A. Sti’zvm‘t MacDonald D.F.C., M.D. C..M. 
     
    
   
   
    
     to speak to you, Bernard Miller” - apparently, their fathers 
     
     were good friends. He stated he had not seen Diefenbaker 
     
     for 20 years, but he was a tall man and stood out in a 
     
     crowd. 
     
    

    
     When one shifted air crafts, there were what was 
     
     known as ”circle and bumps” (taking off, and circling, and 
     
     landing) but before we had our night circle and bumps 
     
     we were ordered to make a square search near the French 
     
     coast, looking for a down crew. One flies in a square of 
     
     4 miles, then moves out for another 4 miles, and repeats 
     
     this again and again until ordered to stop. We were in 
     
     the range of fighter planes and had the guns loaded - we 
     
     were supposed to be credited a trip for this, which is more 
     
     dangerous, sitting out there for eight hours, than to make 
     
     a speed bombing raid over France. The next night we got 
     
     our circle and bumps. 
     
    

    
     We had to get a test that we could swim 100 yards. 
     
     Although I swam the 100 yards, when in Bournemouth 
     
     we also had to learn to get into a dinghy, before we were 
     
     allowed to fly over the Channel. This rule was rather late, 
     
     after we had been flying over the Channel for eight hours. 
     
     I could swim well in the shallow end of the pool, but in the 
     
     30 foot end I thought I was going to sink. 
     
    

    
     The training officer was F/O Milt Schmidt, the one 
     
     on the Boston Kraut line in the NHL, and later the coach of 
     
     the Boston Bruins for several years after the war. We had 
     
     to swim seven lengths of the pool, but when the others 
     
     were on their sixth, I was on my fifth. I tried to get out but 
     
     he shouted, ”Get back, that last man.” I had to swim five 
     
     lengths all by myself, while the others stood by the side of 
     
     the pool and shouted me on, like in a race. Schmidt said 
     
     he would have turned me down, only I had made twice 
     
     as many strokes as the rest. I got to know him much better 
     
     later, as we were the only ones in the mess that did not 
     
    
   
   
    
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