Following the Echoes: The Fickle Finger of Fate

Photo of F/L Bertram Leonard Smith while serving with Squadron 428. Smith was born in Barking, Essex, England on June 11, 1918. He served in Bomber Command from 1940–1944. Photo: Courtesy of Michael Smith.

In the description for Following the Echoes, I wrote that the book “reflects on the ripple effect that the pulling of literal and metaphorical triggers can have on our lives.”

This past summer, Lance and I were reminded of the extent of that ripple effect from the pulling of triggers—and I don’t mean of the metaphorical kind.

On July 30, Lance happened to notice a memorial post in an RAF Bomber Command Facebook group by a woman named Karen Quaile, who was remembering her grandfather, F/L Bertram Leonard Smith, aka “Smiddy,” a wireless operator/air gunner who disappeared on Lancaster KB759 of RCAF 428 Ghost Squadron on the night of July 28/29, 1944, on a bombing raid to Hamburg—the same night and the same raid from which Wendell “Del” Drew failed to return on Lancaster JB707.

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Following the Echoes: Hold On to Those Old Letters

Graduation photo James “Norman” Lillico from Bombing and Gunnery School, November 10, 1941.
Photo: Courtesy of Lillico family.

PREVIOUS POSTS IN THIS SERIES:

On this Canada Day, in a new (and long overdue) update, my brother and co-author, Lance Fox, and I are pleased to share that we have been able to uncover additional information related to Following the Echoes.

The time around Remembrance Day seems to be the season that keeps on giving, and on November 11 of last year, it was the great-grandson of someone featured in the book and an earlier blog post who followed an echo and found us.

In my October 2023 post “The Others,” which featured several individuals in the book whose relatives we hoped to connect with, I mentioned James “Norman” Lillico, a dear friend of Wendell “Del” Drew from their time together in the RCAF.

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Following the Echoes: Into the Abyss

See also:

In the latest installment of Following the Echoes, it’s been quite a week of developments related to some of the individuals featured in my earlier post “The Others.” There will be more to follow, but this post is dedicated to the crew members of Wellington HX726, of which Wendell “Del” Drew was the sole survivor when their plane crashed at Luqa, Malta, on February 13, 1943.

Recently, my brother and co-author, Lance Fox, and I were able to connect with Cate Wagstaffe. Just like Del Drew, Cate’s British great-uncle, Warrant Officer John Michael Wagstaffe, served with 458 RAAF Squadron on Malta. And, like Del, he was involved in a crash there. Unlike Del, however, Wagstaffe did not survive: he and four of his crewmates were killed on April 19, 1944.

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Buried in Uncertainty: A Vanished Airman, a War Crime, and the Forgotten Mystery that Remains

Ross Bell Nairn. Photo: Canadian Virtual War Memorial

A young Canadian airman, Ross Bell Nairn, disappeared over Germany in 1944. Evidence of a war crime was uncovered and surreptitiously removed. And then a body mysteriously appeared.

About a year ago, after reading The Job to Be Done by Clint L. Coffey, I found myself going down the proverbial rabbit hole, thanks to a tangential story mentioned in the book.

The story of Pilot Officer Ross Bell Nairn, a young airman from 405 Pathfinder Squadron, could have piqued my interest for the simple fact that he hailed from Science Hill, Ontario, a tiny farming community just outside of St. Mary’s, near my own hometown of Sarnia.

I could also attribute my interest to what I would describe as a soft spot for the stories of those who left this world without descendants and, were it not for serendipity, would have remained largely forgotten.

But there was more to this story that drew me in and wouldn’t let me go: it involves a man stumbling across evidence of a war crime deep in a German forest; the curious removal of said evidence; a certain ambiguity surrounding a tomb in France; and—especially troublesome—a grieving mother and father who went to their graves without knowing the fate of their son.

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The Job to Be Done: A Review with a Special Connection

Author Clint L. Coffey. Photo courtesy of Clint Coffey.

Recently, my brother and co-author, Lance Fox, did an internet search related to our book, Following the Echoes, to see whether any new relevant documents had come to light.

In his search, Lance was excited to discover a blog post by Clint L. Coffey, who, as it turns out, is a fellow Canadian and a fellow FriesenPress author of the same year (2023). Also, his book, The Job to Be Done: A Son’s Journey Into the Story of a WW2 Bomber Command Aircrew, is about a Bomber Command crew of personal significance (the pilot, Flying Officer Jesse Coffey, was Clint’s father).

But this was not all that connected us to Clint. It was while searching for any new mentions of names or topics related to Following the Echoes—specifically Lancaster JB707, in which Wendell “Del” Drew and his crew, piloted by Flying Officer Elwood Townsend, perished in 1944—that Lance found Clint’s post.

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Del’s Legacy: A Canada Day Commemoration

RCAF Flying Officer Wendell “Del” Pierce Drew

I thought that Canada Day would be a fitting day to share this personal story in commemoration of those whom many have called the Greatest Generation. One of the very last of this generation, my paternal grandmother, Gladys Fox (née Hope), passed away recently at the age of ninety-six. (You can read more about her life here.)

Gladys was born in London, England, and grew up in Notting Hill in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in an era when this now posh area was still a humble working-class neighbourhood. The family lived in a flat above the Portland Road Dairy that they owned, and her childhood was a happy and stable one. Everything changed, however, with the events of World War II. As a teenager, she bunked in government shelters and underground stations during the nightly bombing raids of the London Blitz. The death and devastation she witnessed each following morning were a traumatic experience that remained with her for life.

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Det hodeløse hjertet: En kanadisk multikulturalist møter innvandringens realiteter i Norge

Oversatt fra engelsk av Claudia Fox Reppen

I februar 2010 gikk jeg for første gang inn dørene til et sted som alle nordmenn har hørt om, men hvor få har vært: asylmottaket. Spredt over hele landet i form av nedslitte og illeluktende gamle hus flere tiår forbi sin beste alder, er mottakene de midlertidige — som betyr alt fra noen måneder til noen få år, og for en håndfull ekstremt uheldige sjeler, flere tiår — hjemmene til Norges asylsøkere.

Imellom jobber og etter et bittert brudd med mormoner troen som jeg er oppvokst i, var jeg på søken etter en frivillig aktivitet til å fylle tiden min — og kanskje også min tomme sjel. Jeg fant begge deler etter å ha lest en artikkel i lokalavisen om mottaket i hjembyen min. Lokale borgere var ganske flinke til å donere varer, men ikke deres tid, sto det. Så jeg bestemte meg for å komme i kontakt med ledelsen.

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From North America With Love: Hvordan kritiske hvithetsstudier løfter oss til nye høyder

Av Claudia Fox Reppen

Til manges store iver og forakt, har Facebook-debatten rast rundt Africa.no innlegget “For å se rasismen, må vi vite hvordan hvithet virker,” forfattet av Sandra Fylkesnes, førsteamanuensis ved OsloMet og fagekspert i blant annet postkolonialisme og kritiske hvithetsstudier. Fylkesnes gir den norske leseren et slags lynkurs i denne kritiske tilnærmingen av hvithet som har sitt opphav i utlandet og som har fått sterk fotfeste ved nord-amerikanske pedagogiske institusjoner. Hun begynner ved å fremlegge noen eksempler på hvordan hvithetens overlegenhetsideologiske rasisme kommer til uttrykk i hverdagen:

Hvithetens overlegenhetsideologiske rasisme kan komme til uttrykk via antatt sanne samfunnsdiskurser. Hvitheten kommuniserer til oss, på flere mer eller mindre synlige måter, hva det vil si å være fullgod norsk. For eksempel kommuniseres den norske hvitheten gjennom hvilke verdier og normer vi skal ha, at vi skal elske ski, brunost og friluftsliv, og selvfølgelig, at vi skal være mer eller mindre hvite. Det finnes ingen Kvikk Lunsj-reklame hvor påsketuristen er en melaninrik nordmann.

Som kanadier i Norge og hobbyentusiast for samfunnets store sosiopolitiske debatter og utvikling, er jeg storforbruker av engelskspråklige nyheter, bøker og podkaster. Her har hvithetsstudier og alt det bærer med seg vært et mye omdiskutert tema som jeg har fulgt med på de siste årene.

Men siden dette er et såpass nytt fenomen i Norge har jeg tenkt på hvordan jeg, med min kunnskap om hvordan kritiske hvithetsstudier har løftet nord-amerikanske samfunn til nye høyder, kan hjelpe nordmenn å se potensialet med det samme her i landet. Så her er mitt lille bidrag til å hjelpe deg, kjære nordmann, å forstå hvordan kritiske hvithetsstudier kan løfte deg til nye høyder på samme måten som nord-amerikanere allerede har opplevd.

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The Headless Heart: A Canadian Multiculturalist Faces the Realities of Immigration in Norway

NORSK VERSJON KAN LESES HER.

By Claudia Fox Reppen

In February 2010, I first walked through the doors of a place that every Norwegian has heard of, but few have entered: the mottak – short for asylmottak, or “asylum reception centre.” Spread throughout the country, these often run-down, dirty and smelly old buildings decades past their prime serve as the temporary — meaning anywhere from a few months to a few years, and for a handful of extremely unfortunate souls, decades — home to Norway’s asylum seekers.

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