Ross Hamilton – Ex-407 Squadron
UNFINISHED TRAINING FLIGHT
Published on http://www.airmuseum.ca/mag/0411.html

The graduating class of Wags at #4 Wireless School, 49th Entry, Guelph University in May 1943, soon dispersed to fulfill their individual destinies in WW11 RCAF. The writer and numerous colleagues received postings to #31 Out RAF Debert, NS. for the one month course and crew-up of two WAGs, Pilot, and Navigator. We were to fly the old clapped out Hudsons sent from the UK after they wore out over there.
This story concerns the fate of just two individuals, both fresh from Guelph Wireless School and classmates there of the writer, namely newly commissioned P/Os Clifford Ursel of Fort William Ontario, and John Summerwill of Sprucedale, Ontario, both of whom arrived at Debert a day or two later due to being fitted with their new officer’s uniforms. Prior to getting crewed up, and shortly after arriving on the station, these two chaps met up with an old airman friend (who was already on a training course) and were invited to have their first flip in a Hudson that night on an OFE to Sable Island far out in the Atlantic. They accepted the offer, were duly airborne at 01:00, set course for their Navigational target and wireless exercises, and were never heard of again. There was no Wireless message from the aircraft, and speculation was that perhaps both engines of the worn out Hudson failed, and they came down or crashed in the Atlantic. We will never know for sure what happened on that fateful night.