Seeing the world with Britain's Royal Air Force

George Bennett and his crew as part of the 511 Squadron in the RAF. From left to right are the co-pilot, the navigator, the steward for times when they had passengers on board, the engineer, Bennett, the wireless air gunner, and the Capt. Amazingly, Bennett still keeps in touch with the navigator.

Shay-Lee Savill
South Peace News

George Bennett, a very well known citizen of High Prairie, not only has a golf tournament named after him ( the Sir George Bennett Senior's Open), but is the treasurer of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 37. Although he has made a great life for himself in our little Canadian town, Bennett had quite an exciting past in his home country of England.

Bennett joined the Royal Air Force in November of 1941 at the age of 19 because "everybody else was doing it." He says that this was the only reason he can think of as he had no illusions that he was fighting for freedom. At this time, people weren't aware of the atrocities that were being committed just a country away. All Bennett knew was that he wanted to be in the war.

Giving it a second thought, Bennett brings up some memories that may have sparked his desire to go to war. He says that in 1940, during the Battle of Britain, he and his family lost many close friends. Although he did not live right where everything was happening, he does remember a good deal of activity in the skies above his hometown.

The occasional bomb dropped around us," he says. "It got personal."

Being from England, Bennett is aware how close he always was to the core of the fighting.

"I lived through the whole lot," he says. Joining the military was a natural choice.

"I think I was safer in the air force than when I was at home."

Trained as a wireless air gunner (WAG), Bennett had a very important duty while on board military aircrafts. First and foremost a wireless operator, charged with the responsibility of keeping communication with the ground and relaying messages to the pilot and navigator, Bennett was also considered a back up gunner, should one be killed or injured.

Bennett says that although this was his title, he never actually became a gunner, maybe for the better, he muses.

"I couldn't hit the side of a barn if I was inside it," he says.

Before he could work aboard an aircraft, Bennett had to go through a series of training sessions. After six to eight months in Madley, Herefordshire, Bennett had completed basic wireless operator training. He then went to work at a maintenance unit in Chester, located in the Northwest of England, for another six to eight months. Here, he worked on wiring gliders.

Shortly after, he went to Half-penny, a little town in the midlands of England, for training in the Advanced Flying Unit (AFU). Here he was tested on his competency to properly run a radio and to communicate with the base. This was to determine if he was skilled enough to merit continuing on with training.

Bennett then went on to the Operational Training Unit (OTU) in Bramcote, where he completed his training and became part of a crew.

Bennett was then sent to a coastal command squadron. However, he says that his group were the odd men out. At that time the English military were turning to four engine planes as their main source of air fighters. Bennett and his group were not trained to fly B-24's, only twin engine planes.

Because of this discrepancy, Bennett and the others were sent to southern England where they would utilize the skills they already had. Bennett became part of a crew that flew the Wellington twin engine bombers to Morocco, as the RAF was phasing them out. For about a year this is what Bennett did. They would fly to Morocco, leave the plane there, then hitch a ride back via American bombers, civilian aircraft, or planes coming out of Gibraltar. Of course, they always had to be sure to bypass France, as it was occupied by enemy forces at the time.

In Sept. of 1944, Bennett was sent to the 511 squadron, in the transport sector. With this squadron, Bennett flew cargo and military personnel to India. The British military was building up their resources in India to prepare for a war with Japan. They would stop in Libya, Cairo, and Karachi, India. After this stop, they would then go to Calcutta or Sri Lanka. At each stop Bennett and his crew would rest for 24 hours while their plane went on. The next day, they would get on another plane that had come in and continue the pattern. Bennett flew this series of flights until Oct. 1946.

It was this part of the RAF that Bennett seemed to particularly enjoy.

"You got to see the world for nothing and they paid you for it."

After Japan surrendered, the 511 squadron extended their flight pattern to include Singapore. Coming into the area one month after Japan surrendered, Bennett said that they saw some pretty horrific things.

"The people we brought back were pretty rough," says Bennett. " They had all been prisoners of war for three or four years."

One incident in his military career sticks out vividly in Bennett's mind. He was in a plane taking off out of an airport in Malta (a colonial island in the Mediterranean Sea) when one of the engines caught on fire.

"That was a scary few minutes," says Bennett.

The pilot had to keep ascending because they could not risk coming back down with a full fuel tank and an engine on fire. Bennett and the crew circled the runway for two hours before coming back down.

For the last six months that he was in the military, Bennett worked in the maintenance core in Dumfries, Scotland. In March of 1947 Bennett left the military with the title of a Flying Officer.

He says that he regrets leaving the military as it was the best time of his life. After getting out, Bennett worked for an oil company unloading tankers in the River Thames, in London. During the Christmas of 1951, Bennett became ill with T.B, and was in the hospital until Aug. of 1954.

Shortly after, the recovering young man came to Canada to visit his sister for six months.

"Six months turned into 50 years and I have enjoyed every moment of it," says Bennett.