Interviewer: Chapman, Matthew

ABSTRACT: Wing Commander James Baillie (Tape 1, Side 1) (00:00-00:42 intro) Discusses pre-war family life. Born in Saskatchewan. Why he joined the RCAF (04:20). Didn't want to be in the army. First tried to join the RCAF in Feb 1940, but was turned down. Got in Feb 1941. Discusses training unit (06:50). Flight instructors were few and far between with no operational experience. Discusses flight training hours from logbook (09:38). 184 hours day, 10 hours night before he became a flight instructor. Went to Trenton to become an instructor, Discusses his training of other students (12:30). There was little pressure to send pilots through the two year program. More than enough applicants. First posting overseas was to Bournemouth (13:35). Discusses his only trip in a mosquito (14:50). Discusses advanced flying unit activities A.F.U. (16:30). Went to No.24 O.T.U. (21:30) By that time he had 1400 hours. There he was trained on Wellingtons. Discusses crewing up in O.T.U. Men could pick for themselves who they wanted to be crewed up with (22:20). Checkout with the operational unit was only 45 minutes of airtime (27:10). Lost an Engine and had a conflict with a Wellington. Wellington was not in contact with tower (28:30). In operational training "Flashlight" missions, he acted as decoy for the real bomber streams (31:10). Most pilots had 230-250 hours by this point. Then he went to 426 Squadron located at Linton-on-Ouse. (34:25) Flew Halifax MkIII at Operational Unit. Casualty rates were extraordinarily high (37:35). "Promotions over dead men's backs." First Combat operation to Hagen Dec 2nd 1944 (40:40). Discusses the difference between American and Canadian bases (46:09). Daylight raids (47:05). Christmas-eve mission to Düsseldorf. (End Tape 1, Side 1) (Tape 1, Side 2) "Brits knew nothing about snow." Weather Reporting (03:35). Hung-Up bomb on trip. Went to a bomb disposal area of ocean and opened the bomb bay doors just as the bomb un-froze (06:30). Discusses how primitive navigation and bomb aiming was at the beginning of his trip when compared to the end. H2S and Oboe (09:35). Discusses bomber stream tactics over the target (12:15). Navigation tactics (13:50). March 5th raid to Chemnitz (14:20). British AA firing on friendly bombers (18:30). Gee Line approach (19:18). Command thought there was a problem with the gasoline because so many aircraft had gone down shortly after takeoff (21:40). Icing in an unseen line quall. The engineer always smeared the anti-icing grease on the wing. Training for special equipment done on operations (24:40). His navigator would use a wingtip referencing of the flack to judge their course. He used Heligoland in this sense as a beacon. Mission to Kiel and then a diversion to Wigsley (26:55). Bird-strikes on the takeoff back to base. Prop over-speed (29:00). Last mission (33:23) was to Wangarooge. Lancaster turned right into a Halifax beside him and killed everyone. Screened after that mission. (36:20) 6 Group went to Nova Scotia thereafter. They went to Yarmouth. They never got trained on Lancaster's. He volunteered to go to Japan. But when that war ended, he took his discharge in Regina. Discuss post war duties (37:34). He was made the commanding officer of an auxiliary squadron. Made Wing Commander while in the squadron. (42:00) Talks about being in the reserves and had one flight in a T33. (43:20 End Tape 1, Side 2)

Rank: Wing Commander.

An interview/narrative of James Baillie's experiences during World War II. Wing Commander Baillie served in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Interview took place on November 10, 2005.

Interviewee: Baillie, James

In Collection:

• Canadian Military Oral Histories

Contributor

• Baillie, James
• Chapman, Matthew

Subject

• Canada. Royal Canadian Air Force
• World War (1939-1945)
• World War (1914-1918)
• Military history

Language

• eng

Date created

• November 10, 2005

Relation

• Part of the Military Oral History Class collection of interviews.
• Title of paper: "RCAF Bomber Crews". Link:  http://rusiviccda.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Oral-History-and-the-Recollections-of-RCAF-Bomber-Crews.pdf

Resource type

• Sound

Rights statement

• In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Extent

• 2 sound recordings (MP3)

Geographic Coverage

• Japan

Coordinates

• 35.68536, 139.75309

Additional physical characteristics

• Original sound recording on audio cassette also available.

Physical Repository

• University of Victoria (B.C.). Library

Collection

• Canadian Military Oral History Collection

Provider

• University of Victoria (B.C.). Library

Genre

• oral histories (literary genre)
• interviews
• reminiscences
• sound recordings

Archival item identifier

• BJ_521

Fonds title

• Military oral history collection

Fonds identifier

• SC141

Is referenced by

• Special Collections Finding Aid: https://uvic2.coppul.archivematica.org/military-oral-history-collection

Date digitized

• July 18, 2012

Technical note

• Digital sound recording in .wav format at 16 bits and 44 kHz. In .mp3 format at 56 kbps and 24 kHz. Interview recorded in digital format for UVic Special Collections in 2012. Migration metadata by KD and MT.

Rights

• This interview has been posted with the understanding that it may be used for research purposes only. Should the interviewee or their heirs have any objections to this interview being accessible on the Internet, it will be removed promptly. Contact UVic Special Collections for permission if using for other than research purposes: speccoll@uvic.ca

DOI

•  https://doi.org/10.58066/91hz-bh64

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