Version: 09May28 08:00
Bookmark; you may have been redirected here from pkc.uptimedata.com if you clicked through from youTube or Google Earth. And if you did I probably want to hear from you!
Below is a chronology of salient points in the military career of my dad, Pierre Risso Carpenter. A summary1 of his military service:
I have bracketed some [mysteries]. As each gets answered, another pops up! He was, in fact, a mystery to me and I'm driven to fill out his saga. This website is simply a tool to organize the remembrances of others and the spotty record into a synergistic document.
- a clickable link that will open the Google Maps website at
that geographic location.
Uncountable thanks in advance to all who can shed some light. Any memories, photos, records, references, hints, or new questions would be appreciated.
P. Kevin Carpenter, 713-852-7832, kevinc@uptimedata.com
Father: Walter Wright Carpenter
Mother: Helene Antoinette Lucrese Risso, originally of Nice, France
The family moved often. 3 younger siblings were born in Los Angeles and Jackson, MS. Eventually the family settled in Houston.
1930 - after abandonment by father Walter, mother Helene returned to Nice via Guadalajara and Le Havre with her 4 children.
19Sep1932 - a ref from Time Magazine:
01Aug1941 - enlisted at Windsor, Ontario. His initial service number was2 R/109913.
03Aug1941 -
No. 2 Manning Depot (boot camp)
,
Brandon, Manitoba.
20Dec1941 - graduated
No. 2 Initial Training School (ground school)
at Regina, Saskatchewan, having trained with M (All American) Flight.
Pearl Harbor had just occurred and the U.S. was now in the war.
PRC is 4th row, far right3. All of these grads now have a white flash on the cap,
denoting selection for aircrew training2. At least 4 were eventually KIA, after repatriation into
the USAAF2.
14Mar1942 - graduated
No.19 Elementary Flying Training School
at Virden, Manitoba. Aircraft used include the de Havilland Tiger Moth and Fairchild Cornell.
By this time he would have been selected by aptitude and recommendation for fighter duty.
May1942 - many American pilots repatriated to the USAAF en masse, gathered onto a trans-Canadian train. Many trainees, apparently including PRC, chose not to in order to avoid repeating boot camp and initial flight training in the U.S.2.
03Jul1942 - graduated
No.2 Service Flying Training School
at Uplands (Ottawa), Ontario, flying
Harvards3:
04Jul1942 graduation shot4, my dad right under the
Harvard prop hub:
,
Nova Scotia, flying
Hurricanes2
for coastal defense. Promoted to Flight Sergeant.
Beer in the barracks3:
Jan1943, with a Hurricane4:
Late 19424:
1943, friends on a Hurricane4:
10Jul1943 - at
Personnel Receiving Centre, Bournemouth
on the southernmost coast.
My dad was in England only 4-1/2 months. At some point, probably during these 3 weeks in Bournemouth, he conceived a boy by a local woman. He would have been born after my dad was shot down. She sent a letter and a picture to mother Helene, which do not survive. Being already betrothed to my mother, my dad would not have given her the address. She had to have gotten it from the RAF/RCAF. Family legend has it that she was actually from Bournemouth. My half-brother would be 63-64 now, having never known his father. [If I can find him, or his descendants, I will go to England and see their faces. This is the central mystery.]
03Aug1943 - promoted to Warrant Officer, 2nd Class and arrives
No. 416
Squadron at
Digby
(also
alt link)
to fly
Spitfires.
The squadron moved to Merston 09Aug, Wellingore 19Sep, then back to Digby 02Oct.
25Nov1943 - shot down on Thanksgiving2, a combat career of only 3 months and 3 weeks:
.
He was flying
Spitfire AB 284.
The date of the shoot-down in this reference is wrong. The place is listed as Goes
,
on the Oosterschelde shore.
In 1982 my dad shared the experience with a professional colleague, who related it to me recently. He and Dubnick spotted some ME 109s on the ground and strafed them without incident. When they went back for a second pass the Germans were ready. A 50-caliber round knocked my dad out of the sky, and he plowed into a field.
We will never know the horror he surely felt. He had remarkable hidden scars on his left hip, divots suffered when shot down, and bits of shrapnel would erupt from his skin for years afterward. He wouldn't talk about it, at least not with small boys.
at Oerbke, Germany.
03Dec1943 - first Kreigsgefangenpost Postkarte5 to my mother:
.
His POW#: 14642.
This and other POW mail took months to post to Houston, arriving after the
later Red Cross notifications below.
08Jan1944 - Globe and Mail newspaper reference to MIA status.
25Feb1944 - RCAF telegram7 to mother Helene notifying her that the International Red Cross quotes German sources, "your son..... is prisoner of war". That's 3 months of not knowing for his family.
09Mar1944 - Globe and Mail newspaper reference to POW status.
04Apr1944 - earliest letter5 marked Stalag Luft 3, where the Great Escape had just occurred. Family legend has it that he escaped several times. The only statement I ever heard my dad say about POW camp was, "I ate a dalmatian once. It was delicious." D-Day was during this period, 06Jun.
03Jan1945 - commissioned F/O (Flying Officer) while imprisoned, and receives new service number J96008, although he doesn't know it.
08Jan1945 - last postkarte5 from Stalag Luft 3,
27Jan1945 - the forced March, taking many days by foot and train
through a bitter winter, to
Stalag VIIA at Moosburg
,
just north of Munich. There are no letters from this period.
08May1945 - V-E Day celebrations broke out while he was in Chichester.
15May1945 - sails for Canada. [Halifax?]
06Jun1945 - marries my mother in Houston. Two months from escape to repatriation, return, and marriage. What a jolt!
06Jul1945 - returns to Canada at St. Huberts, QE for 2-1/2 months of surgery and rehab. During this time nuclear weapons were dropped on Japan, and the war was over.
18Sep1945 - discharged from the RCAF; 4+ years of military service.
11Jan1947 - "mention in despatches"7, "In recognition of service while prisoner of war", referenced in the London Gazette2.
2. Many facts are from the research of Wally Fydenchuk, the author of Immigrants of War. He has also shared many facts not referenced here in order to guide my search. I am deeply indebted to him.
3. Pic courtesy Helen Elsom and Julian Carpenter, my dad's surviving siblings.
4. Pic courtesy Maurine Carpenter, my mother.
5. From a priceless trove of letters home from my dad to my mother. She saved every one, in the original envelope with postage and censor marks, dated and in order.
6. P. 95 of Line Shoot: Diary of a Fighter Pilot, by Arthur Sager, an excellent autobiography. Arthur Sager had a long career as a fighter pilot and was in No. 416 Squadron both before and after my dad.
7. From the "genealogy package" on my dad's RCAF career, provided by Library and Archives Canada.
