rcaf winnipeg base - sep 1943

8/7/2019 RCAF Winnipeg Base - Sep 1943

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SEPTEMBER, 1943TEN CENTS THE CO py


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In 'writing a few lines for the "W.A.G. Mag." as incoming C.O., Iwould like to state that I am pleased to be here. I am glad to behere for 'many reasons, one of which is the fact that having beenposted to aU the other- Wireless Schools in Canada,1 was anxiousto work at this one. No matter what experience any C.O. mayhave his knowledge is of little value unless his Staff give himcomplete support. I feel I can coumt on the support of all the Staffand can assure them that any suggestions for the betterment oftraining or the school itself, wiLl be graciously received. At thiscrucial stage of the War' I know that all Trainees must realize thateven more application to work is necessary. Now is the time forall of you to push. harder than ever before; remembering that eachone of you can count on ever-y member of the Staff for assistance.All the Staff are here for one purpose, to make each of you a com-petent Wireless Operator (Air Gunner), an important member ofthat great team-The Bomber Crew-Good luck!Sincerely,

Wing Commander A. Walmsley,Commanding Officer,No.3 Wireless School, R.C.A.F.,Winnipeg, Man.


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Published Monthly by Airmen of No. 3 Wireless School, R.C.A.F.,By permission of Wing Commander A. Walmsley, Commanding Officer.

Vol. 1, No.5. September, 1943.No.3 Wireless School, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

EDITORIAL STAFFEditor Cpl. Herman, 1. r.Assistant CpJ. Inch, W.W.O.l Gray, J. R. W.O.2 King, H. G.Sgt. Walker, J. A. L. Cpl. Dowie, A.

LAC Hicks, H. A.Editorial Secretary ..._..... AWI Rippell, M.D.Senior Advisory Editor.. ..F/L F. F. Gravelle

Photos by H. K. White.

L e t ' s F i n i s h t h e J o bItaly has surrendered. The first major vic-

tory for the United Nations has come afterfour long years of war. But make no mis-take, the war is by no means won.The capitulation of Italy to Gen. Eisen-

hower means only the beginning of the end.With Italy out of the war, we now have Ger-many and Japan to deal with. And they mustbe dealt with with a strong hand.To achieve permanent peace, Germany and

Japan will still have to feel the stingingblows of our military forces. The combinedeffort of all men in uniform will be requirednow, more than ever before, to strike thefinal blow.The main battle is yet to come. More men,

machines and ammunition will be needed towin this war.We must not relax from our duties. There

is stilI a big job to finish. There is stillwork to do.Let's stick to our jobs until we finally can

be sure of lasting peace.

Hold on to your War SavingsCertificates

O u r N e w C h i e fWith the posting of Wing Commander

Michelson to Brandon and Squadron LeaderMeAra to Yorkton, we welcome to No. 3Wing Commander A. Walmsley, our new C.O.,and Squadron Leader J. C. Boyd, our newS.A.O.After several years of service at the other

wireless schools where he has served as as-sistant chief instructor and as C.I., WingCommander Walmsley comes to us well train-ed for his new post as C.O.A practical man with many streamlined

ideas, our C.O. feels that "from all appear-ances, there are both the qualifications ofthe personnel and the spirit necessary tomake this unit the leading Wireless School inCanada".With such a man at the helm, we can be

sure ~f a successful future for our school.

Editorial 12The New C.O.

Section of the Month ...._..._................. 3Signalling SectionThe Boys from "Down Under'".; 4"Hen Gen"Manitoba' "Tech" News __ 5Who's Who _ _ 6Squadron News 7 - 10St. John's "Tech" Notes 11Sport Highlights 12 - 13Y.M.C.A. Newsy Notes 14At the Flying Squadron _............. 15Radio Quiz _ _ __ 16


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2 W.A.G. MAG.

C . O . H as InterestingRecord

Alger could have written this story, forour new C.O. comes to us as one step morein a long, but fast climb to success. Aresume of W IC Walmsley's life in theR.C.A.F. is starred with many firsts, for atalmost every post he has held, he has initiatednew and valuable improvementsEnlisting in 1935 as an AC2 aero-engine

mechanic, 'VIC Walmsley had gained hiscornoial's stripes when the flying bug bithim. Strictly on his own, he proceeded totake flying lessons and obtained his privatelicense. This brought about the granting ofa commission as pilot officer (General List)and the beginning of many travels. W ICWalmsley was first attached to the 111thSquadron in Vancouver and at the outbreakof war he was with this squadron at PatriciaBay.Among the C.O.'s better known achieve-

ments are the organization of the first Dom-inion-Provincial Youth Training School inWestern Canada. He also assisted in 01'0' an-izing Canada's first Ail' Cadet Squadron," No.1601 Wing in Vancouver.W IC Wamlsley has a wealth of experience

in wireless training, gained from his civil anoccupation as radio technician and also fromhis positions as assistant Chief Instructor' atNo. 1 Wireless School, Montreal; Chief In-structor at No.4 W.S.in Guelph, and ChiefInstructor at the Wireless School in Calgary.While at No.4 Wireless School he designedCanada's first signals trainer.Last year he 'went overseas on a signals

liaison visit to inspect various units in oper-ation.In taking over No.3 Wireless School WinG'

Commander Walmsley intends to standal'diz~instruction here and make it the same as thatcarried out in the other Wireless Schools inCanada. An immediate result will be a changoto a new and more efficient type of ail, oper-ation exercises, together with courses for in-structo rs which will bring about speed ierpromotions to qualified men.

First Mosquito: Hooray here comes a newarrival.Second Mosquito; Good, let's stick him for

the drinks.

Meet Our FinancialSpearheadWe proudly present our senior-accounting

officer, beloved "Boss-man" of the accountssection, Flight Lieutenant R. W. Spear."Wally", as he is known far and wide, is

one of those happy and congenial fellowswhose disposition reflects his having been

ass 0 c iated withmany sports andsportsmenhis career.

during

He isManitoba's

one ofnative

sons, having arriv-ed at the I. and R.sec t ion of theSpear hom e inPipestone, Man.,complete with pack-ing note. Fro mthere, he moved toWinnipeg where hebecame employedwith the Bank of

FjL R. W. Spear Nova Scotia, roseto be Assistant Accountant, and subsequentlyresigned to associate himself with the finnof James Richardson and Sons, as officemanager.Flight Lieutenant Spear enlisted in theR.C.A.F. in September, 1940, as an Account-

ant Officer. was posted to the accountantofficers' course at St. Thomas, which, he says,was "duck soup", and from there was re-posted to Air Force Headquarters at Ottawa.becoming S.P.S.O. to Air Vice-Marshal Nairn,Director of Accounts and Finance. In thiscapacity he travelled throughout Canada onAccounts business, and appointing Account-ant Officers.In March, 1942, "Wally" was posted to No.

2 Training Command Headquarters as amember of the Dependents' AlIowance Advi-sory Committee, which position he held untilJanuary, 1943, when he came to this Unit, asSenior Accountant Officer.Domestically speaking, our Flight Looie is

happily married with one young son, and alovely home on the banks of the "Red" notfar from the Canoe Club. But don't let hishappy-go-lucky attitude disarm you, children.He can still say "No" to requests for ad-vances faster than the average. Maybe that'sone reason why he's considered one of thebest in the business.


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SEPTEMBER, 1943. 3

By ".Joe"SECTION OF THE MONTH:ACCOUNTS

The editors have requested a short articleon the Accounts Section. In true militaryfashion they naturally requested somebodyto write the article who knows nothing aboutaccounts. They tried to get someone whoknew nothing about nothing. After diligentsearching only one man was found who ful-filled these requirements, but he was fillingquite an important position and hadn't thespare time to give.Accounts Section, to the average layman,

is made up of clerks, these being in twoclassifications-clerks general and clerk ac-countants, the main difference being thequestions asked by the trade test board.Clerks general being required to know wherethe pencils are kept and how many erasersin a dozen, whilst clerk accountants get themore intricate questions such as "When ispayday" and "How much do you get perdiem'!" Diem is an old world term taken

from the Greek "Diem" meaning diem and isonly put in the question to throw the unwaryclerk who may be thinking of anot her reasonfor not giving you an advance instead of pay-ing attention.After passing the trade test the clerk is

put to work in the Accounts Section, wherehis main duty is to juggle your pay so thatyou always receive about $3.46 less than youfigured, for, as you know, practically any-thing can be done with figures. To provethis point, on reading a movie magazine Ionce discovered that I have the same mea-surements as Ann Sheridan. On taking theaccounts to task for not giving me my justlyearned stipend I was shown my record midinformed that figures do not lie, a statementso much disproved by the facts, I have hadseveral of the loveliest figures lie to me mostunmercifully.

(Continued on Page 16)

ACCOUNTS SECTIONFront Row (left to right) :-F /Sgt. Stanbrook, R. E.; AWl Beale, M. L.; F /L Wood, F. E.; MissB.Holloway; FjL Spear, R. W.; AW2 Paul, N. A.; F,/O Currie, G. H.; W.O.2 King, H. G.Centre Rows-e-Cpl. MacKichan, C. R. F.; AC2 Lew is, M. G.; AC2 Penn, G.; Sgt. Turner, B. F.; Cpl.Murray, A. R.j LAC Fawcett, W. J.; AC2 Joinson, C. E. .Back Row:-AC2 Klassen, V.; Cpl. Cadman, J. L.; ACI Campbell, R.; Cpl. Dagg, N. W.; Sgt. O'Leary,J. W.; AC2 Johnston, W.; AC2 Pmkus, P.; Cpl. Morin, G. A. W.; Sgt. Pink, C. W. Absent: F/Sgt. Wasman,O. W.; ACI Sloan, W. R.; AC2 Wells, G. C. H. .


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4 W.A.G. MAG.

A W ord from th eS ignalling S ectionAnother month, men, another four weeks

closer to those stripes or that commission,and, we hope, another four words a minutetacked on to that Morse speed. How is yourMorse? Have you got over those difficultletters? Are you making less errors? Areyou passing those weekly tests? If not, trya little extra instruction, or better, try push-ing a little harder in the classroom. Thisservice costs you absolutely nothing, is bene-ficial, helps the peace of mind, makes moreand better WAG's and guarantees results.Apply at your nearest Morse room whilst ona Morse period.

* * *We have cause to comment on the remark-

able manifestation of fecundity in the Sig-nalling Section. In the past few weeks sev-eral members of this section have becomeproud parents. Actually, to quote numbers,four babies have been born, two are expectedand several are under discussion. Weareproud to herald the arrival of these potentialinstructors (surely the fond fathers will wantthe children to follow in the well known foot-steps). Interested in statistics?Taken on strength:-April 27-43. Dianne Elizabeth Serdinski,

Weight 7 lbs. 13 ozs. Authorized to drawrations and occupy CENSORED. D. E. Ser-din ski is the daughter of Sgt. Serdinski whosecheerful voice and inimitable sending youhear daily from the Morse sending 100m.July 15-43, at 0145 hours, William Walter

MacDonnell. The son of Sgt. Bill MacDon-nell, the man who fixes the phones you break.Sgt. MacDonnell has been worked to deaththe last few weeks and figured this way ofgetting another man on the job.May 30-43, at 1055 hours, Raymond Mal-

colm Taylor. Young Taylor weighed in at6 lbs. 13 ozs., apprentice allowance claimed.The sire-Sgt. "Mac" Taylor. You will havethe benefit of his excellent instruction whilewriting those final twenties.As we go to press we hear of one more ad-

dition. July 29th, 1943, 0030 hours, RichardEdmun Walker, a fine boy to cheer thehousehold of Sgt. J. Walker. Personnel wish-ing to congratulate the father may do so atthe "Mall" at their own convenience,And one posting. Struck off strength on

The Boys from"Down Under"By LAC Hicks and Wilkinson

Since the intake of Squadrons 75 and 77the number of lads from down under has in-creased considerably, bringing with themmen who have seen service in both the NewGuinea and Middle East theatres of war.Southern localities also have their dis ad-

vantages as a recent extract from NewGuinea reads: "Experienced a spell inMoresby Hospital with Malaria fever andBeri-Beri, a type of disease contractedthrough lack of wholesome food and water.No kidding, the yellow men here are bothtough and cruel beyond comprehension.Whether through sheer cannibalism or hun-ger I don't know, but I have actually seenthem eating human flesh." No. 3 will besomewhat of an extreme change to thesemen comparatively fresh from fetid, jungleheat and barbaric conditions of warfare.Warm sunny days during the past month

have brought local conditions very similar tothose experienced at. home, thus giving ex-pression to numerous outdoor sports at whichthe Anzacs make a great showing. Of thesesports activities, canoeing is being thorough-ly appreciated by all participants, bringingtheir native element still closer. The Maorisof olden time were without doubt the mostdaring of sailors, when some six or sevencenturies ago, history shows the record oftheir voyage from the Hawaiian Islands toNew Zealand shores in open canoes, steeringonly by the moon and stars.On August 17th, No. 3 was again visit-

ed by New Zealand Liaison Officer, GroupCaptain "Tiny" White, who brought with himGroup Captain Seabrooke, the New Zealandrepresentative in the United States. Afterthe usual problems were ironed out, GroupCaptain Seabroke gave a very brief and in-teresting outline on his work in the UnitedStates.

being rernustered to aircrew. F /L H. S.Williams our Officer i oblique stroke c.We'll be genuinely sorry to lose him, but he'sparticularly anxious to get home again, hav-ing forgotten how to pronounce "Llanfarpw-Ilgyngyllgogerichwyndrobwllantisiliogogach."


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SEPTEMBER, 1943. 5

"Hen G /IenBy AWl M. Gordon

Ifyou wondered about the happy grins onthe W. D. faces, the matter is easily explain-ed. At the Army-Air Force track meet atOsborne Stadium on September 1st, the AirForce girls carried off all the honors, withthe pace being set by N~. 3 Wireless Schoolin first place and No. 8 Repair Depot in se-cond.Toplis again captained the team, she and

Clampitt being the shining example to therest of the W. D. athletes. Others competingwere Davis, Michalko, Kelly, Tierney, Mc-Lerman, Wozniak, Gordon and Doucette.Orme, as runner, probably did more work

than anyone else, except Sgt. Caldwell, whoprovided lots of mental encouragement. Alto-gether the girls had a wonderful time. Per-haps next year will see two or more teamsentered in this meet, we hope.

* * *Another main event at No. 3 has taken

place. On August 18th, Wing CommanderMichelson cut the red and blue ribbons acrossthe door of the new women's canteen andpronounced it officially open. All the guestsagreed that the furnishings were by far themost beautiful ever seen in any canteen.The opening was celebrated with a dance

and supper and the girls are planning to holdan open liouse every Wednesday evening. Onother evenings guests may be invited betweenthe hours of 7 and 9-which may help poorlads who have been making their social callson the doorstep of Hut 2 1 0 .Danger barricades are now needed in the

W.D. barracks for a slight misstep means acrack in the eye from a flying drumstick. Thegirls are practising for the band, and, judg-ing from the calisthenics taking place in theevenings with those innocent looking sticks,not only will the W.D.'s put on a good show,but they will be able to defend themselvesfrom all comers.The weiner roast finally took place. Did

we say weiner roast! It was more like athree-ring circus,-and just as much fun.Everyone enjoyed the dancing, swimming,sing-song, and, of course, lots of mustarddunked weiners, Congratulations to the en-tertainment committee for arranging a greattime.

M a n i t o b a " T e c h " N e w sBy AC2 A. A. Shea

Banquets are the big subject around Mani-toba Tech as men of Flight 40 and 41, Weill8 and Wag 8 approach the completion of the'Winnipeg stage of their training. Flildl" 4(}is first on the list; their celebration at thePicardy Banquet Hall on Friday. Septembe r3rd, set the pace with a dinner attended byPrincipal Webb, members of the teaching'staff, and the Minister of Education for Mani-toba, followed by home-spun entertainmentand dancing.The Wems and the Wags will do their din-

ing and dancing in a joint banquet on Friday,September 17-also at Picardy's. Those onthe inside say that radio star Paul Kligmanhas some entertainment surprises up hissleeve for the boys."The Roseland" will be the scene of F'lighf

41's banquet and dance, Thursday night,September 23.

* * *Manitoba Tech boys are playing their part

in the activities of local iR'.C.A.F. teams.Prominent on the baseball team now in thecity semi-finals are Jack Kenner of thepitching staff, and Herb MacNamara whosework at short-stop has assured him a placeon any all-star team that local sports ex-perts might choose. Our school is also repre-sented on the R.C.A.F. rugby team which isnow in training, and will go into action onSeptember 2:5th. Joe Tessler, Kip McFaddenand Alf Pike are three good reasons why theairforce team should make rugby historyaround Winnipeg this fall.

* * *Boys in the Radio Department will be glad

to see the smiling face of John Skinneraround again. Instructor Skinner is comingalong fine after having his circuit checkedover, and a run-down tube and condenser re-placed-or sump'n like that.

* * >I

rcaf winnipeg base - sep 1943

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