The Flying Duddridges of Hanley

This book uses Hanley, Saskatchewan, Canada as a focal point, but hundreds of small Canadian communities can tell similar stories.

There is something very unique that develops as this story is told. Brothers Lew and Len Duddridge join the Air Force at different times, but by the strangest of coincidences, are posted to the Initial Training School in Saskatoon, and on the same course; they graduate together, and are chosen as pilots, then posted to an RCAF station in Prince Albert to learn to fly the Tiger Moth. Once more they are successful and are posted to Dauphin, Manitoba, to fly the twin-engine Cessna Crane.

At Dauphin they earn their wings and their mother is invited to come to the “Wings Parade”. Pomp and ceremony dominate the day, and their mom becomes one of the first Canadian mothers to pin the wings on two sons at the same Wings Parade.

Pilots are in short supply, and they are posted to Great Britain, but are granted two weeks embarkation leave. – Hanley and Great Britain – here we come!

Why is this book different from other autobiographies? Len and I were farm boys, it is 1940, we had on rare occasions watched an antiquated biplane following the CNR tracks to Regina. There was a lot of excitement, but very little knowledge about aircraft, and suddenly Len and I were flying! How could that be? This book takes you into the hardships of flying from places that had not been flown from before.

Suddenly, war became the mother of invention and we were forced to match wits with the Germans. Thelmer Stranden, another farm boy from Hanley, was repairing a Rolls-Royce engine from Len’s Spitfire in the swirling North African sand.

As you read on. You get a feel of what it was like to make your first solo flight in the famous Spitfire aircraft. You also learn what it’s like to crash-land a burning Spitfire after a German FW190 fighter damages your engine and propeller.

I am fully qualified to tell this story. I flew on a regular basis for 65 years, and my total flying hours are touching on 10,000 hours.

What was driving men and women to do what has been written? Brother Len told me about the conditions the mechanics often worked under as they serviced his Spitfire in North Africa. When he flew on some North African Missions, he knew that if he came down in the North African sand, there was little or no chance of survival, if he brought his aircraft down and he was still capable of walking, where would he walk to ? And how far would he get in the heat of the drifting sand? It was war, and he was under unbelievable conditions, but he made it through two lengthy assignments to each of the three areas:
Malta, Italy, and North Africa.

I marvel at the stress that Len must have been under. – Certainly, my Lancaster bombing trips could run up to eight hours flying time, but I had six crew members with me. A Spitfire, at 400 miles per hour is going to be a long way off the target, if it is only off the proper heading by three degrees, and there is no one but Len to notice the error.

This book will tell of the impact that the Royal Canadian Air Force had in WW II, on small community Canada. You will learn that 100 aircrew training bases were built across Canada. The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, which was designed in Britain, and developed in Canada, became one of the finest, most effective flying training schemes the world had ever seen, and they trained pilots and other aircrew from every allied country.

There is, of course, more to this story than war and wartime flying. Len lays his story wide open when he recites what his doctor said about his twitch, and the day he kissed the ground.

My flying just doesn’t stop; I flew and crop dusted with a helicopter. My war bride wife, Hilda, and I sold our business and returned to the RCAF. The Korean War was on, and Canadian flying instructors were needed to bring NATO students up to the flying standard required.I became a very qualified instructor.

My next move is back to business in Hanley, but the flying never ceases.
Over the years, we make 49 trips through the Canadian Rockies. I tell of a solo trip that I made through these mountains. Maybe the best of all came when Hilda and I flew our single-engine Cessna down the Pacific coast of the U.S. and into Mexico and Belize. The icing on the cake came when we flew through Guatemala and on to Guatemala City. The return was by the Atlantic coast to Yarmouth Nova Scotia.

Yarmouth became a stopover for Hilda and I, because in late June of 1945, my squadron of Lancasters flew from England to Yarmouth to train and prepare for the final phase of the war against the Japanese.

After visiting P.E.I. and other places along the way, we returned on a route that found us touching down in every province except for Newfoundland. So it was that “the trip of a lifetime” came to an end.

It was months before I learned of brother Len’s most dangerous assignment. He was to get his Spitfire to Malta. The situation was desperate there. Avoid conflict with ME109s – He had very little carrier experience. Guarded by several destroyers, the carrier with its 31 Spitfires sailed for Malta.

On June 3rd 1943 the carrier reached a point north of Algiers from which Len and the other pilots could fly to Malta in about 3 hours.

Len revved his Spitfire’s engine. He pushed the throttle fully forward to have maximum power. Then the ground crew pulled away the wood chocks, and the Spitfire rolled along the short deck then dropped down when it left the carrier. Len was now dangerously close to the sea, but he pulled up into the bright, sunny sky.
One of his colleagues was not so fortunate. The 109s shot him down. The Germans also shot down three other Spitfires flying to Malta that day. Of the 31 Spitfires that left the Eagle, only 27 landed on the island.

When Len arrived at the Takali airbase in the middle of Malta, he realized how desperately the RAF needed the Spitfire he had just flown. Another pilot was already waiting to take off.

Malta, the largest island in the Maltese archipelago, was under siege. The entire archipelago is only 316 square kilometers. During WWII, however, Malta had a strategic importance far greater than its size. Located between Italy and North Africa, Malta was a fortress that we desperately wanted to keep and with luck the Royal Air Force would do just that.

The Allies were advancing toward British positions in Egypt. For the Allies, losing Malta would have meant losing the Mediterranean.

Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy fully understood the importance of Malta. Planes from both countries bombed the island relentlessly. They also attacked British ships sailing for the island. As a result, the British navy sometimes used submarines to bring in supplies.

The Allied forces were short of food, fuel, guns and ammunition. On some occasions, the Royal Air Force had no fighter aircraft ready to fly. The island was short of everything needed to win a war, except for spirit and determination.

Lew and Len certainly had their share of pressure and stress, but they were the fortunate ones, and lived to tell their story. This Autobiography may give you plenty of reasons to do what you can to help see that there is never another world war.