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| Location: Home >> Museum Art Gallery >> Slide Show Painting 18 F/O St. Louis and F/O
Moonie
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Flying
operations began at Greenwood Nova Scotia in March 1942 as
No. 36 RAF Maritime Reconnaissance Operational Training Unit (OTU) but
late in 1942 it became a Mosquito OTU. Then on 1 July 1944 the station
was transferred to the RCAF and No. 36 OTU became No. 8 OTU, RCAF and
continued training crews on the Mosquito for overseas duty as
“Intruders” or for service with the Pathfinder Force. At that time
there were about 50 Mosquito aircraft on strength; 10 dual trainers for
pilot conversion with the balance MK XX bomber versions of the aircraft
produced by DeHavilland Canada. Supporting aircraft at Greenwood were
Airspeed Oxfords and the Bristol Bolingbroke, the latter used for target
towing and bombing. The upper panel of the painting shows the typical
flight line activity of a busy military training airfield of the time
with the standard hangars of the British Commonwealth Training Plan in
the background. Flying
Officer P. B. St. Louis as pilot – on the right in the painting, and
Flying Officer Griswold Moonie as navigator began their training as a
Mosquito crew at No. 8 OTU Greenwood on 7 October 1944. St. Louis was an
experienced pilot having served at RCAF Station McLeod for 18 months as
an instructor on MK II Avro Anson aircraft.
F/O Moonie was a recent graduate of a Navigator/Wireless Course,
probably at Ancienne Lorette, Quebec. Their OTU course was made up of
about 20 crews and the duration was for two months. A new course began
every two weeks and the ground school subjects included aircraft
systems, oxygen, night vision, aircraft recognition, ariel camera
operation, aircraft instruments and compasses and cross country
navigation. F/O St. Louis received three flights on dual-control
aircraft for conversion to the Mosquito with a further 34 flights with
F/O Moonie completing exercises, eleven of which were long “Intruder
type” navigation exercises as portrayed in the route map at the centre
of the painting. One of the navigation turning points, Cape Split, is
shown below Mosquito “Y” KB 179 at the right of the painting which
St. Louis & Moonie flew on two occasions. In all, they flew
approximately 60 hours with 45 by day and 15 at night. Some hours were
devoted to gunnery training with a cine camera. On completion of the OTU
on 8 December, 1944 St. Louis and Moonie proceeded overseas from the
“Y” Depot at Moncton to attend 13 OTU for further “Intruder” and
bombing and gunnery training which they completed just as the war ended
on May 8, 1945.
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Page 7.118
Rev. 31 Mar 2007
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