Brother says farewell to long-lost airman

Pilot Sgt. Hubert Burnham was one of two RAAF and one RNZAF airmen killed in a plane crash near Richibucto on Feb. 8, 1943.

Frank Burnham visits the grave of his brother for the first time yesterday at Elmwood Cemetery.

Frank Burnham knelt before the grave of his long-lost brother last night, whispering a final prayer and saying farewell 68 years after a plane crash near Moncton that killed his brother and two other members, a Royal Australian Air Force airmen and a Royal New Zealand Air Force airmen.

"I feel mixed feelings," Frank Burnham, 86, said after a private visit to his brother's grave in Moncton's Elmwood Cemetery last night. "There is a sense that I could weep. But there's another sense that I feel very proud that he gave his life like so many others. You see the stupidity of war and can't understand how politicians can talk and talk and say we're going to settle it."

Frank's brother, Pilot Sgt. Hubert Burnham, was only 19 years old when he died. He was the pilot of a Ventura bomber flying on a training mission on the morning of Feb. 8, 1943. They were flying out of Yarmouth, N.S., when the plane went down in an explosive crash in a boggy area approximately four miles northeast of Richibucto.

Also killed were navigator Sgt. Philip Llewellyn Edmond, 27, of Adamstown, New South Wales, Australia; and wireless air gunner Sgt. John E. Hogan, 22, of Ruatoria, Gisborne, New Zealand. Burnham and Hogan were buried at Moncton's Elmwood Cemetery. Edmond was buried at St. Bernard's Roman Catholic Cemetery on Pleasant Street.

Frank said his family lived in Sussex, England, and his big brother decided for some reason that he wanted to go to Australia to work on a sheep farm. He hadn't been there very long when war broke out. And as soon as he was old enough, Hubert went to Sydney and signed up with the RAAF. He had completed his pilot training in Australia and came to Canada for advanced bomber training. He was only a few days shy of graduation when he was killed in the crash.

Frank says he was 17 in 1943, working as an air raid patrolman, and vividly remembers the night the knock came on the door with the delivery of the bad news. He was in bed, his father went to the door and then upstairs. Then he heard his mother scream in anguish.

But in Sussex, England in 1943, the news of war was all around. England had been pounded by air raids and ships were being sunk by submarines.

"The neighbours were getting similar news from the army, the navy, the air force, so it was all around us," he said.

"War is a different kettle of fish. As civilians, you are just as vulnerable as a soldier or a sailor and you have to accept it, put up with it. Everyone was under pressure."

Frank says he thought about his brother for a long time and felt he should make a trip to Canada to say goodbye. But it wasn't until his cousin Michael came to Moncton, saw the grave and urged him to make the trip that he relented. He was met at the Greater Moncton Airport last night by Moncton Mayor George LeBlanc and G. Christian Larsen, president of the Pennfield Parish Military Historical Society. Hubert Burnham was actually stationed with the Pennfield Ridge Air Station, but was detached to No.34 Detachment in Yarmouth shortly before his fateful flight.

This weekend, Frank Burnham will be the guest of honour at a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the Pennfield Ridge Air Station near Saint John.

Larsen says the ceremony will honour the 70 airmen and six civilians killed at the base during training operations during the Second World War.

Moncton was also home to training bases of the Commonwealth Air Training Plan, and at least 11 fatal crashes occurred around the Moncton region.

SOURCE: Times & Transcript (Moncton, NB) - July 23rd, 2011.

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Brenda Ferguson, Mayor George LeBlanc, Frank Burnham, Christian Larsen & Everett McQuinn

Living history: a wartime training air crash draws visitor

We often talk about people coming to Moncton to go shopping, take in a hockey game or a concert, but how often do people come here from the other side of the world to solve a historical mystery and perhaps find some closure to a family tragedy nearly 70 years after the fact?

Next month, an elderly gentleman from England is coming to Moncton to visit the grave of his long-lost brother, who was killed in a plane crash in 1943.

It's the kind of story you'd expect to see on one of those History Channel documentaries, where people from Canada make a pilgrimage to England or France or Germany to find the graves of their relatives lost in wartime, so it seems a bit strange that someone would come to Moncton.

But some war casualties occurred far away from the actual battlefields and sometimes interesting historical mysteries are right under our noses.

I first stumbled across the story of Pilot Sgt. Hubert John Burnham; Navigator Sgt. Philip Llewellyn Edmond, 27, of Adamstown, New South Wales, Australia; and Wireless Air Gunner, Sgt. John Edward Hogan, 22, of Ruatoria, East Coast Region, New Zealand a few years ago.

As it happened, I was getting my car serviced at Can-Am Chrysler on Morton Avenue and had couple of hours to kill, so I found myself wandering around the nearby Elmwood Cemetery.

Why wander through a cemetery? Well, I've always found it a bit fascinating to look at the names and the dates. Historians and genealogists will tell you these sombre places are gold mines of information.

In the midst of the cemetery, under a maple leaf flag fluttering in the breeze, were a couple of graves with the R.A.A.F. (Royal Australian Air Force) insignia. I figured they must have been casualties of the British Commonwealth Air Training Program, during which thousands of pilots and other air crew recruits from around the world came to Moncton for training during the early years of the Second World War.

It struck me as terribly sad that these young men from Australia would come all the way around the world to a little place like New Brunswick, only to be killed in a training crash far away from any of the actual theatres of operation. They weren't the only ones. As pilots and aircrew trained in New Brunswick and other bases across Canada, there were many accidents and crashes. Researchers tell me there could still be a few wrecked planes in the woods and waters around New Brunswick.

With only the names and the date of Feb. 8, 1943, I started doing a bit of research on these young fellows. As it turned out, they were actually attached to No.34 Operational Training Unit in Pennfield Ridge near Saint John when they crashed a Lockheed Ventura bomber aircraft that cold morning in 1943. Sgt. Hubert John Burnham was only 19, far away from home, at the controls of a big bomber aircraft flying through the freezing cold and snow of a New Brunswick winter morning.

Mr. Burnham, the pilot, was born in Worthing, England, on Sept. 5, 1923. He enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force in Sydney on Oct. 11, 1941, a month after his 18th birthday. With him in the Ventura were Navigator Sgt. Philip Llewellyn Edmond, 27, of Adamstown, New South Wales, Australia; and Wireless Air Gunner, Sgt. John E. Hogan, 22, of Ruatoria, East Coast Region, New Zealand.

They were flying a cross-country training run with other bombers out of No.34 Operational Training Unit Detachment at Yarmouth, NS that morning. At approximately 7:15 a.m., men fishing smelt along the Richibucto River looked on in horror as the Ventura bomber came out of the sky at a high rate of speed and then crashed into a boggy area approximately four miles northeast of Richibucto, just a quarter mile from the shoreline.

The plane exploded into a huge ball of flame, lighting up the pre-dawn sky. An RCMP search party found the plane within half an hour. It was destroyed. The crew had been thrown clear and killed instantly.

A crash investigation was launched from Moncton and the three young men were laid to rest far away from home - Mr. Burnham and Mr. Edmond were buried in the Elmwood Cemetery in Moncton, Mr. Hogan was buried in St. Bernard's Roman Catholic Cemetery on Pleasant Street - killed in a training crash before they graduated and could be posted to a squadron overseas.

Subsequent investigations indicated that some better weather-proofing of the Ventura bombers was needed when they were used in extreme cold and snowy conditions.

I first wrote about the crash in November of 2007 as a Remembrance Day feature. Since then, I've been in contact with G. Christian Larsen, president of the Pennfield Parish Military Historical Society, who has shared more information about the crash and others associated with the Pennfield Ridge training base during the war.

I've also been in contact with another historical researcher who has tried to find the exact site of the 1943 crash, but apparently the ground is so boggy that it is nearly impossible to walk through. Some photos exist of the site at the time, and there are also some stories of local people from Richibucto going there to carry away parts of the plane before the air force recovery team arrived.

Mr. Larsen now informs me that his group will host a memorial service on Sunday, July 24 at the Pennfield Ridge War Memorial. The day will mark the 70th anniversary of the Pennfield Ridge Air Station. Their guest of honour will be Mr. Burnham, who has decided to travel to Canada to visit the grave of his big brother, who never came home from the war.

Mr. Burnham is scheduled to arrive at the Greater Moncton International Airport on July 22, visit the cemetery and then proceed to Pennfield Ridge.

This is just one example of Moncton's multi-layered history and how researchers are always looking for information to solve the puzzles that are right under our noses - and that after all these years, families will go to great lengths to touch the past.

SOURCE: Times & Transcript (Moncton, NB) - June 21, 2011.

Memorial service upcoming

PENNFIELD – The Pennfield Parish Military Historical Society will host a memorial service in July to remember all those who served and/or worked at two major military bases in the area during the Second World War - the Pennfield Ridge Air Station and A-30 Canadian Infantry Training Center (Camp Utopia). At the conclusion of the memorial service a banquet dinner will be held to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the former Pennfield Ridge Air Station which officially opened 21 July 1941.

The service is being dedicated to those Veterans we've lost since last year's service, namely namely Ken Harrison (RCAF), Russ Hunter (RCAF), Dr. Lionel E. (Hank) Hastings (RCAF), Rev. Father Richard P.A. Sims (RCAF), Ivan H Wright (RNZAF) and to all the others who have put their lives on the line to keep our country free, and to all the others who have put their lives on the line to keep our country free.

Please join with us in honouring the seventy-seven (77) service personnel and six (6) civilians killed at these two Charlotte County bases; remember those who have since gone on to join their comrades in the sky and listen to the stories from those we still have with us.

The memorial service will take place Sunday, July 24th at the Provincial Park, Pennfield Ridge (across Route 1 from the Pennfield Ridge Post Office) at 2 pm. The banquet dinner will follow at The Royal Canadian Legion (Branch #40), St. George afterwards from 3:00 until 5 p.m. In case of inclement weather, the entire service will be moved to The Royal Canadian Legion (Branch #40), St. George.

Past and current members of the military have been invited to attend the ceremony as well as representatives from the local, provincial and federal governments. Also family members of those killed at these two Charlotte County bases have been invited to attend the service as well.

Tickets for the banquet dinner are $20.00 per person with ticket sales being limited to 150. Tickets are available until July 1st so any interested in attending is asked to please call (506) 456-3494 to purchase tickets.

SOURCE: The Saint Croix Courier (St. Stephen, NB) - June 7, 2011.

Relatives of veteran planning to visit next year

Frank Robert Ablett

PENNFIELD - Relatives of a man from Yorkshire, England who served at the Pennfield Ridge Air Station during the Second World War are planning a visit to the area and hoping to find someone who might remember him.

Christian Larsen, who continues to do research on the former air base, said he has been contacted by Terry Bearpark, a photo-journalist and sub-editor from the U.K., whose father-in-law Leading Aircraftman Frank Robert Ablett worked in the accounts section at the base from September 1942 until around June 1944.

Bearpark and his wife Maureen are planning to visit the area, possibly this year, to see where Ablett was stationed. They also hope to find the house where he lodged and possibly some members of that family.

If anyone remembers Ablett, they are asked to contact Larsen at 456-3494 or by e-mail at pennfieldparish@yahoo.com.

The annual Pennfield Ridge was memorial service is planned for July 24, 2011, said Larsen, with a banquet to follow. This will tie in with the 70th anniversary of the base opening (21 July 1941) and he is hoping the couple will be able to visit the area during this period.

Larsen has also provided Bearpark with information about Gordon Henderson of Leeds, England, who visited this area a couple of years ago to find out more information about his great uncle Stan Collins who also served in the accounts section at the same time as Ablett. Collins, who recently celebrated his 97th birthday, is the oldest known living airmen from the base and is living in a seniors' home in Newcastle.

In 1939 Pennfield Ridge had a population of around 188 people and by 1943 it had risen to more then 5,000. The area was not able to cope with such a large influx of people and as a result people from St. Andrews to Saint John took airmen in.

SOURCE: The Saint Croix Courier (St. Stephen, NB) - January 4, 2010.

Pennfield Ridge War Memorial Service (2010)

PENNFIELD - A memorial service for those who served and/or worked at the two military bases in the area during the Second World War was held Sunday at the Pennfield Ridge war memorial.

More than 100 people attended the service, which has hosted by the Pennfield Parish Military Historical Society, to remember those who served at the Pennfield Ridge Air Station and A-30 Canadian Infantry Training Centre (Camp Utopia).

The service was dedicated to the veterans who have died since last year's service - Elmer Bulman (RCAF), John Crammond (RCAF), Nevin Filby (RAAF), Raymond Kelly (RAAF), John Norton (RCAF), Cyrille Poissant (RCAF), Samuel Shapton (RCAF), Arthur Stainforth (RAFVR), John Spear (RCA), Herbert Swazey (RCA), Clifton Thorne (RCA) and Clifford Warner (RCA) and all the others who lost their lives.

Master of ceremonies was Lt. Bernard Cormier, the invocation was read by Rev. Grant Alcorn and Cpl. Colin Fleiger read the additional names to add to the roll of honour.

Cpl. Colin Fleiger reading the additional names into the "Roll of Honour"

The memorial was dedicated Sept 24, 2006 and a service has been held there each September since. Among those in attendance were George Richardson and Jessie Nason who served at the Pennfield Ridge Air Station, and Fleiger and Alfred Barker who served at Camp Utopia.

Air crews from Canada, Britain, New Zealand and Australia trained at Pennfield as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan and 69 airmen, one British seaman (a passenger on board a Ventura aircraft which crashed) and six civilian workers died during the history of the base.

Following the service there was a reception held at the Legion hall in St. George where Blacks Harbour Mayor Terry James brought greetings from the village.

Lt. General Louis Cuppens (Ret.) said he was born in the Netherlands during the Second World War and people there will never forget what the Canadians and the Allies did for them.

"Canada stands out in their minds as the country that gave them back their freedom," he said but the cost was more than 7,000 lives and about 3,000 of them are interred just outside Nijmegen where he was born.

He said there are no weeds in this cemetery and the stones are erect and clean. School children, said Cuppens, are given custody of a Canadian grave and they maintain it for three years - washing the stone, trimming the edges and bringing flowers.

"The children over there cannot help but remember what was accomplished in the many wars that have taken place there. They have to walk by these cemeteries. They know what wars are all about."

"It is our job to make sure the next generation after this continues to understand the great sacrifices the Allies have made so that people can live free."

He spoke about the war in Afghanistan which has been going on now for 10 years with more than 150 Canadian casualties and those who have been injured numbering in the thousands.

Cuppens said the people there have so little it reminded him of post-war Europe but much rebuilding has taken place, hospitals have opened, girls are now allowed to go to school and they are taught by female teachers. The Taliban, he said, have almost been driven out of the country but they have found a safe haven in Pakistan.

"We Canadians have so much and they have so little. I urge all of you - pass the torch, pass the message of remembrance on."

SOURCE: The Saint Croix Courier (St. Stephen, NB) - September 28, 2010.

Pennfield Ridge War Memorial Service planned for Sept. 26

PENNFIELD – The Pennfield Parish Military Historical Society will host a memorial service in September to remember all those who served and/or worked at two major military bases in the area during the Second World War - the Pennfield Ridge Air Station and A-30 Canadian Infantry Training Center (Camp Utopia).

The two bases were an important part of the Canadian war effort. Aircrews from Canada, Britain, New Zealand and Australia trained at Pennfield Ridge as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP). Sixty-nine airmen, one British seaman (passenger aboard a Ventura aircraft when it crashed) and six civilian workers died during the history of the base.

Numerous young aircrew students, like those at Pennfield Ridge, were killed in training crashes across Canada during World War II. They all died in the service of their country while preparing for war and yet they remain forgotten heroes. They remain so simply because they died before their finest hour. However as G/C A. Leach, Officer Commanding Pennfield Ridge, once remarked to a mother of one of the airmen killed: “He has died…in the course of duty and on active service, and has given his life for his country, just as much as if he had been killed in actual combat against the enemy; and, as I hope you will do, you are undoubtedly entitled to treasure and take pride in his memory accordingly.”

Assault troops trained at nearby Camp Utopia that, at the time, was one of the best-equipped and most effective Army training centers in all of Canada. This was borne out by the gallant actions of the Carleton & York Regiment in Sicily and Italy and the North Shore Battalion and N.B. Rangers in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany, all of whom were principally made up of personnel receiving their advanced training at Utopia. The base official closed 30 April 1946, but continued to operate mainly as a summer camp until 1957. Six army personnel died at the base between 1943 and 1952. A seventh name of an army personnel killed in 1954 will be read into the “Roll of Honour” at this year’s service.

It is said over 300 officers and 12,000 rank and file had passed through Camp Utopia by its official closing on April 30, 1946. W Garnett Eldridge, resident of Caithness, was one of the six known army personnel trained at Camp Utopia who later was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for bravery. Some of the Charlotte County natives who received training at Camp Utopia but were subsequently killed in over-seas action were: Cpl. Thomas A. Beckerton (St. Andrews), Pte. Philip G. Corning (Milltown), Gunner Rufus M Hooper (Back Bay), Pte. Lawson H Searles (Campobello) and Pte. Maurice Thorne (St. George).

The service is being dedicated to those Veterans we've lost since last year's service, namely Elmer Bulman, MiD (RCAF), John C. Crammond (RCAF), Nevin Fliby (RAAF), Albert Norton, MiD (RCAF), Cyrille Poissant (RCAF), Arthur Stainforth (RAFVR), John Spear (RCA), Herbert Swazey (RCA), Clifton Thorne (RCA) and Clifford Warner (RCA), and to all the others who have put their lives on the line to keep our country free.

Please join with us in honouring the seventy-seven (77) service personnel and six (6) civilians killed at these two Charlotte County bases; remember those who have since gone on to join their comrades in the sky and listen to the stories from those we still have with us.

The memorial service will take place Sunday, 26 September 2010 at the Provincial Park, Pennfield Ridge (across Route 1 from the Pennfield Ridge Post Office) at 2 pm. A reception service will follow at The Royal Canadian Legion (Branch #40), St. George after-wards from 3 until 5 p.m. In case of inclement weather, the entire service will be moved to The Royal Canadian Legion (Branch #40), St. George.

Past and current members of the military have been invited to attend the ceremony as well as representatives from the local, provincial and federal governments. Also family members of those killed at these two Charlotte County bases have been invited to attend the service as well.

Registration, due to seating limitations at the reception service and to assist with food preparation , is being asked. To reserve your seat to the reception service please call (506) 456-3494.