This letter, written on Oct. 14, 1945 (just after the end of the Second World War), gives an account of Flying Officer DeVoe Woolf’s final flight. Lloyd ‘Curly’ Woolf met with Ken Mason, the sole survivor from his older brother’s seven-man Halifax bomber crew.
DeVoe Woolf’s bomber was shot down over Belgium on Dec. 26, 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge (December 1944 to January 1945). According to CanadianFallen.ca, Woolf is interred at Hotton War Cemetery in Belgium.
Because the letter was written after the war, Lloyd Woolf was able to pass on Mason’s detailed account of DeVoe’s final mission without being censored.
The Woolfs were from Hillspring, Alta., but DeVoe and Curly’s niece, Arlene Dyer, now lives in Prince George.
Dear Dad, Verna and all,
I sure wish you could have met Kenneth Mason, here like I did. What he said would have made you really proud!
When I was with Lynn I got the address of one of the boys of DeVoe’s (squadron) and asked him to get the addresses of all the boys in his crew. When Mable told me Ken Mason was the survivor I looked up his address. It was at Chippawa, Ontario. I have been asking about it or had been with no results, but the other day when waiting at a bus station I heard it called out. So I looked it up and phoned. His mother was the one to answer the phone. She said Kenneth had married the day before and was in Toronto, and that she’d tell him I phoned and I gave her my address. He came up to see me and I was with him for about four hours.
He’s a swell kid, and when he speaks of DeVoe he just seems to be talking of his perfect ideal – and not without cause either I guess.
He said, “Once we were going (down) the Ruhr at about 23,000 (feet) and were attacked by two ‘squirt’ jobs. He said DeVoe was quite a big fellow, had grown a lot in England, said he kept in good shape playing ball and everything. He called him D.V. He said, “D.V. threw that Halifax around like it was a tiger, and in the middle of some steep turn a burst of flak hit near and turned us over and in a spin, going straight down.” He said DeVoe just braced and about broke the controls off, but it kept right on going down. At last D.V. said, “Get ready to get out,” but he kept right on trying to recover, all the time going down at near 350 to 400 miles per hour. Every few seconds he’d say, “Get ready” and at last they suddenly heard “Okay, I’ve got it.” And they were below 1,700 ft. when he finally pulled out.
Another time he said they had 265 holes in the aircraft – no one hurt, but flak had knocked out the windshield right in front of D.V.’s face. He said DeVoe had never said a word – probably missed a chew on his gun – just right on like nothing had happened – didn’t even tell the crew.
Kenneth said DeVoe was the “gen” man of the (squadron). He said they all, even the commanding officer, took his word as final.
If they were going on a raid, DeVoe “briefed” the whole (squadron) even if the C.O. was there. He’d tell them what to look for, (where) the target was, how to get through the defence area, etc. And when they had been out on a raid the C.O. would wait for D.V. to come in, then he’d rush to him, slap him on the back and get his story – and his story was the official story. If he said the “The flak was moderate,” then it was moderate, no matter who said anything else.
Ken said, “D.V. used to keep us in our places – made us daily inspect our guns, do link training and keep in shape.
He said DeVoe had to do a belly landing or two too and had done perfect ones every time. Once he landed through a fog with no beam or any aids and made a perfect landing.
His navigator was good too and the bomb aimer bet some big shots that he could hit more accurately by applying his own winds on (the) bomb-sight, and he went up and proved it. More than once they were the only crew to hit a hard target out of the whole squadron.
On his last flight, Dec. 26, they were suddenly hit on the nose of the aircraft. Three were killed outright. Ken ran up to the front of the aircraft to see if D.V. was OK. He wasn’t. He was hit very badly in the chest and body and could only live a few minutes at most, but wasn’t in pain at all – he was numb. Ken said, “I’ll hold it. You get out.” But DeVoe said as calm as
anything, “No. I’m alright. You jump.“ Ken then went back and jumped and DeVoe followed, but Ken said he knew DeVoe was dead the second he hit the chute, because he was near.
The Germans opened the flak guns on them as they came down and Ken thinks he was the only one to get down alive. He says he knows DeVoe didn’t suffer and he knows he was dead when he landed, but he tried to find his body for four days – then he had to give up to search for food.
He tried to get through the lines but was caught and taken prisoner.
He had pneumonia seven times, was beaten, and worked hard 16-18 (hours) a day. He’s a great kid.
He said DeVoe surely had a lot of admirers. (Women’s Auxilery Air Force members) used to try to get him to dance with them – with no success. So they used to say to the other boys of his crew “Say, get me a date with that captain of yours.” But DeVoe wasn’t interested in anything but “Ops” and getting ready to go again. He said the ground crew really worshipped him too.
I may go down to Niagara to see Ken again. He invited me down and it’s only 90-100 miles and I’ll have a 48 (hour leave) in two weeks.
Curly
