BODIE o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-08-19 published
MYNARSKI's man
FRIDAY
Knocked unconscious, the young bomb aimer was saved when his
flight engineer pushed him out of their stricken Lancaster
By Tom HAWTHORN
Special to The Globe and Mail Tuesday, August
19, 2003 - Page R7
Victoria -- A Second World War bomb aimer who survived an ill-fated
mission during which his friend Andrew
MYNARSKI was later awarded
a posthumous Victoria Cross for trying the save a trapped fellow
crewman has died. Jack
FRIDAY, who spent his peacetime career
with Air Canada, died in Thunder Bay.
Mr. MYNARSKI's sacrifice awed a generation of children who learned
of it in their school readers. Mr.
FRIDAY was often asked to
recount what happened aboard his doomed Lancaster as it burned
over France. What many did not realize was that Mr.
FRIDAY only
learned the details of Mr.
MYNARSKI's heroism after the end of
the war.
On June 12, 1944, his Royal Canadian Air Force crew was assigned
to bomb the railroad marshalling yards at Cambrai. The mission
was similar to others in recent days, as No. 419 (Moose) Squadron
attacked German reinforcements being rushed forward to repel
Allied forces in Normandy.
Six days earlier, the crew had bombed coastal guns at Longues
in the early-morning hours before the invasion fleet landed on
D-Day. The Cambrai target -- their 13th mission -- was to be
attacked on in the early morning hours of June 13. Later, superstitious
survivors would speak of that coincidence as a missed omen.
Their Lancaster lifted off the runway at Middleton St. George
in Yorkshire at 9: 44 p.m. on June 12. After crossing the English
Channel, the bomber was coned -- caught in searchlights -- but
the pilot, Flying Officer Arthur DE
BREYNE, managed to manoeuvre
his craft out of the dreaded lights.
The reprieve did not last long.
Rear gunner Patrick
BROPHY, who sat in an isolated compartment
at the rear of the aircraft, spotted an enemy fighter below.
"Bogey astern! Six o'clock!" he shouted into the intercom, just
before a Junkers 88 attacked.
Mr. DE BREYNE threw the bomber into an evasive corkscrew. In
an instant, though, his plane was rocked by three explosions.
Both port engines were knocked out and the wing set afire. A
hydraulic line in the fuselage had also been severed and the
midsection of the plane was burning.
The pilot ordered the crew to evacuate as he struggled to prevent
the Lancaster from going into a dive. Mr.
FRIDAY's duty as bomb
aimer was to release the escape hatch. As he did so, the rushing
wind whipped the steel door open, striking him above the right
eye.
Flight engineer Roy
VIGARS was the first among the other crew
to clamber to the hatch.
"I made my way down to the bomb-aimer's position and found Jack
FRIDAY slumped on the floor, unconscious," Mr.
VIGARS told Bette
PAGE for her 1989 book, Mynarski's Lanc. "I rolled him over,
clipped on his parachute pack, and slid him over to the escape
hatch and dropped him through the opening while holding on to
the ripcord."
The act was risky, as the parachute could have wrapped around
the craft's tail wheel. Mr.
VIGARS saw that Mr.
FRIDAY's parachute
had opened clear of the bomber. He then jumped, followed by wireless
operator James
KELLY, navigator Robert
BODIE and the pilot, who
had recovered control of the bomber and set it on a gentle descent.
Unknown to those men, a terrible drama was being played out at
the rear of the flaming craft.
As Warrant Officer
MYNARSKI prepared to jump, he looked back
to see that Flying Officer Patrick
BROPHY was still at his rear-gunner's
position.
Mr. MYNARSKI, the mid-upper gunner, crawled through the burning
fuselage, his uniform and parachute catching fire. Mr.
BROPHY
was trapped in his seat and the men struggled desperately to
free him.
Finally, Mr.
BROPHY told Mr.
MYNARSKI to jump without him.
Mr. MYNARSKI crawled back through the fire, stood at the door,
saluted his doomed comrade, and leapt into the inky sky with
his uniform and parachute in flames.
Aboard the Lancaster, Mr.
BROPHY prepared for certain death.
Some miles away, Mr.
FRIDAY floated unconscious to earth by parachute,
landing near a chateau at Hedauville. A pair of farm workers
found him in a vineyard the next morning. He was taken to a local
doctor who feared reprisals for treating an Allied airman. The
injured man was turned over to the Germans.
Mr. FRIDAY finally regained consciousness on June 17, wakening
in a prison cell in Amiens. He feared he had lost his eye. A
fellow prisoner peeked beneath Mr.
FRIDAY's bandages and saw
that a flap of skin was blocking his vision. The wound had not
been stitched.
Mr. FRIDAY was reunited with Mr.
VIGARS as their captors prepared
to transport prisoners to Germany.
The pair were sent to an interrogation centre near Frankfurt,
before being transferred to Stalag Luft 7 at Bankau, outside
Breslau (now Wroclaw), in Silesia near Poland.
The men were separated again on January 18, 1945, as the Germans
marched prisoners out of the camp ahead of the advancing Soviet
army. The forced march was arduous. Many died of disease, exposure
and exhaustion. Mr.
FRIDAY survived by stealing frozen beets
and potatoes from farmer's fields. He would later remember the
only warm night of the march was spent in a barn, where he snuggled
overnight with a cow. Mr.
FRIDAY was at last liberated by the
Soviets in April.
He returned to England in May, where, as recounted in the 1992
book, The Evaders, he prepared a statement, the brevity of which
perfectly captured his sense of the dramatic events. "Took off
from Middleton St. George. Do not remember briefing or takeoff.
First thing I remember is coming to in a hospital in Amiens."
Only later did he learn what happened aboard the Lancaster. As
the bomber crashed, the port wing struck a tree, causing the
plane to veer violently to the left. The force freed Mr.
BROPHY
from his turret prison and he landed against a tree, far away
from the burning wreckage. He had survived.
Mr. MYNARSKI, the
son of Polish immigrants and a leather worker
in civilian life, was not as fortunate. He was found by the French,
but was so badly burned that he soon died from his injuries.
He was 27.
The other crewmen, including Mr.
BROPHY, evaded capture with
the assistance of French civilians.
John William
FRIDAY was the third son born to a pharmacist in
Port Arthur, Ontario, on December 21, 1921. He graduated from
Port Arthur Collegiate Institute before joining the Royal Canadian
Air Force in 1942. He was demobilized with the rank of flying
officer. He worked as an Air Canada passenger agent for 31 years
before retiring in 1985.
In 1988, he joined his former crew mates in ceremonies marking
the dedication of a restored Lancaster at the Canadian Warplane
Heritage Museum at Mount Hope, Ontario The aircraft, which was
refurbished in the colours and markings of the crew's plane,
has been designated the
MYNARSKI
Memorial
Lancaster.
MYNARSKI's
name also graces a string of three lakes in Manitoba, as well
as a park, a school and a civic ward in his hometown of Winnipeg.
Mr. FRIDAY died of cancer in Thunder Bay, Ontario, on June 22.
He leaves Shirley (née
BISSONNETTE,) his wife of 54 years, five
children and four younger sisters. He was predeceased by two
brothers.
Mr. BROPHY, whose life he tried to save, died at age 68 at St.
Catharines, Ontario, in 1991. According to the second edition
of MYNARSKI's Lanc, Mr.
VIGARS, who saved Mr.
FRIDAY's life,
died in 1989 at Guildford, England; Mr. DE
BREYNE died at St.
Lambert,
Quebec, in 1991; and, Mr.
BODIE died in Vancouver in
1994. Mr. FRIDAY's death leaves James
KELLY of Toronto as the
only survivor.
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BODLEY o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-02-25 published
Christina Ingeborg
BODLEY
By Steven BODLEY
Tuesday,
February 25, 2003 - Page A24
Student, teacher, mother. Born January 10, 1929, in Breslau,
Germany. Died July 3, 2002, in London, Ontario, of natural causes,
aged 73.
Back in the bad old days, before we realized smoking was more
than just a nasty habit, some high schools had designated "smoking
areas." In Belleville, Ontario, at Moira Secondary School, it
was a painted-off section of the rear parking lot, smack in the
middle of the main thoroughfare for students and teachers as
they moved between classes. It was also our social focal point,
and we raced out during breaks to stand there, bumming smokes
and swapping stories.
I always told my mother that I was just there for the conversation.
Whether she believed me or not she never let on, and never looked
for me there, puffing away as she walked by. If you are assuming
my mother was a teacher at my high school, you would be mistaken:
she was a student in Grade 13, resuming her interrupted education.
Born in Germany in 1929, she spoke little of her childhood, even
when prompted. An only child, her family seems to have been fairly
well-off, and her early schooling included field trips to the
opera. Childhood ended for her at the age of 10, in 1939, when
Adolf Hitler's Germany plunged the world into one of its darkest
periods.
She was orphaned early during the war, her mother hemorrhaging
in premature labour at home while Christina frantically searched
through a blacked-out city for a doctor. Her father was a victim
of an Allied bomb. She ended the war alone at 16, cleaning wounds
and washing bandages with a medical unit, relocating day-to-day
as the Allies closed in on the Third Reich.
In the chaos of postwar Germany, my mother lied about her age
by three years to avoid being placed in a camp with other refugee
children. Her flawless command of English got her work as a translator
for the Allies in Heidelberg. Like many, she opted to leave Europe
and her past -- behind. Although her first choice was to emigrate
to the United States, Canada was easier to get into, and so she
sailed for Halifax in 1948 on the S.S. Veendam. She never looked
back, and embraced Canada completely, becoming a citizen in 1952.
She married Roger
BODLEY in 1952 and two children (myself and
my sister Julie), soon followed. We moved to Belleville, Ontario,
in 1958, and she remained there for the rest of her life.
She started taking correspondence courses to complete high-school,
remarking that education was "the only possession that no one
could ever take away from you." She spent the next 20 years studying
part-time at Queen's, eventually graduating with an M.A. in education.
The 1970s saw the proliferation of community colleges in Ontario,
and she joined the faculty at Loyalist College in Belleville
just after it opened. It was there, teaching English, that she
spent her happiest years. As the years passed, the loss of those
three years as a result of her lie in 1945 came back to haunt
her and she eventually obtained a revised birth certificate.
This added a precious three years for her to continue teaching
before forced retirement at age 65.
She returned to Germany but once, however travelling became her
passion. She preferred England. She roamed the British Library,
the art galleries and museums like a curious child. When she
came home, she always brought some small memento of her trip
for everyone: from her Friends and family to the cashier at the
grocery store.
Learning and teaching the humanities were always her focus, and
when she died a memorial fund collected more than enough money
to place a bench in her memory in the Alumni Memorial Garden
at Loyalist College. There, students will be able to sit, read,
or just rest between classes. Mom would have liked that.
Steven BODLEY is Christina's son.
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BODSON o@ca.on.manitoulin.howland.little_current.manitoulin_expositor 2003-03-05 published
Marcel Alexander
GORZYNSKI
In loving memory of Marcel Alexander
GORZYNSKI, born January 16, 1925
in Poland, died February 23, 2003 at his residence on Manitoulin Island.
He married in 1948 in Germany to Lena
(KAPPLER,) and they came to
Canada in 1949 to Montreal. In 1950 he came to Sudbury and was hired
at INCO. He was a millwright retiring in 1985.
In 1975 he went camping on Manitoulin Island. While he was there he
and his wife went out looking for waterfront property. They bought
one on Lake Manitou and started building a camp. In 1986 he moved to
Manitoulin Island permanently. Marcel enjoyed his life on Manitoulin
Island to the fullest. He grew everything in the garden. He planted
trees all around, Chestnut, Walnut, Apple, Pear and Grape. The
flower garden was started too. Roses were his favourite. He had a
green thumb for gardening and took great pride in his flowers and
fruit. He was predeceased by his canine friend, Lady.
Marcel battled non-Hodgin's lymphoma for two years. He died
peacefully in his beloved home. We all miss him.
Beloved husband of Lena
(KAPPLER)
GORZYNSKI of Sudbury. Loving
father of Madeline (husband Terry
BUCKMAN,)
Patricia (husband Norm
BODSON,) and Raymond (partner Debbie
ROBERTSON) all of Sudbury.
Cherished grandfather of Andrea and Stephanie.
The Memorial Service was held in the R. J. Barnard Chapel, Jackson and
Barnard Funeral Home, 233 Larch Street Sudbury on Thursday, February
27, 2003. Cremation at the Park Lawn Crematorium.
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