By Land and By Air

I recall that when the C/O. finished his tour, I had gone to bed to be awakened by him, as he was feeling quite happy, grabbing me out of bed in my pyjamas and carrying me down the hall. I talked him into letting me get dressed, but after drinking half a glass of beer, I slipped off to bed. I knew the C/O. (Chester Hull) who later became the second top man in the Canadian Service in Ottawa. His room in the RCAF was only a couple of doors down from mine. When he and the Pilot were out celebrating, it was nothing for them to call in my room, and I would wake up with the foot of the bed almost to the ceiling. Years after, when I was Chief Provincial Medical Officer with DVA visiting Ottawa, one of the examiners said — ”Do you know Chester Hull?” and I said, ”He was my C/O. overseas.”

He picked up the phone and said, ”Chester, here is a man you used to know.” I felt that after all these years and his high place in the service, he would not remember me so

I said, “This is Sam, as you might recall,” and he said, ”I saw Roulston yesterday and we had a short chat.” Ken Roulston was my Pilot.

I recall the first time we went into a corkscrew, I was waiting for whatever, when I was thrown up to the ceiling of the plane and the worst thing that could happen, the lever of my Mae West caught in the edge of the table and the oxygen bottle, which deflated the Mae West. I thought my chest was staved in. When we came out of the dive, some 1,000 feet below, I came thundering from the ceiling to my desk. I learned to hang on to the desk after that, when I heard ”Prepare for corkscrew.” McKelvie shot down one plane and the Pilot was avoiding some other German fighters. The Pilot was trained as a fighter Pilot and I think he enjoyed the short evasive action.

The throttles to the four engines of that Halifax were straight, and the Pilot took two and the Engineer the

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