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Syd Burrows (left) and John England stand with a model of the 1950s Canadair
Sabre jet fighter during a Sept. 13 to 14 pilots’ reunion in Victoria, B.C.
RCAF/Adrian Lam Photo
Sixty years ago, daring young NATO pilots were protecting the skies over Cold War Europe from the Soviet menace.
“We were a formidable force,” said Syd Burrows, 84, of Comox, B.C. “The Russians were threatening all the time, like they are today.”
Burrows helped gather more than 400 former Royal Canadian Air Force jet fighter pilots and their family members for a Sept. 13 to 14, 2014, reunion in Victoria, B.C.
The Canadian pilots were the protective forces for the West German populace. “We weren’t there as occupiers – the French, English and Americans were occupation forces,” said Burrows, who was stationed in Zweibrucken, West Germany, from 1953 to 1955. “We were there to protect them from the Russians. We were only a couple of minutes from the Iron Curtain.”
Canada boasted 300 Canadair F-86 Sabres in 12 squadrons – four wings each with three squadrons of 25 aircraft. Today, one Sabre, based in Gatineau, Que., is still in flying condition.
One hundred of the Sabre pilots died in accidents, though none in combat. Burrows lost an eye on Sept. 13, 1954, when his aircraft struck a hawk during a training exercise, causing the aircraft’s Plexiglas canopy to explode into his face. He received the Air Force Cross for managing to land safely under extreme conditions. He was grounded for 12 years but then regained flying status as a co-pilot.
“They call me Cyclops now,” he joked.
Today, the average age of the Sabre pilots is 83, and 21 are older than 90.
“These reunions are probably the high spot of our retired lives,” said John England, 82, of Qualicum Beach, B.C., who served as chairman of the reunion organizing committee. “We were the most formidable aircraft to fight the Russian MIG 15s.”
His son, Christopher, who was born on a military base in Germany, and his wife, Arlene, also attended the reunion.
“Flying was in my blood,” said Christopher England, who is the commanding officer of the Royal Canadian Air Force Snowbirds Demonstration Team.
Arlene England and a girlhood friend married RCAF pilots training near their tiny hometown of Nelson, N.B., and ended up in Europe.
“In the Cold War, the wife had to be organized,” England said. “If there was an emergency and all the men had to fly, we had to look after ourselves. You became very strong. They told us we should always have $100 in travellers’ cheques and we laughed at that – nobody had $100.”
If a pilot died, his widow had to be ready to pack the babies and belongings and drive herself to Le Havre on the Normandy coast to be on the next ship back to Canada, vacating the house for the next NATO pilot and his family.
“We had a good time but we knew there was a dangerous side,” said England. The wives overlooked a lot of the hardship because they knew their husbands were “completely happy,” she said.
