Dartmouth Crash in a Lake, 1943

On February 14, 1943, a crew (of 4?) crashed a
plane into one of the numerous lakes somewhere
east of Dartmouth, N.S. The site and the bodies
were not found until more than a year and a half
later. One man was Pilot Officer William "Hector"
Thompson, who was from Madoc, Ontario. He was
taken home for burial.

Warrant Officer Class II James Robin Stick of the
RCAF also died February 14, 1943. He is buried in
Mount Hermon Cemetery in Dartmouth. He was the son
of Joseph Paul and Olive Stick of St. John's,
Newfoundland.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bill Tufts to nsroots, nova-scotia-l	  12/15/05

A week ago, I asked for information on an airplane
crash on Valentine's Day (Feb. 14), 1943, near
Dartmouth, N.S. There was a fair amount of
response from people with suggestions and Carolyn
Wallace tried everything she could to find answers
except hold a sceance. Thank you, Carolyn.

At the time, I said that William "Hector" Thompson
was one of "4 men" who died that day and the crash
site was not discovered until maybe a year and a
half later. I now have more information.

Hector Thompson was based in Gander, NF., in
charge of land operation communications. Gander
played two very important wartime roles. It was
"The" major airport joining Europe to North
America and most military traffic passed through
it either coming or going and has continued in
that capacity to this day. Earlier this week, we
remembered a horrendous crash at Gander 20 years
ago following a refueling en route to Kentucky.
>
> During the war, Gander was also a busy base for the Atlantic patrol
> and it was from there that submarine patrols flew over the Gulf of St.
> Lawrence. The plane Hector was in was a Hudson bomber and today, a
> google search revealed it could be used for low level bombing (as low
> as 50 feet), which (to me) would make it ideal for submarine "search and destroy" missions.
>
> On February 14, 1943, a navigational training flight took off from Torbay,
> Newfoundland (north of St. John's). The crew included Pilot Officer Thomas Watterson,
>  from Manotick, Ontario (10 mi. south of Ottawa), Flight Sgt. Robert Rolfe of Huntingdon, Quebec,
> and W/O James R. Stick of St. John's, Newfoundland.
> There were three passengers: W. Hector Thompson, Madoc, Ontario,
> John Hook, Brockville, Ontario (his parents lived in Bridgeport, CT.), and
>  a Lt. Snell of the U.S. Army. Hector was on his way to a convention in Halifax
>and planned to take leave to see his wife and three children in Ottawa after the conference.

When the plane failed to land at the air force
base airport in Dartmouth, they were reported
missing and were later declared dead. Twenty-one
months later, on November 6, 1944, the crash site
with "6 skeletons" was discovered by a hunting
party a mere 11 miles from the airport.

With the exception of Lt. Snell, the others are
listed on the website of the Commonwealth War
Graves Commission.

http://www.cwgc.org/

John Hook and James Stick are buried in Mount
Hermon Cemetery in Dartmouth. Robert Rolfe, Hector
Thompson and Thomas Watterson were returned to
their homes for burial (Watterson is buried near
Manotick at Kars, Ontario).

Bill
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