Donald Robert "Dink" Morrison

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Canadians Bag 4 Nazis In Honor of New Chief

(By DOUGLAS AMARON.)
London, Nov. 23, 1941 (CP) — Canadian fighter pilots, who celebrated the arrival of Air Vice-Marshal Harold Edwards in Britain by shooting down four German planes over Northern France, were visited today by the new air officer commanding the R.C.A.F. in Britain and his predecessor, Air Commodore L. F. Stevenson.
Less than twenty-four hours after he stepped from a plane which brought him from Canada, Vice-Marshal Edwards went to the Canadians station and heard first-hand accounts of the engagements of the previous day, which are considered by air authorities to be one of the finest performances of the war in the particular type of operation in which the Canadians were engaged.
The Canadians, who also were credited with one probably destroyed and four seriously damaged enemy aircraft, were the toast of the station, and received an informal message of congratulations from Sir Archibald Sinclair, Secretary of State for Air, and a formal message from Air Vice-Marshal Trafford Leigh - Mallory, under whose command the squadron operates.
"Congratulations on a splendid showing. Well done, Canadians!" said Vice-Marshal Leigh-Mallory's message, read to all the squadron's personnel.
Like an excited crowd of youngsters who have just won a football game, the Canadians talked shop most of the day, telling and retelling about their combats with what was estimated to be a force of at least sixty German fighters.

Get First Huns
Attention centered on Pilot Officer Ian Ormston of Montreal, Pilot Officer Don Blakeslee of Fairport Harbor, Ohio; Sergeant Omer Levesque of Mont Joli, Que., and Sergeant Don Morrison of Toronto, each of whom shot down his first plane of the war.
It was a particularly satisfying day for Blakeslee, Levesque and Morrison. Levesque, in addition to his confirmed victory, came to grips with a second Nazi and last saw him breaking up in mid-air, while Blakeslee and Morrison also both inflicted serious damage on a second German plane.
The squadron's commanding officer, Squadron Leader Norman Johnstone of Winnipeg and Regina, and Sergeant Jeff Northcott of Minnedosa, Man., were given credit for the other damaged German aircraft.
"Those boys made a might good show of it," said Johnstone, beaming with fatherly pride. "The odds were considerably against them, both in numbers and in consideration of the sweep that took us over enemy territory. It was the first real flight for a majority of them, and they pitched right into battle with plenty of courage and no end of ability."
Ormston, who, with Flight-Lieutenant E. L. Neal of Quebec City and Blakeslee and Morrison dived into a group of Messerschmitt 109's and new Focke-Wulf 190's, literally blew his Messerschmitt out of the air.
Levesque, who said that "once in action I forgot the perils because things were happening too fast," forced the pilot of the first plane he attacked to bail out and shot part of the wing off the second.

“He Simply Exploded.”
Blakeslee, who enlisted at Windsor, Ont., said he spotted the Messerschmitts at 15,000 feet and dived on them at 6,000. "All we did was dive and a one-second burst got my man," he said. "He simply exploded."
Morrison, who earlier in his first week with the squadron, scored a probable, spotted three Germans on the tail of Neal's plane.
"I came up from below and knocked off one," Morrison said. "He apparently didn't know I was there. Later I nearly joined three Focke-Wolf 190's which I thought were Spitfires. I took a crack at the last one and when last seen he was pouring out black smoke."
The Canadian fighter squadron co-operated with an English squadron whose members bagged another two enemy craft.
A veteran RAF wing commander with a personal score of eighteen confirmed victories led the combined English-Canadian squadrons operating from the fighter command's top-scoring station. The six planes destroyed brought the station's total of aircraft shot down since the start of the war to nearly 900.
"We saw fifteen Messerschmitts about two miles below us climbing hard," the wing commander said in describing the action. "Leaving the British squadron on top, I sent down several sections of the Canadians to attack. I stayed with the others, keeping a look-out in case assistance was wanted.
"It wasn't. Those boys just sailed into the German fighters and they were a grand sight to watch, whooping down and mixing it with the Hun

Chased Into France
"After the fight had been going on for some time our pilots started to chase the Messerschmitts deeper into France, and, as I didn't want them to get too widely scattered, I told them over the radio to come back and call it off. It was well that they did, for another bunch of Messerschmitts had approached higher up."
The wing commander sent the English squadron after these, and one German fighter promptly was sent smoking down to earth. Both squadrons then started for home, running into another batch of enemy fighters on the way.
During the flight home Levesque, who transferred to the air force from a French-Canadian army unit, got his Nazi.
"He was having a tough struggle," the wing commander said. "The Messerschmitt he was fighting finally plunged into a wood just inside the French coast and exploded like a bomb."
Over the coast and the Channel the squadrons met more German fighters in ones and twos, and the commander estimated that they encountered about sixty in all.
"Really," he said, "it was a grand afternoon for both squadrons."

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Canadian Pilots and Crews Were in Thick of
Air Fighting To Stop Nazi Battleships

( By DOUGLAS AMARON )
Somewhere in England, Feb. 13, 1942 - (CP) - Canadian pilots and air crews were in the thick of the fighting in the Straits of Dover that accompanied the passage under fire of the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and the cruiser Prinz Eugen.
Cannon-firing Spitfires, with Canadians at the controls, accounted for at least three of the eighteen German aircraft known to have been destroyed in providing air protection to the German squadron on its voyage from Brest, in Western France, through the English Channel to a German port.
Pilot Officer Ian Ormston of Montreal and Sergeant G. A. G. Ryckman of London, Ont., each bagged one of the German planes, while the third destroyed outright was the joint work of Pilot Officer A. L. Harley of London, Ont., and Sergeant Don Morrison of Toronto.
Other German aircraft were marked down as either probably destroyed or damaged before the blazing guns of Canadian airmen. Sergeant Deane Macdonald of Toronto got one of these.
Canadian squadrons from all three R.A.F. commands — fighter, bomber, coastal — took part in the action. Among these were several Canadian-manned Hudson bombers from the R.C.A.F. "Demon Squadron" of the Coastal Command. Canadian bombers in the fight included eight Hampdens from the outfit commanded by Wing Commander N. W. Timmermann of Kingston, Ont., and Wellingtons from the squadron of Wing Commander R. M. Fenwick-Wilson of Rock Creek, B.C.
Pilots of the R.C.A.F.'s 1st Fighter Squadron — to which Harley, Morrison and Ormston belong—attacked the vast German aerial screen in line astern and raked enemy machines with the devastating fire of their mufti-cannon Spitfires.
"We went in in three sections," said Harley, "after Morrison had reported seeing an ME-109F around 11 o'clock. We followed him to about 1,000 feet above the clouds, gradually drawing within range. Once we got in range we could see our cannon shells back in his fuselage. Then they probably entered the cockpit. "Morrison was following me. We both fired at the ME-109 and he went straight down into the sea. Then we flew right alongside the Scharnhorst. The sky was literally filled with kites and we could see our own section sticking very close together."
Ormston was following on his tail, Harley continued, and he disposed of another 109F. "He must have had him dead on his sights," the airman said. "We saw Jerry going down in flames and smoke."

Canadians Attacked
A score of Canadian pilots and other members of R.C.A.F. bomber crews who attempted to prevent the Nazi ships from reaching their Heligoland base told stories of cloud and mist, snow, sleet and rain and constant opposition of enemy guns. These men took part in attacks after the enemy had run through the Strait of Dover and had started his flight up the North Sea.
"Clouds . . . terrific rain . . . couldn't see anything," were remarks generally heard among the Canadians after they returned. But there were some who caught glimpses of the warships through holes in the mist and braved their flak to dive on them, only to lose them again before they could tell whether they had found the mark or missed.
Wellington bombers from Fenwick-Wilson's squadron made the first attack early yesterday afternoon, with the commanding officer himself and his crew, which included Sergeant A. K. Lomas of Toronto, leading the first flight of three aircraft.

Ontario Men There
They were accompanied by Sergeant R. L. Baltzer of Harrow, Ont., and an English pilot with crews which included Pilot Officer F. A. G. W. Gerty of Abbotsford, B.C.; Sergeants G. R. Graves of Fort William, and G. R. Jeffries of Montreal, and Flight-Sergeants L. Weakley of St. Joseph, Mo.; P. E. M. Leith of Toronto, E. C. Phillips of Edmonton, and M. P. F. Robson of Vernonville, Ont.
There was "10-10 cloud all the way," Fenwick-Wilson reported when he returned to base. "There were three distinct layers of cloud. We flew around for an hour trying to find breaks, but it was no use."
A second formation of three machines led by Squadron Leader John Fauquier of Ottawa landed next and had the same story to tell, except had they had descended to 250 feet looking for the ships.

Terrific Rain
"There was terrific rain under the clouds," Fauquier said. "I've never seen anything like it before. We went down low enough to see any thing there was to be seen, but a11 we could see was the sea."
Fauquier's crew included Sergeants H. S. Hill of Montreal, R. A. Gardiner of Hanover, Ont., and F. J. Tetro of Toronto. The second machine, which also drew blank, was piloted by Flight-Lieutenant L. P. Frizzle of Tampa, Fla., and included Flight-Sergeant A. Smith of Dunbarton, Ont., and Sergeants W. B. Kayser of South Porcupine, Ont., and A. J. Francis of Saskatoon.
Sergeants C. W. Higgins of Charlottetown and J. W. Anderson of Vernon, B.C., were the Canadians in the third plane, and they, too, told how they had "stooped around but couldn't find anything."
The crew of another Wellington which returned to base after dark had a different story to tell, but one with the same ending, "We were darn lucky," said Sergeant W. E. N. Field of Montreal, the plane’s second pilot. "There was cloud, cloud and more cloud, and it was getting toward dusk.

Saw Nazi Battleship
"Then we came across a break in the clouds and there below, just for an instant, was a German battleship. We went over the break in the cloud too quickly to bomb. The hole was very small and we were in cloud again before we could take any action, The flak was pumping up, too. It was all aver the place."

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Dominion Airmen Figured in Fight With Battleships
Shot Down at Least Two of 18 Enemy Planes That Were Destroyed

London, Feb. 13, 1942 - (CF Cable) - Canadian squadrons from all three Royal Air Force commands — fighter, bomber, coastal — took part in attacks on the German warships Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen, and shot down at least two of the 13 German aircraft destroyed in the great air and naval battle in and over the English channel.
First details of the part Dominion pilots played in the confused fighting over the misty channel waters were described in a brief release from R.C.A.F. headquarters. Fuller accounts are expected later in the day, when the airmen, rested from their day-long combats, tell their own stories of the attacks which cost Britain 42 planes.

Bring Down Two Planes
Flight-Sgt. G. A. G. Ryckman, of London, Ont., attached to an R.C.A.F. Spitfire squadron, and three members of the first Canadian squadron to arrive in Britain, Pilot-Officers A. L. Harvey, of London, Ont.; Ian Ormston, of Montreal, and Sgt. Don Morrison, of Toronto, accounted for two enemy planes destroyed, probably destroyed a third and damaged at Least three.
Ryckman shot down a Messerschmitt 109F and damaged another while the three other Canadians, members of another squadron, who flew their Hurricanes into the middle of a protecting escort of German fighters, shared their confirmed, probable and damaged planes among them, none taking individual credit for the successes.
Several Canadian-manned Hudsons from the famed R.C.A.F. Demon Squadron, of the coastal command, joined in the direct attack on the warships, but by the time they arrived at the scene of fighting the weather had deteriorated considerably and they were unable to determine immediately the effect of their attacks.
At least two Canadian bomber squadrons were also in action, Eight Hampden bombers from a squadron commanded by Wing-Cmdr. N. W. Timmerman, of Kingston, Ont., and Wellingtons from Wing-Cmdr. R. M. Fenwick-Wilson's squadron were among the force which strove to prevent the raiders from reaching haven at Heligoland. Fenwick-Wilson is from Rock Creek, B.C.

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Canadians See Action On Air Escort After Paratroops Patrol
Sgt. Morrison, Toronto, Saves Fellow Flier and Gets 'Probable'
'BUNCH OF 109's'

(By LOUIS V. HUNTER)
An R.A.F. Station Somewhere in England, March 1, 1942 - (CP) - Canadian fighter pilots and bomber crews took part in Saturday's paratroop-Commando raid that destroyed an enemy wireless location station at Bruneval, France, but for a Canadian Spitfire squadron which formed part of the umbrella for the raid the dawn job was just the start of the day's work.
A few hours after the squadron completed what its members called a "routine patrol" it was in action again. It escorted Blenheim bombers in Saturday's daylight attack on Ostend, during which Sergeant Pilot Don Morrison, young Toronto flier who is the squadron's "high man," added to his score one plane probably shot down and one damaged. His tally had stood on Feb. 21 at two destroyed, two probables and one damaged.
Flight Lieutenant Al Harley of London, Ont., was one of those in charge of a section of Spitfires guarding the vessels carrying the returning paratroops. The squadron's commanding officer, Squadron Leader A. G. Douglas, R.A.F., and Flight Lieutenant Gene Neal of Quebec City were in charge of the other sections.
"It was just like an ordinary patrol," said lanky Flight Lieutenant Harley. "There wasn't a thing around, and I didn't even see the ships."
Pilot Officer Hugh Merritt of, Smithville, Ont., agreed it was a "dull trip." He said he met the convoy about midway across the Channel and "saw the ships all right, but I don't know yet what they did."
The airmen in Harley's section were Flight Sergeant Deane Macdonald of Toronto, Flight Sergeant Jack Ferguson of Victoria, a former star of the Calgary Bronks football team, and Sergeant Pilot Gerry Clarke of Winnipeg, who was reported missing after the afternoon operation.
Sergeant Pilot Jack Aubrey Ferguson of South Port Morien, N.S.; Flight Sergeant Jim Whitman of Edmonton, Pilot Officer Ian Ormston of Montreal, Pilot Officer Don Blakeslee of Cleveland, Ohio, and Morrison were the other pilots in the fighter screen.

Canadians in Crews
Canadian members of the crews of the Wellingtons and Whitleys, which carried the paratroops, included, besides pilots whose names are not immediately available: Flight Sergeant A. Bradshaw of. Edmonton, Wireless Operator-Air Gunner Sergeants L. J. Narveau of Cornwall, Ont. , and L. D. Jackson of Saint John, N.B., Air Gunner R. J. Heather of Toronto, Observer J. Dremers of Timmins, Ont., Wireless Operator-Air Gunners A. E. Shaw of Paris, Ont., and R. W. Taylor of Victoria, Observer T. R. Cattle of Toronto, Air Gunners D. F. Campbell of Toronto, R. J. Chisholm of Vancouver and H. W. Bydwell of Montreal and Wireless Operator-Air Gunner H. F. Tice of Hamilton, Ont.
During the second escort job of the day Morrison tackled a Focke-Wulf 190 which was roaring in to attack Ormston. It was the second time the dark-haired Toronto youngster had saved his Montreal companion from attack by a Nazi aircraft.
"Ormy," Morrison said, "was about 100 yards in front of me when the 190 suddenly appeared about fifty yards over my head, going for Ormy. I sort of pulled up after him and chased him around, but I took a squirt at him and saw the shells explode in the front of his cockpit. He just rolled over and went down in a dive with a trail of smoke behind him."

Went for Two More
Morrison followed the Nazi down to 12,000 feet in an 8,000-foot dive, but had to leave him "because I saw two more Jerries over on my left and went for them."
"They attacked a bunch of Spits," he continued. "One of them broke off and I took a squirt. He started shooting out black smoke and I was just about to close in and administer the coup de grace when two more Jerries came down and began to circle around. I figured it was time to go home—and did."
Morrison and his companions were uncertain what happened to Clarke. The Toronto flier said he did not see Clarke during the action and Harvey said he heard the Winnipegger report over his radiotelephone that he had been hit.
"We ran into a bunch of 190's on the way back and apparently one of them went for Clarke," Harvey said. "I heard him say his aircraft was hit but that he was all right. Later some one in another squadron saw a Spit going down and it must have been Gerry."

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Son of Fighting Father Damages Nazi Planes

The youthful flyer, who is only 20 years of age, now has a score of two and a half planes destroyed (sharing credit for one with another flyer), as well as three probables and four damaged. According to the London report, Morrison and other airmen attacked a formation of more than twenty Focke-Wulfs and Messerschmitts. One of his companions, not immediately identified, damaged a pair of Focke-Wulfs. Morrison bagged his first enemy plane in a weekend aerial engagement over Northern France last November, that was classed by British authorities as "one of the finest performances of the war" A native of Toronto, he attended Maurice Cody Public School and obtained both his junior and senior matriculation at North Toronto Collegiate in 1940.

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MORRISON, FS (now P/O) Donald Robert (R80521/J15475) - DFM - No.401 Squadron
Award effective 19 June 1942 as per London Gazette dated 30 June 1942 and
AFRO 1052-1053/42 dated 10 July 1942.

Flight Sergeant Morrison has displayed outstanding ability and skill as a pilot during combats with the enemy. He has destroyed two and damaged several other enemy aircraft besides sharing in the destruction of two others. Flight Sergeant Morrison has participated in 57 operational sorties and in May 1942, after his port elevator had been shot off by enemy cannon fire near Le Havre, he successfully brought his aircraft back to this country and performed a difficult landing with little additional damage.

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Went Into Action Two Years Ago, Canadian Fliers Have Won 6 DFC's
Proud Record Compiled by Only R.C.A.F. Unit in Battle of Britain

By FLYING OFFICER BASIL DEAN, R.C.A.F.
London, July 17, 1942 — Canada's first fighter squadron to proceed overseas —the only R.C.A.F. unit to serve during the Battle of Britain— has just celebrated its second anniversary. It was two years ago in June that the squadron landed in Great Britain.
Since that day, it has carved out a fine name for itself in the Battle of Britain. It accounted for a considerable number of German raiders, and since then took a leading part in the great daylight sweeps over Northern France which Fighter Command has been staging during the summers of 1941 and 1942.
Today it is commanded by Squadron Leader Keith Hodson of London, Ont., former chief instructor at the service flying school in Moncton, N.B., with 2,000 flying hours in his log book. A former commanding officer, who was moved recently, is Squadron Leader A. G. Douglas, an R.A.F. pilot who was awarded the D.F.C. for his work with the squadron. Two other members of the squadron got D.F.C.s at the same time —Flight Lieutenant Eugene (Jeep) Neal of Quebec City and Flight Lieutenant Ian (Ormy) Ormston of Montreal. Seven decorations in all have been awarded to members of the squadron.

Two Squadrons Merge
The squadron was born from the amalgamation of two pre-war Canadian squadrons, No. 1, which was based at Calgary, and No. 115, which had its headquarters at Montreal. The boys first got together on the boat early in June, and by the time they landed at an English port were fairly well acquainted. First, they were at "A" for a couple of days after landing, and then went to a station in the vicinity of "B" for three weeks. July 7 saw them at "X," not far from London. It was at the latter station, they say, that "we found out what the war was all about."
A day or two before they were scheduled to leave for still another station Jerry came over to leave his visiting card with the Canadians.
"That night we really got a pasting," the veteran members of the squadron recall. There were no casualties, however, although a bomb went right through the orderly room. Some members of the squadron will tell you that this bomb was the only "good" one the Nazis have dropped in the whole war. It destroyed, it seems, many squadron records, including the crime sheets. All petty offenses any one had committed prior to that date, therefore, were wiped out and forgotten.
The squadron moved on to another station according to schedule, however, and it was at this new station, Aug. 26, that it first went into combat as a unit. A few days previously Squadron Leader (now Group Captain) Ernest McNab, who later won the D.F.C., Went on an operational trip with another squadron "just to see what it was like," and managed to shoot down an enemy aircraft. The first action as a squadron, however, was on Aug. 26 and it was the date they lost their first pilot, Flying Officer Robert L. Edwards.
It was a grand record for the first time out, however. The squadron was ordered to intercept twenty-five enemy bombers raiding Britain, and they did so with a vengeance. They destroyed three DO-215’s and damaged three others, and pretty well broke up, the formation.
In the show that day were a number of pilots whose names have since become bywords in Canada in this war. There were Flight Lieutenants G. R. McGregor, A. Dean Nesbitt and V. B. Corbett, and Flying Officers Jean Paul Desloges, H. de M. Molson and D. B. Russell. Including the squadron leader, six of these men now wear the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Two of the first Focke-Wulfe 190's shot down by Allied airmen went to the credit of the squadron on Nov. 22, when the total score was four destroyed, one probable and four damaged. On that day Flight Lieutenant Ian Ormston, later to become a flight commander and holder of the Distinguished Flying Cross, got his first enemy aircraft. It was the first aerial combat, too, for another who was to become a Flight Commander with a D.F.C., Flight Lieutenant E. L. (Jeep) Neal. Flying Officer H. A. (Hank) Sprague was reported missing in that day's operations, and is now a prisoner of war.
Then on Feb. 12 of this year the squadron took part in the "Scharnhorst do," up the English Channel, and in this affair raised a score of two destroyed and two damaged. Many times, this spring and early summer, they have gone out over the Channel or over France without seeing an enemy. At other times he has fled home.
While many former members have gone to other squadrons, the "Newcomers" still carry on. There is Sergeant Don Morrison of Toronto, who has destroyed two enemy aircraft and helped destroy another, besides between two and three damaged on his board. There is Ian Ormston, who destroyed two and helped destroy another, besides a probable and a damaged. And there are many others.

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High Speed Launch 177 - the one that rescued Morrison during the Dieppe fiasco

Dieppe was set for August 19th and 401 was scheduled that day to escort B-17s to bomb Abbeville, the main German aerodrome in the area. The raid came off successfully then 401 sent a number of Spits over the beaches at Dieppe. Morrison recalls, "Combats developed quickly, since the sky seemed full of Fw-190s and Spitfires. S/L Hodson led Red Section and saw two 190s which he and F/Sgt Zip Zobell attacked. The first 190 went down and was claimed as damaged. The two Spitfires then set course to Lympne, but spotted four Do-217s over the Channel heading for Dieppe. They attacked and damaged two."
Meanwhile, Morrison was tangling with a 190 which he blew to pieces. He flew through debris, and suffered considerable damage. His engine seized, and he had to abandon his Spit. He barely got out in time: "I pulled the rip cord immediately, and the chute opened just before my feet hit the water. If I had been over land, I don't think I would have survived." Morrison was hauled out of the water by an RAF launch. From the deck he now had a ringside seat, watching Dorniers attacking British vessels and being beaten back by ack-ack; destroyers laying protective smoke for the withdrawal from Dieppe: two Spitfires colliding: and two ASR launches being hammered in a running battle with 190s. Then his own launch was attacked and raked with cannon fire: "The 190s must have run out of ammunition, as they soon disappeared towards France. We pulled over to help rescue the survivors from the two furiously burning launches. Fuel and ammunition were exploding, and many of the men in the water were badly wounded and screaming in pain. The skipper raced back to Newhaven at full throttle, and the wounded were put straight into ambulances. At the same time, the first survivors from Dieppe were coming in. Until then we had had no idea of how things had gone for the troops — they had taken a terrible beating. They had faced unbelievable difficulties on impossible landing areas, against well-protected and heavily armed defenders."
        pix & text from "The Royal Canadian Air Force At War 1939 - 1945" by Larry Milberry & Hugh Halliday

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Canadian Spitfire Pilots Shoot Down Boche Raiders,
Aid Rescue of Beaten Foe
Wounded Nazi Bails Out and Victors Direct Naval Launch

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Germans Declare Krefeld Target For 150 Bombers;
Shoot Down 18 Hun Ships
Heavy Damage Admitted by Berlin in Combined RAF,
RCAF Night Assault on Enemy Industries –
Fortresses Score Heavily

London, Oct. 3, 1942 - (CP) - R.A.F. bombers kept a round the-dock assault on Germany's war machine rolling last night with a strong splash at the Rhineland which started many fires only a few hours after United States Flying Fortresses, supported by fighter planes of the R.A.F., R.C.A.F. and U.S.A.A.F., shot down 18 Nazi Focke-Wulf 19O's in a raid on northern France. The British communiqué did not identify the exact targets of last night's raid, but it said "a strong force" took part. Seven bombers did not return, indicating an attacking force of perhaps 150 planes on the basis of previous averages. In their daylight attack on northern France, the Fortresses returned to Britain without loss.

Canadians Participate
Aircraft of two Canadian squadrons participated in last night's attacks.
The raid on Germany was the second in as many nights, following up an assault on the big submarine building yards at Flensburg.
Today's German high command communiqué reported that the R.A.F.'s main target was Krefeld, a large center of textile and heavy industries. Casualties among civilians and damage to buildings were admitted by Berlin. It was the 21st attack of the war for Krefeld, last raided on August 11.
The attack on Germany was the second in as many nights, following up an assault on the big German submarine building yards at Flensburg.

Bag 18 Nazi Planes
Swarms of Flying Fortresses, accompanied by Canadian Spitfire pilots, shot dawn five of the Nazis' prized Focke-Wolf 190 fighter planes—thus bringing yesterday's bag to 18 enemy aircraft.
The main objectives of the Fortresses were the Nazi aircraft factory at Meaulte and an airfield at St. Omer, in northern France. Returning bombardiers said they could see their bombs "bursting all over the targets."
But the most spectacular part of the show was the air battle which broke out all over the sky before the planes reached their goal and continued until they were back over the English Channel.
Flight-Lieut. Don Morrison, of Toronto, got credit for a "probable," and P.O. Stan Osborn, of West Calgary, shot down a Focke-Wulf 190. Morrison closed to within 100 yards of the Messerschmitt and let go with his cannon. The German went down in a vertical dive, but Morrison was not able to see him crash.

Docks Are Raided
Six allied fighters were lost, but the pilot of one is safe, a communiqué said.
While the Flying Fortresses were at work, United States Boston bombers raided the docks at the big French port of Le Havre and likewise returned without loss. The fighter escort for the various operations was estimated to total 400 planes.
It was the 13th time Flying Fortresses have raided German-occupied Europe and only two Fortresses have been lost. Fortress gunners are credited with shooting down more than 50 German planes in the 13 trips.
American airmen say the Germans haven't yet figured out how to deal with the Fortresses. They have learned, however, not to try to attack the squadrons as a unit and usually concentrate all their fire on the last planes in the formation to avoid fire from the lead and middle formations. Some of the rear flight Fortresses were damaged yesterday but returned safely.

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Don Morrison Missing, Slight Hope for Safety

By ALLAN NICKLESON
London, Dec. 22, 1942 - (CP) – Flt. Lt Don Morrison, youthful collegian from Toronto, whose air exploits brought him recognition as one of Canada’s best pilots, is reported missing after a sweep over Northern France.
(The fact Morrison is missing was announced last Friday in an R.C.A.F. casualty list issued at Ottawa. His parents are Mr. and Mrs. Robert Morrison.) It was a few weeks ago that Don climbed into his Spitfire as he had many times before, and led his flight across the Channel. But this time the 21-year-old ace who rose from the rank of sergeant pilot to flight lieutenant in less than a year did not come back. He and his Canadian flying mates ran into a group of Nazi fighters, and Morrison's plane was shot down a few seconds after he destroyed a Focke-Wuif-190 by riddling it with machine-gun and cannon fire. The boys around the squadron still cling to a slight hope he may have landed safely in enemy-held territory, but if he had to "go out" that's the way he would have wanted it.

An intrepid Leader
A shy, handsome fellow who blushed at praise, Don was not talkative, but his exploits as his Spitfire roared and dived in a full year of action spoke volumes. His personality and fearless fighting ability singled him out as a leader.
Don was credited unofficially with five enemy aircraft destroyed, seven probably destroyed and five damaged. One of those destroyed craft went down before his blazing guns a few days after Don promised to "get one" for a school chum who is missing.
I Visited Don's squadron last May and in course of a conversation in the dispersal hut told him my brother, Flt. Sgt., Jack Nickelson, a bomber pilot since presumed dead, was missing.
"Jackie was in my class at North Toronto Collegiate just before we both joined up," Don said quietly. "I'll get one for him."
He was not boasting. A few days later he penned another swastika in his log book. Don always did that when he landed after sending down another enemy with his cannon and gunfire.
Don shared a Nazi plane with Flt. Sgt. Eugene Neal, D.F.M., of Quebec on his first operational trip, but they claimed it only as "probably destroyed." A few days later Morrison got his first confirmed victim.

Saved Life of Friend
Neal and Morrison often flew together in those days and the Quebec pilot, now back in Canada, once told me how Don saved his life.
"He dived on a Jerry who was just getting ready to give me the business," he said. Neal recounted that Morrison's trigger finger was so sure he was transferred for a time to an air-gunnery school as an instructor, but he did not like that and on his first 48-hour leave he raced by motorbike back to his squadron, and took part in a couple of sweeps.
"I wanted to get back into action," Don told his squadron mates. "There is not much doing around a gunnery school."
He got his wish and was re-posted to his old squadron. Promotion from Flight Sergeant to Pilot Officer, award of a Distinguished Flying Medal —this on his 21st birthday— came at the same time last June, and Don was so excited he clambered into his Spitfire and shot dawn a Nazi fighter by way of celebration. In all his air fights Don gave as much as he took.
On the day of the Dieppe raid he was forced to bail out over the Channel but it was the wreckage of a FW-190 he had destroyed and not German bullets that smashed up his Spitfire.
When he was posted as missing Morrison was flying as Flight Commander in a squadron commanded by Sqdn. Ldr. Keith Hodson, D.F.C., of London, Ont. He had skipped the rank of Flying Officer in his promotion to Flight Lieutenant after Dieppe.
Hodson had the greatest confidence in him and ranked him and the squadron's other flight commander, Flt- Lt. George Murray (J15476), D.F.C., of Halifax as "the hottest pair of kids in the fighter command."

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TORONTO AIRMAN IN GERMAN CAMP
Parents Made Happy By Letter From Son Reported Missing

Toronto, March 29, 1943 - (CP) - The happiest parents in Toronto today are Mr. and Mrs. R. N. Morrison, who have received a letter from their son, Flight-Lieut. Don Morrison, 21, reported missing after a sweep over northern France.
Here is a part of the letter the Spitfire pilot, awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal for destroying and damaging enemy aircraft, wrote from a German prison camp.
"I know that this letter will be a terrible shock to you but believe me when I say that it is not as bad as it sounds. I am almost completely recovered now so I have decided you should know that I had to have my left leg amputated just above the knee when I was brought down.
"It will not be a very great disability because of the marvelous artificial limbs which are now available. I am not at all discouraged by the prospects but rather thankful that I escaped so lightly. My wounds are almost completely healed and giving no trouble. I had shrapnel extracted from my arm the other day and that is the complete extent of my injuries."

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MORRISON, F/L Donald Robert, DFM (J15475) - DFC - No.401 Squadron
Award effective 4 July 1943 as per London Gazette dated 16 July 1943 and
AFRO 1724/43 dated 27 August 1943.

This officer displayed great skill and tenacity in air operations and has destroyed fifteen hostile aircraft. His gallantry was amply demonstrated on one occasion when a few minutes after being picked up by a rescue launch in the North Sea, after being compelled to leave his damaged aircraft by parachute, he plunged overboard and rescued a naval rating from drowning. Flight Lieutenant Morrison's conduct was worthy of high praise.

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Canadian Repatriates

Ottawa, Nov. 8, 1943 - (CP) - The army and the air force made public tonight; the names of 61 men - 50 from the army and 11 from the R.C.A.F. - who have been repatriated to the United Kingdom in exchange for Nazis held prisoner in Allied hands.
The men had been held as prisoners of war, all of them severely wounded, in German-occupied Europe. The army men were wounded during the raid on Dieppe Aug. 19, 1942.
The army list included one officer each from Calgary, Oliver, B.C.; Toronto and Montreal, and 46 other ranks, three of them from the United States. In all, they included 32 from Ontario, nine from Quebec, two each from Manitoba, British Columbia and Michigan, and one each from Nova Scotia, Alberta and Arkansas.
The R.C.A.F. list was made up of five warrant officers, four flight lieutenants, one flight sergeant and one sergeant. Four of the men were from Quebec, three from Ontario and one each from Alberta, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and California.
R.C.A.F. Members Released
Following is the list of 11 members of the R.C.A.F. prisoners of war who have been repatriated to the United Kingdom from German-Occupied Europe (with next of kin)
Argue, Edward Bradley, WO. Mrs., E. P. Argue (mother), Aylmer, Que.
Aumond, Marie Joseph Alfred Jean, WO, Alfred Aumond (father), Montreal,
Dougall, Donald Charles, D.F.C., Flt. Lt., Mrs. J. R. Dougall (mother), Ste. Ann de Bellevue, Que.
Fullard, Howard Wallace, Sgt. Mrs. H. W. Fullard (wife), Montreal.
Gillespie, Ross Raymond, Flt- Lt., R. M. Gillespie (father), Hamilton.
Mackay, William Minto, Flt. Lt., T. D. Mackay (father), Calgary.
Morrison, Donald Robert, D.F.C., D.F.M., Flt. Lt., R. N. Morrison (father), 634 Millwood Rd., Toronto.
Nickerson, John Bayman, Flt. Sgt., G. E. Nickerson (father), Yarmouth, N.S.
Smith, James Alexander, WO. Mrs. J. A. Smith (wife), Winnipeg.
Westwood, Jack Arthur, WO. Mrs. L. F. Westwood (mother), 7 Parkside Drive, Toronto.
Wilcox, Walter Cordon, WO. Mrs. M. E. Wilcox (mother), San Francisco, Ca.

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Don Dougall & Don Morrison chat with Jeep Neal shortly after their return to England

Flt. Lt. Morrison Tells Of Life in Prison Camp

By FLT. LT. DON MORISSON, D.F.C., D.F.M.
LONDON, Nov. 14, 1943 (CP) — I didn't regain consciousness until about 10 days after I was shot down and found myself in a Luftwaffe hospital in France. I wasn't feeling too well, but the German doctors had apparently done a pretty good job of surgery. The food was fair, but I remembered one day one of the nurses bringing me a big piece of black bread and blood-sausage. I took one look at it and said I couldn't possibly eat it. I got white bread after that.
I was in that hospital about a month before they moved me to Germany. When I had begun to recover, they took me to the interrogation center, where German intelligence officers give prisoners the customary questioning. I was moved from place to place quite a bit, spending some time in a prison hospital staffed by British doctors who had been captured on various fronts, and in a convalescent hospital before I was finally moved to a regular prison camp.
The camp itself was a big affair. Our particular site had 12 barrack blocks, each holding about 60 officers, about six to a room. The furnishing was pretty bare — three double-decker bunks, two tables and half a dozen stools. We had very little contact with the Germans themselves. The site had its senior officer — an R.A.F. group captain — and an adjutant, who were responsible for keeping things running properly and for contact between the prisoners and the Germans.

Germans Were "Goons”
Incidentally, we invariably referred to the Germans as "goons.” Jerry uniforms were "goonskins” and the sentry boxes surrounding the site, each of which had a machine-gun post and searchlight, were "goon boxes."
We ate very little of the German rations. Each of us got a Red Cross parcel once a week, and our families could send us four parcels direct every year. From the Germans we would get bread, potatoes (when there were any potatoes) and occasionally barley or oatmeal and margarine. Each room did its own cooking. There was only one small cooking stove (about three by two feet) for each hut, and each room made its own cooking arrangements. We drew up a roster of times at which the stove would be available to each room, allowing 30 minutes for two rooms.
In this way the inhabitants of one room would have the stove for 15 minutes exclusively, or alternately the two rooms could use the stove together for 30 minutes. It didn't work out too badly, except that the tendency was to eat far too much greasy fried food. I guess it wasn't very good for our stomachs.

Got Little Meat
There wasn't much variety. The meat we got was usually canned bully beef or canned American chopped pork and this got monotonous in a very short while. We sometimes got bacon in cans from our parcels, but we never saw fresh milk or shell eggs.
I don't know what the Germans do to their black bread, but it's the heaviest stuff I ever saw. A loaf of ordinary size weighed nearly five pounds. Most of the time we toasted it, as it tasted a little better that way, but even then it wasn't any hell. We never got any flour, but sometimes we would concoct a pie by crushing biscuits into powder and putting in a little margarine to make pastry. We got quite a few raisins in our parcels, and consequently our pies were usually raisin pies.
We usually got up about 9 a.m. We had to parade twice a day to be counted, and the first of these parades was at 9:30 a.m. Then we would take our turns to make breakfast and clean up our rooms. It wasn't so easy to keep ourselves clean as we had no hot water for washing, and any shaving water had to be heated on the stove. There were cold showers which were all right in the summer, but I don't know what they would have been like in winter. As I didn't arrive at the camp until July and left in October, I can't really judge.
The truth about life in prison camp, although there's no specific complaint you can make, is that it's colorless and dreadfully monotonous. Every day is exactly the same and there is no future to look forward to except the distant future of the end of the war which, after a while, gets to be something completely unreal.
The one thing you do get is mail and it's something which gets to be unbelievably important. I'm out of the camp now, but there are many Canadians still there who will be there until the war is over and now that I'm back I'd like to do anything I can to help them. In the matter of food parcels which families send to men in prison camps, I think the important thing is that these should be as varied as possible. With our weekly Red Cross parcels and such rations as we took from the Germans, we had just about enough staple food. I won't say that we always had plenty to eat, because that wouldn't be true, but at any rate we got by.
Nevertheless, as I have said, the food was monotonous and we rather looked to our families to provide variety. Most of this could be got in stuff that people normally would not think of. For instance, pepper and spices were things we got quite a craving for — and they have the advantage that they don't take up much valuable parcel space. Another thing is dehydrated food of all kinds — apples, onions, etc. — which isn't bulky and which adds a little different touch to a meal. It's impossible to describe how much that can mean. Good concentrated coffee which can be made with just the addition of boiling water is invaluable. And the boys can always use lots of tea. Concentrated soups too, are excellent for these parcels.
Apart from food, there are several other little items which aren't normally thought about. For instance, gramophone needles. We got lots of records — and you can imagine how touch they meant — but we barely had enough needles to play them with. When you're playing records ell day, needles don't last very long. There are lots of other little things such as can-openers and pencil-sharpeners, which get to be pretty important. Fortunately, we were pretty well supplied with razor blades. Letters should be as full of news about Canada as possible and the more snapshots the better.

Rumors Run Wild
Life is so monotonous that rumors run wild. There were constantly rumors that some of us with limbs off or otherwise unfit were to be sent home, but the only safe way to treat such rumors was to ignore them altogether. Otherwise, you were only building yourself up for a big let-down. We got news from prisoners newly arriving about the progress of the war. I heard about my D.F.C., which was awarded several months after I had been shot down, in a letter from my mother. And shortly after that a new arrival told me that he had read about it in ‘Wings Abroad’ the R.C.A.F. overseas newspaper.
Well, things went on without much variety until one morning the camp adjutant came rushing around in a terrific flap to say that some of us were going home. And very shortly after that we started off on our trip. 1 can tell you that it was the best trip I ever made or ever will make.
There was one little incident on the train going to the German port from which we left for Sweden. An elderly German major was traveling with us, and as we were approaching a town in Northern Germany he began to till us how beautiful it was. He said he had spent most of his officer's cadetship there and had always had a great affection for it.
"Here it is now," he said, as we reached the outskirts. We looked out of the windows at lt. There it was - a mass of ruins. The bombers had visited it a short time before and there was practically nothing left.
We didn't see any British bombing ourselves, but some lads who came into the camp had baled out from bombers over the target during big attacks, and had to stick around while the raid went. They said the effect of the bombings was unbelievable, and that you think the whole world is coming to an end.

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Repatriated Soldiers From German Prisons Are Landed at Halifax

HALIFAX, Nov. 24, 1943 - (CP) - Canadian soldiers —wounded at Dieppe and held prisoners for 14 months in chains in Nazi prison camps —were among several hundred wounded and ill Canadian and United States servicemen, including R.C.A.F. personnel shot down over Nazi-occupied Europe, who returned to Canada today aboard the Canadian hospital ship Lady Nelson.
Aboard the vessel, which docked here earlier today to complete its fifth round-trip voyage across the Atlantic, were also wounded Canadian soldiers who had fought in the Battle of Sicily.
The soldiers and airmen who have been held prisoners m Germany numbered nearly half a hundred. They were repatriated from the Nazi prison camps in the recent prison exchange with Germany.

Shackles Described
Only a few of the returning Dieppe veterans told of being shackled m the Nazi camps, but all of them related how hundreds of their companions — including officers — not confined to hospital were forced to wear chains. They described the shackles as handcuffs joined together by a chain 12 to 15 inches long, just too short "to allow us to put our hands in our pockets."
"We had to wear them from early morning until 9:30 at night.” said Pte. Joseph Brenner of Windsor, Ont., one of the exchange prisoners returning to Canada. "They were taken off just half an hour before we went to bed. And that was from last December until just a few days ago.”
Pte. Brenner, who has a wife and two small children waiting for him at home, said he got respite from the chains from time to time by working in the Red Cross stores. Others, he said, used to work their chains off during the day and then put them back on again before the guards came around at night to unshackle them.

Fliers Also Chained
Dieppe prisoners weren't the only ones chained according to Sgt. Andrew Michaud of Montreal. Michaud who lay in hospital in France for three months before being taken to a prison camp on the German-Polish, border, said that following an air raid on Hamburg, R.C.A.F. and R.A.F. fliers who had previously been taken prisoners were shackled for six months.
"The Germans told them they were shackling them in retribution for the damage the raid had done," he said, adding that the Dieppe prisoners had had their hands tied cross-wise in front of them by a rope for several weeks, before chains were substituted.
Michaud and other returning Canadians described the Nazi camps as "unlivable," had it not been for the Red Cross which supplied food and clothing for the prisoners once a week.
"A mile away," said the Montrealer "was a prison Camp for Russians. The Russians have no Red Cross. They were dying there by the hundreds, because they could not get enough to eat, nor clothes to wear, nor medical attention. They had to live, and work, on what the Germans gave them. It was the same as what the Germans gave us but it was the Red Cross that came to our rescue."

Had Allied Doctors
Medical attention that they had received in the prison camps won high praise from the returning Canadians.
"They were British medical officers taken prisoners in Africa, Crete and Italy, who staffed the prison hospitals," said George T. Lee, Windsor, Ont., a member of the Essex Scottish, who had both his legs paralyzed by machine-gun fire at Dieppe. "Some of those doctors were the best in all of England. One of them —a colonel— I cannot remember his name, even attended the Royal family before the war. There was nothing they would not do for us to get us back on our feet again."
Lee said he had Iain for 14 hours on the beach at Dieppe before he was picked up by German searchers. He was taken to a field hospital, he said, where he was given five or six blood transfusions.
The young soldier added, however, that his case was no different from hundreds of other Canadian soldiers who lay on the Dieppe beach for hours after the battle had died down.

Were Taken at Dunkirk
About the most impossible thing that could happen to him would be to gain his freedom from the German prison camp where he was detained for more than a year, so thought W02 Jack Westwood of Toronto.
He said today he didn't really believe it until he saw the shores of Scotland looming before the hospital ship that brought him and other repatriates from Germany by way of Sweden.
It's no wonder he felt pessimistic. He was in the same camp with thousands of British and Allied troops who had been taken prisoners at Dunkirk in 1940. These boys had seen their hopes lifted in 1941 when there was talk of repatriating them, but then the whole thing felt through.
"I decided when I heard that" Westwood said, "I wouldn't be disappointed, so I never even dared hope I’d get out. Evan when we got to Sweden I thought it was still phony and we'd be sent back to Germany. Some of us even thought of leaving the ship and getting interned in Sweden rather than go back."
Westwood was rear gunner on a Wellington bomber that was shot down during a raid on the Ruhr, July 24, 1942. The pilot was killed by flak, and the bomb aimer died of his wounds two days later in a Nazi hospital. Westwood himself lost his left leg as a result, but considers himself lucky to be alive.
Like all the other repatriated prisoners, Westwood couldn't find words to voice his gratitude to the Red Cross.
"Without their parcels that came just like clockwork every week, I know some of the boys who were sick never would have lived” he said. "We were better fed as a result than the Germans. In fact, it was a standing joke at the camp that the barbed wire was to keep the German civvies out"
Besides that, the Red Cross provided all kinds of sport equipment. The boys left at the camp are making a rink for the winter, and can have a little bit of Canada through a game of hockey because of this equipment, he said.

Many Fliers in Group
Though he may never fly again, Flt. Lt. Don Morrison of Toronto was feeling mighty happy today "just to be back in Canada again." The dark-haired ace, who knocked 15 Nazi planes out of the sky and won the D.F.C. and D.F.M., was one of a group of repatriated Canadian airmen who arrived here today. Other flight lieutenants in the group were D. C. Dougall of Montreal, Ross Gillespie of Hamilton and Kitchener, and William MacKay of Calgary.
All had been at the same prison camp, at Sagen about 100 miles east of Berlin. They were unwilling to talk much about the camp or conditions there, and seemed more anxious to forget about it now they were back home— or nearly home.
While on a Flying Fortress escort mission during a raid on Li1Ie, France, Morrison was shot down and lost a leg. About 20 German Focke-Wulf fighters jumped the eight Spitfires in Morrison’s group, but they didn't get away Scot-free. Morrison accounted for one himself before a burst of cannon fire did him in, and the others thinned the German ranks somewhat .
The Toronto flier was in hospital sight months as a result of that, and then went to the prison camp just three months before he was released. "I hardly got acquainted with the place, but I'm not worrying.” He grinned.
Flt-Lt. Dougall, another fighter pilot, was shot down while on a fighter sweep over the French coast when enemy fighters attacked the squadron. He came down near Boulogne in July, 1941, and was in hospital a year with bullet wounds and injuries before he was taken to the camp.
Flt. Lt. Gillespie had been in the camp 18 months before he was released, and that was "too long altogether."
"The Red Cross did a damn good job though in keeping those parcels coming every week," he said. "You ask, did they help pad out our regular rations? They were just about our main rations."
Like the others, he thought it wise to say as little about conditions in the camp as possible.
"But you can say that a couple of boys are still in the camp that want to say Hello to the folks around Hamilton. Lieut. Dave Howard of Kitchener, of the United States Air Force, and FO. Harold Beaupre of Waterloo, are feeling swell. I only wish they could have come with us.”

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Butch Aikman & Don Morrison

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ODDS HOPELESS AT NAZI CAMP CITY MAN SAYS

May 18, 1944 - Flight Lieutenant Don Morrison. D.F.C., D.F.M., who was a prisoner for three months at Stalag Luft 3, Dresden, today told of the hopeless odds that confronted the 47 Allied airmen killed attempting to escape on March 22.
Morrison said that he knew McGill, Birkland and Kidder, three of the six Canadians who were shot in the escape attempt. He was shocked and distressed to hear of their fate, and added that he probably knew many of the British flyers who were killed.
"It's practically impossible to escape from Stalag Luft 3," Morrison said in recalling the set-up. "The camp is guarded by an eight-foot fence of barbed wire. Forty feet inside is a guard rail, which is just a low, wooded fence. No one is allowed to cross it under penalty of being shot.
"Around the outside of the fence are several high towers manned by guards with machine guns and searchlights," he said. "At night the guards walk around the outside of the fence with dogs."
Advancing a reason for the mass escape attempt, Morrison said that "the boys just about go crazy from the inactivity of the prison and most of them want to get out and get another crack at the Germans. It's hard to be sitting there when there's a war going on, particularly when they have all been used to so much action. But it's a terrible thing to happen after they've been there so long."
After spending seven months in a German prison hospital, Flight-Lieutenant Morrison was sent to Stalag Luft 3 for three months before he was repatriated last November.
"I know how they all feel," Morrison said. "Everyone wants to get out. The rosy letters they write to their families don't tell of the terrible boredom."

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1941 - Morrison with his Mk Vb Spitfire  YO-A

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--- Canadian Aces ---

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