William Thomas Woodall

Bill Woodall was born August 27, 1920, the only son and second child of Morley Lionel Woodall and Mabel Laura Robson. Morley was born in Toronto in 1891, the son of a bookbinder and his family lived on Sunnyside Avenue near Howard Park. Mabel was born in Colborne, Ontario in Northumberland County in 1893. Her father was a farmer who had also been born in Northumberland County, but before Mabel's birth had farmed in Waterdown near Hamilton. The family moved to Toronto in the early 1900s and her father was ultimately a lumber merchant. The Robsons lived near Dufferin and Queen Streets. When Morley and Mabel married on June 22, 1914, Mabel was working as a telephone operator and Morley was a travelling salesman who sold jewellery. The couple lived with Morley's family on Grenadier Road in the Roncesvalles neighbourhood.

The couple welcomed daughter Velva in 1916 and by the time of Bill's birth, the family had moved to the east end, to 714 Woodbine Avenue, south of Gerrard. They remained there until 1925, when they moved back to the west end, to 162A St John's Road. Although Bill stated on his RCAF attestation papers that Lambton Mills was the only school he attended for elementary school, it seems more likely that he began school in 1926 at Strathcona, a school at Runnymede and St. John's Roads which closed in 1943.

When Bill was five, he began to experience skin discolouration on his hands and a knee, possibly vitiligo. In 1927 his family moved a few blocks to 569 Windermere Avenue. He and Velva transferred to Runnymede Public School. The next year Morley changed careers, becoming an insurance agent. In 1930 the Woodalls moved a few more blocks, to 24 Fairview Avenue, in the shadow of Western Tech. There is a question of when Bill arrived at Lambton Mills School. His parents were the first owners of 17 Wendover Road near Prince Edward Drive and Bloor Street and were definitely living there in 1934. They may have moved to the Kingsway sometime between 1932 and 1934. At minimum Bill attended Lambon Mills for part of Grade 8 and at most for Grades 6 to 8.

He started high school at Etobicoke in September 1934. Academics weren't his strong suit and he enjoyed rugby, basketball, swimming and golf. He had also spent three years in the Boy Scouts. Tinkering with machinery was a hobby. He left Etobicoke in 1937 when he was 16 to take a job as a ledger keeper at the Canadian Bank of Commerce. Two years later he found a better job in sales at the Goodyear Rubber Company in New Toronto.

Bill had a girlfriend, Margaret Gladys Smith (Peggy), who lived at 7 Kingscourt Drive, a few blocks east of the Woodalls'. She didn't meet Bill in high school at Etobicoke, but may have met him in the late 1930s at Kingsway Lambton United Church's youth group.

On August 9, 1941, Bill was interviewed at the RCAF recruitment office and he promised to take the Canadian Legion's Education Course for prospective recruits who hadn't completed high school. Among his references was Peggy's father, Walter H. Smith, who was an engineer for the T. Eaton Company. Bill stated that he'd spent five hours as a passenger on an airplane and he hoped to return to Goodyear after the war, but he had an ambition to be a commercial airline pilot.

In early December he was given a physical by an RCAF doctor who diagnosed tachycardia. The doctor thought better of it, believing that Bill was overly nervous and told him to rest for a few days. A week later he was tested again and his heart was fine. Bill signed his papers on December 17 and he and Peggy rang in the New Year at the Royal York Hotel.

Peggy Smith and Bill Woodall ringing in 1942 at the Royal York Hotel. The Globe and Mail, January 1, 1942.

Bill reported for duty at 9 am on January 5, 1942 at the RCAF Manning Depot on the Exhibition grounds. He went through basic training and once completed, he began the Initial Training course in Belleville which was held in the building which is now home to the Sir James Whitney School for the Deaf. The Initial Training course gave the recruits classes in subjects like mathematics, flight theory, meteorology and navigation. The men also had a four hour long physical examination, a psychiatric assessment and testing in a decompression chamber. At the end of the course, postings were announced as to whether the men graduated to the pilot course or the navigation/gunnery stream.

Bill was considered good pilot material. He had a sixteen day leave prior to starting his course at No. 10 Elementary Flying Training School at Pendleton, near Ottawa, where recruits were given fifty hours of basic flying training. The course was to continue to early October. Unfortunately Bill did not live up to expectations and was removed from the course early. “This trainee has tried hard but has failed to progress satisfactorily. Cannot take off at ten hours,” wrote his instructor. To soften the blow, he wrote that Bill was a “good type young airman” and recommended that he become an observer (navigator). He was sent to KTS Trenton, the destination of all airmen who didn't succeed in their pilot courses where they spun their wheels until another course was assigned to them. Bill was given another leave from September 13 to 26 and was finally posted to No. 7 Air Observer School in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. Here he trained as a navigator in Avro Anson planes.

Over Christmas 1942 Bill had another leave, returning to his family and Peggy in Toronto. He asked her to marry him and the marriage would take place when he won his navigator's wing.

On February 19 Bill graduated as a navigator with a mark of 74% and was given a commission and the rank of Flying Officer. The next day he and Peggy wed in Winnipeg. Bill had leave until March 6 and the leave may have extended past that as he did not have to report to Halifax until March 25. Peggy gave him an identity bracelet engraved “Bill from Peggy.”

Bill was transferred to the RAF Trainee Pool, meaning that he would be a reinforcement in an RAF squadron. He sailed from Canada in early April and was in Chichester on England's south coast on April 18. He was sent to the RCAF's Personnel Reception Centre in Bournemouth to be given his assignment. Bill had a week's leave at the end of May and most likely spent it in London, as did most airmen. On June 15 he was sent for advanced navigation training and attended No. 5 Air Observer Navigation School on the Isle of Man, beginning on August 10.

On September 7 Bill reported to No. 17 Operational Training Unit (OTU) at RAF Silverstone, located about halfway between London and Birmingham. Here he joined a crew to learn to fly on the Wellington night bomber. At the end of the course, Bill's military record indicates that he spent November 23 to December 14 sick in hospital, with no details. When he left hospital he reported to 52 Base in Scampton, 5 kilometres north of Lincoln.

He had Christmas leave from December 20 to 28 and on January 27, 1944 he reported to No. 1654 Conversion Unit at RAF Wigsley not far from Scampton, about 5 kilometres west of Lincoln. Here Bill learned to be a navigator on a Lancaster heavy night bomber, the RAF's principal bomber of the second half of the war. Bill graduated on March 14 and was then sent to No. 5 Lancaster Finishing School at RAF Syerston, about 25 kilometres south of RAF Wigsley, close to Nottingham.

Avro Lancaster bomber. From masterbombercraig.wordpress.com.

A month later, on April 5, he reported to the RAF's No. 57 Squadron. The squadron had been formed in 1916 during the First World War and at the beginning of the Second World War it served in France until the Blitzkrieg of May 1940. After converting to the Wellington bomber, the squadron began flying Lancasters in late 1942 and had been based at RAF East Kirkby in Lincolnshire, about 25 kilometres from the coast, since August 1943.

Bill arrived at East Kirkby as part of the crew of pilot Arthur Thomas Richards, flight engineer Arthur Wilbert Chesley Bugden, air bomber George Ferguson, wireless operator Thomas Edwards, mid-gunner Harold De Cray Griffiths and rear gunner Cyril James Woodmass. The crew had most likely formed at the OTU.

It was a multi-national crew. Richards was a 23 year old Welshman. 29 year old flight engineer Bugden was a married man and hailed from Trinity Bay, Newfoundland. Edwards came from Cheshire, England. Griffiths was a 39 year old (one biography for the Bolton Church Institute War Memorial states that he was 41), who in civilian life had been a police constable in Chester, England. Griffiths was unusually old for a bomber crew, but was determined to serve his country in some capacity. Rear gunner Woodmass was a 20 year old from South Shields, England, located at the mouth of the Tyne River on England's east coast. Bomber Ferguson was a 24 year old Canadian from Toronto, serving with the RAF.

As with all bomber crews, the perils of their job were ever present. Squadron 57 lost four crews in April 1944, including those flown by two squadron leaders. Bill's crew flew cross country training until April 18th, when it became operational. The target was the train marshalling yards in Juvisy-sur-Orge, France, 18 kilometres southeast of Paris. Bill's Lancaster, one of 18 from the squadron, took off at 2049 hrs, successfully dropped eleven 1000 pound bombs on the target and returned to base at 0148 hrs.

Two nights later the crew bombed marshalling yards in Paris. Then two nights after that it was Brunswick, near Hanover, Germany. On April 24, it was Munich. After this, Bill and his crew mates were given a week's leave and most crews tended to spend it together. Their next mission was on May 7 to bomb Tours, France. The other sorties had seen a lot of flak over the targets and enemy night fighter activity This mission was no exception. Two nights later, the target was the ball bearing works at Annecy, France, near the Swiss border. The next night, May 11, they bombed the German military camp at Leopoldsburg, Belgium. May 19 was the next sortie, to bomb the railway centre in Amiens, France.

On May 21, twelve squadron Lancasters were detailed to “garden” Kiel Bay off of northern Germany. “Gardening” was the codename for the laying of mines in oceans. Bill's Lancaster took off at 2157 hrs carrying six mines. The Lancasters reported fighter activity of “a considerable scale over Denmark.” At 0030 hrs on the 22nd, Bill's Lancaster was flying over Denmark at 14000 feet, still on its way to Kiel Bay. Leutnant Walter Briegleb, 20 years old, flying a Messerschmitt Bf 110 fighter bomber was directed to the Lancaster by ground control as his radar was out of service. Like most German fighter pilots, he attacked the Lancaster from below and he hit the Lancaster in the wing, setting the heavy bomber on fire. Briegleb watched it burn and wondered why no one parachuted from the plane. He saw both gunners in their turrets, but no one was firing. At 0044 hrs the Lancaster disintegrated and the largest section crashed into a farmer's field near Emtekaer. One of the onboard mines exploded on impact. A farmhand rushed to the crash site but as the wreckage burned, another mine exploded and killed him. The crew of the Lancaster was buried that evening in Assens Fyn cemetery by the Wehrmacht. The men were identified after the war. In 1946, the Danes erected a memorial to Bill and his crew in Emtekaer.

Crash site of Lancaster ND960, near Emtekaer, Denmark, May 1944. From flensted.eu.com.

Bill's grave, Assens (Fyn) New Cemetery, Assens, Denmark. From flensted.eu.com.

Bill's grave, Assens (Fyn) New Cemetery, Assens, Denmark. From flensted.eu.com.

On September 14, 1945, Peggy married an American naval lieutenant from West Virginia. Morley and Mabel moved out of 17 Wendover in 1950.