the French Coast on the port bow. He says that he was aware of the elevated front turret guns rotating as Sergeant Truscott kept a sharp lookout for enemy fighters. Flak was bursting in the sky ahead as they flew at 16,000 feet. Harry recalls that map reading was a simple task on that clear night, but he had difficulty in seeing the coastline where George was sitting on the port side, so he decided to fly a few miles south of the entrance to Brest before making a 180 degree turn to bring the coast line on to his starboard side and thus into view. George "jinked" the aircraft very slightly, nothing vigorous.

As they turned in towards Brest at the exact point plotted beforehand, Harry climbed down to the bomb-aimer's position, plugged in the intercom and oxygen tubes and settled down over the bomb sight, left hand cupped over the height bar, looking at Brest very clearly ahead and slightly to port. He gave George the necessary corrections and then was surprised to see about a dozen flashes on the ground, the firing of a dozen flak guns. He mentions that if the gunners had tracked and sent off their predicted fire, then the fortunate correction of course earlier had put F-Freddie about 20 seconds away from their target.

At this stage, the docks were running directly down the drift wires and when the two pointers on the bomb sight were in line with the docks, he pressed the bomb tit. Six semi armour piercing bombs fell away from the aircraft in a perfect stick. He then announced "Bombs Gone" after actioning the jettison bar. 10 seconds later Frank Tait released the photo flash as Harry set the camera in motion. With great composure, George flew on steadily awaiting the explosion of the flash at which moment the photograph should be secured. A sharp 180 degree turn back to port followed and turned way from Brest the way they had arrived. They saw no explosions as semi armour piercing bombs made very little flash. They tried for another photograph of the entrance to the harbour, but as usual no results were recorded. Harry points out that photography in those days was a very hit and miss affair! Harry was delighted that the long flight back to Stradishall in perfect weather and a congenial pilot allowed him to practise astro navigation, a vital tool for all navigators.

from Harry Ward's unpublished memoirs "Personal Observations" written in 1982.

The next day, January 28, 1942, the briefing was at 1400 hrs and the crews were told that the target would be Hanover, Germany, a major railway junction and factory city. At 1630 hrs the target was changed to Münster, 200 km southeast of Hanover. It was the headquarters for many military units. The crews of the seven Wellingtons that would be deployed had another briefing at 1645 hrs. Frank's plane took off sometime between 1830 and 2000 hrs. Harry Ward was assigned to a different crew with the target of Hanover, disappointed because he had enjoyed flying with George Webster's crew. Christopher John Irwin, 21, from Braunton, Devon was assigned to the crew as navigator. From Ward's memoirs:

He says that he could remember quite clearly as he rode out to their dispersal before take-off, seeing George Webster and his crew standing beside F-Freddie. Chris Irwin was in front of the plane in his Irvin jacket smiling broadly as he waved them on their way. Like so many others before them, Harry recalls that nothing was heard of them again.

Frank and his crew mates failed to return. It had been Frank's 13th mission.

On his parents' 41st wedding anniversary, instead of receiving a congratulatory telegram from Frank, they received a cable informing them that he was missing. His father passed away in 1951. By the time of his death, either their son George (or Lewis' brother George) was living in 335 Woodbine and Lewis and Evelyn had moved to 325 Woodbine. Evelyn died in 1965.