Grostenquin France

Leapfrog II – 1952

This detail Courtesy of Larry Milberry and The Canadair Sabre – It was clear by then (1951) that single engine jet fighters could be flown across the Atlantic. Logistically it was quite straight-forward, using the famous wartime route from Goose Bay to Bluie West I, Keflavik, and Kinross or Prestwick. Tactically, this made more sense as, weather permitting, there was little to interfere with a fast crossing - two or three days even. In time of emergency, this was a vital consideration. Shipping aircraft across took weeks of preparation (cocooning, loading, etc.) and perhaps two weeks at sea and offloading. Thus, after experimencing the seaborne operation, the RCAF switched to direct overflights, calling these operations "Leapfrog".

For each of the Leapfrog departures there was a grand send-off, focusing, in true fighter pilot tradition, on the bar in the Mess. One sometimes wonders how, within a day or so, everyone was "ready" for the 3500 mile trip across the pond. As if the rigours of the trip weren't bad enough, more than a few Swordsmen must have strapped on their jets to a pounding in their skulls caused by over-indulgence the night before".

No. 427 Squadron helped send off 421 on Leapfrog II. A September 23, 1952, diary remark described plans to assist in the festivities: "A small wooden row boat was decided upon as a presentation to 421 (F) for those pilots who would be forced to bail out over the water".

S/L JW "Jim" Fiander participated in Leapfrog II, being a flight commander at the time. He had joined the RCAF in 1940, training at St. Catherines and Dunnville, then going on Hurricanes and Spitfires with 401 Squadron, and later instructing at Uplands. He stayed on in ground jobs after the war, but in August 1951 got back on flying at Chatham, making his first Sabre flight on February 2, 1952 (19223). He soon joined 430 Squadron at North Bay and on Leapfrog II took 19238 across the pond.

F/L Fred Evans, a wartime fighter pilot, first flew the Sabre on January 29, 1952, at 421 Squadron, St. Hubert. He relates some memories of his early years and Leapfrog II: "When 421 returned from England in 1951, I stayed behind briefly to complete the Day Fighter Leader Course with the RAF, then rejoined 421 at St. Hubert. I read the "book" quickly, and when the first Sabre came aboard I grabbed it. All was routine at St. Hubert until we started getting ready for Leapfrog II. Pretty well everything has been written about that, except about the "clean-up" flight. Sixty Sabres don't leave point A and arrive at point F at the same time without a great deal of planning. I was appointed clean-up flight commander, and would stay behind with anyone who couln't get off for one reason or other. All went well until point C, Bluie West 1, where we all arrived together on September 30, 1952.Most went on to Prestwick the same day."

"Life at BW-1 was a bitch for a whole week. Just when we got the unserviceable aircraft fixed, the weather closed in. Every morning we were up for a briefing. Our clothes were getting a bit high, but we were afraid to launder them in case we were cleared to go and they were still not dry. We finally got into Keflavik on October 8, left the next day for Prestwick, but had to turn back because of an unserviceable bird. We made it the same day, took two days off to clean up and rest, had a beer or two, then on to Grostenquin on October 11."

Comments by Bob Hallowell – Yup. I was there. The three squadrons were 416 Squadron, OC S/L John McKay, based in Uplands; 421 Squadron, OC S/L Bob Middlemiss, based in St. Hubert; and 430 Squadron, OC S/L "Pappy" Gibbs. The overall boss was Wing Commander Stocky Edwards. We gathered in Uplands on September 23^rd, 1952 for an official farewell from Brook Claxton, MND. 421 and 430 Squadrons returned to their home bases with suitable beat-ups on arrival. Each squadron departed from their own base on 28 September, 1952. I believe 430 Squadron staged through Bagotville. The rest is from my personal log book. By the way, the operation came under Transport Command, with Cam Mussells as overall commander. My log book shows the following detail for aircraft 19294:

Other than the weather delay in Bluie, the only other glitch I recall was that two aircraft from 416 Squadron landed at 1 Wing, North Luffenham, as a safety precaution. I do not know what the problem was. Our own squadron ground crews were leap-frogged ahead of us to see us off and meet us using Transport Command North Stars. i.e. the crew who saw us off in Goose leap-frogged to Keflavik etc. All flying was completed during daylight hours and this was severely restricted by north Atlantic weather. To the best of my knowledge, there were no problems (hangovers excepted.) There was an NDB at Grostenquin (GT 302 kcs), GCA and manual DF. (KD Macdonald, a friend living here, was an LAC in flying control at the time.) The guys on the other side of the curtain kept trying to spoof our beacon etc. There were no problems on arrival at Grostenquin – as you can see, that was the shortest leg of the flight. Europe is small.

The station was not ready. None of the hangars were finished. There was one combined mess. There were no recreational facilities nor much of the ground support required for the birds. During that winter we ferried our birds to North Luffenham for gunsight set-up and various other maintenance. I believe most of the Station personnel were there well ahead of our arrival, and our own ground crews arrived via North Star. With very little flying initially it was an interesting winter – I first flew again on November 2, and only flew 12 more times during the balance of 1952.

Comments by Des Peters - All three squadrons which had been designated for service at 2 Wing Grostenquin France were assembled at Uplands for a formal inspection by the CAS, Air Marshall Curtis, and the MND, Brook Claxton on 23 September 1952.

The actual Leapfrog started on 28 September with the squadrons departing from their respective home bases: 421 Squadron from St. Hubert, 416 Squadron from Uplands, and 430 Squadron from North Bay. The initial route was home base direct to Goose Bay with sections of four aircraft arriving over the beacon at five minute intervals. My flight time for this leg was 1 hour and 50 minutes. I flew as #3 on this leg, but on descent in heavy cloud the leader misread his altimeter by 10,000 feet and suddenly pulled back on his stick as we descended through approximately 12,000 feet. The rest of us could not match his manoeuvre and the formation broke up in cloud. We climbed individually to on-top at 20,000 feet, and had to get down individually since we did not have time to reform. The next section was five minutes behind and the Mark 2 Sabre was quite short on fuel with that flight time. I landed with 300 pounds of fuel remaining.

The Wing then flew to Narsarssuack (Bluie West 1), in Greenland, on 30 September with a flight time of 1 hour and 45 minutes. 416 and 430 Squadrons flew to Kevlavik a day or two later, but 421 Squadron was delayed at Bluie West 1 due to weather.

We were issued with one-piece rubber suits (called poopy suits) for the overwater legs, presumably to keep one alive a few minutes longer in the event of a bailout over the ocean. They were very tight at the ankle, wrists and throat, hot and uncomfortable. Midway, roughly, between Goose Bay and Bluie, and Bluie and Keflavik, a weather ship was on station with an NDB which we used to home in on. Ostensibly, it was a rescue ship also.

421 Squadron eventually left Bluie West 1 on 8 October for Keflavik Iceland with a flight time of 1 hour and 30 minutes.

We left Keflavik for Prestwick on the 9th October with a flight time of 1 hour and 50 minutes and we met up with the other two squadrons.

On October 11th, the Wing flew to Grostenquin with 421 Squadron landing last - again with five minutes between sections. The weather was good and we let-down en-route. One aircraft from 430 Squadron landed at North Luffenham due to engine problems, but everyone else arrived safely in Grostenquin.

Maintenance was carried out at each airfield along the route by a limited number of squadron personnel. All of the flying was carried out in daylight conditions. Grostenquin did not have any GCA at the time of our arrival so we made use of an NDB (GT 302 Kcs).

On arrival, we found that the hangars were still being constructed with one almost finished. There were just a few groundcrew in 2 Wing for the arrival of the Sabre aircraft to help with parking. Fuel was extremely limited, consequently my first flight was on November 20 when I led a section of four aircraft to North Luffenham to get the guns aligned. Accommodation at GT was very poor with six officers sleeping in a small room with triple bunks. The only heat in the barracks was courtesy of a Herman Nelson blowing very dry air. Food in the Mess was due to the generosity of the American Forces. There were no showers available on the station for close to three months so everyone volunteered to fly to North Luffenham.

Despite the poor conditions on the station with mud everywhere and limited services of any kind, morale of all ranks was very high.

Comments by Fred Rudy – As I was the last pilot to join 416 Squadron, I did not participate in the Leapfrog II. There were only 23 aircraft if memory serves me right and 25 pilots per Squadron. Another pilot and myself were each put in charge of a North Star carrying ground personnel to 2 Wing and we arrived at HMCS Grostenquin prior to the Sabres.