Flight Log Books - June 1939

Here is the second month of Dad's training. He got sick with undulant fever - a serious bacterial infection (brucellosis - can be caused by drinking raw milk. The disease has been known as Malta fever, Bang's disease, Mediterranean fever, rock fever, and goat fever. In humans, undulant fever assumes acute and chronic forms. The acute form is characterized by weakness, chills, and high night fevers and often results in central nervous system disorders, and painful joints) near the end of the month. My grandmother went to England to help nurse him back to health. She gave him her return ticket to Canada so he could see Mom. He arrived back in England on November 13 in Liverpool on the Antonia from Montreal and started back in training in December 1939 which will come next.

Here is a photo of Dad in training at Walsgrave, Coventry.

And here is a photo of Dad and his Mother in England when he was sick. He doesn't look all that well in this picture.

Flight Log Books - May 1939

After a hiatus, I am back scanning and posting again. Here we are with May, 1939 - the very start of Dad's RAF training in England. I have also included the Passenger List of Dad going to England in March 1939.

I found this little snippet in the Ottawa Citizen on 20 February 1939 which said, "Mr. Phillip Tripe will sail by the “Antonia” this week for Liverpool, to spend some time with relatives." I imagine this was cod for going off the join the RAF if he could.

John Kevin Hall 1942 - 2011

My cousin John was one of the main drivers in the search for information on his Uncle Phil. He died on May 11, 2011 at home in Ottawa. He helped with research and put together the poster that now resides at the Hotel Mardaga in Belgium.

This photo was taken in September 2010. John was just thrilled to be holding Dad's model Spitfire which had been "rescued" from a closed RCAF mueum in North Bay. This is how I will remember him best.

Statement of Service

I had to get out Dad's service record in order to join the Port Royal Branch #21 Royal Canadian Legion on a totally different matter so I thought I'd post this today. This is his RCAF record which lives in the National Archives of Canada. The date is when I applied for it in order to join the Legion in Inuvik all those years ago.

Log Book 2 Entries

Today I'm posting the last five pages from Dad's second Log Book. This book goes from August 31, 1943 right through until January 16, 1945. There are also entries in this second Log Book of flights he made from November 12, 1947 through September 29, 1958. I will post these later on.

Some 1944 Flight Log Book Pages - June 8 to September 14

I was asked recently if there were flight log entries around D-Day. It's quite time consuming scanning the logs. They don't quite fit the scanner so each image has to be rotated and cropped.

I will take some time do some more scanning but in the meantime, here are pages from Dad's third log book starting at June 8 through to mid-September of 1944.

Y-32 Ophoven Airfield - Then and Now

Our friend Karel Baetan sent a couple of fascinating photos the other day which I thought might be of interest. First, you will see an old photo of the airfield as it was in 1945. Karel was able recently to fly over the airfield and take photos as it id today. And last, you will see my photo taken from the ground when Bill and I were there in January this year.