Halifax 57 Rescue (Canada)
RCAF HALIFAX LW170 Recovery
(424 Squadron)
|
|
Halifax 57 Rescue (Canada)
RCAF HALIFAX LW170 Recovery (424 Squadron) |
|
|
LW170 Recovery Phase I
Progress Reports
Halifax 57 Rescue
|
Special Christmas Progress Report No.16 December 18, 2006 Registered Charity 84586 5740 RR0001 By Karl Kjarsgaard - Project Manager
A Merry Christmas to all the members and supporters of Halifax 57 Rescue (Canada) and our hopes for a healthy and prosperous New Year.
Before I begin to give a short update on the latest positive developments in our historic quest to save Halifax LW170 I wanted to direct your attention to the Christmas card from all of us to all of you during this most special time of year.
We have decided to release this never-before-seen top secret photo of a RCAF Halifax at Eastmoor, Yorkshire on Christmas Eve, 1944 showing in the upper right a most special guest departing this base after making his rounds to all the quarters of our RCAF crews.
This very unique photo was allegedly captured with a small brownie camera by one of our ground crew working on the Halifaxes who wanted a winter photo of the base and aircraft. He was most fortunate to capture this image which was submitted to Bomber Command photo analysis experts for evaluation. They identified a rotund pilot in a sleigh being pulled by several deer, later identified by a Finnish flight lieutenant on staff as reindeer.
I know that this is hard to believe that Santa could be captured on film so easily but remember that for him to make all his rounds he has to start early somewhere and Yorkshire is one of his earliest stops.
Do not ask me why as this is not part of my job description so I will leave it up to all of you to discuss the merits of such a unique photo moment of Santa while appreciating your favourite bomber aircraft, the object of all of our collective efforts, and the most famous combat aircraft in Canadian aviation history.
I did ask Santa in my letter to the North Pole if he would deliver our Halifax to us personally but he has not replied yet which is understandable with his flying schedule. I can very well understand this as I, myself, will be flying from Dec. 21 to Jan. 2 with only the 28th off so thought I should get this off to all of our supporters before my “maximum effort” sorties are launched.
To all of you during this most special season we offer our best wishes to you and your families with a healthy and happy New Year for all.
Merry Christmas !
On to business – these are the Halifacts:
We have just received our first copies of “Halifax B. Mk. III Explored”, the digital atlas and history of the Halifax bomber on CD-Rom. Take every book ever done on the Halifax to the tune of over 2000 pages, throw in hundreds of colour and black and white photographs taken of every part of the Halifax, and add some extra features like original sound tracks of start ups and flybys of the Halifax , and this is what you have all in one CD. It really is THE encyclopedia of the Halifax and it is produced by Flyingzone Publications in England.
Halifax 57 Rescue (Canada) will now be able to offer to our members and supporters copies of this great CD at the regular price of ($ 65. Canadian - including shipping) which we will be getting direct from FlyingZone Publications. This supply system will guarantee that our Canadian and American customers receive this valuable CD direct from us, one of the main Canadian suppliers. For those of you in the UK and Europe just go to the website of www.flyingzonedirect.com to order this exciting Halifax reference to add to your computer library. Well done to Bryan Atkinson at Flyingzone for his excellent work on the Halifax CD.
Please see the promo page and data on the content of the Halifax CD at the above address and then, if living in North America, order from Halifax 57 Rescue (Canada). We have initial limited supplies of the CD until the New Year as we have just set up our supply line and only the first shipment has come through to us. Please bear with us as we get these new CD’s to you in due course.
Our thanks must go out to all the members and supporters who have bought the Halifax LW170 print of “INVINCIBLE ITEM”. Over the past year since the first sales of this colourful print we have sold close to 200 copies, signed and unsigned. The Royal Canadian Legion branches have bought quite a few to mount and display in their branches across the country and we thank this respected organization for their continued support. For those of you who belong to a Legion that has NOT acquired this great Halifax print yet, please let your local Legion executive know of our print sales and how they can help our cause.
With regard to our primary mission to locate and recover LW170 from her resting place west of Scotland we have exciting news on the latest developments.
The United States Coast Guard has just sent us a complete 12 page evaluation of the drift computations of LW170 and the crew in the dinghy which are vital for the sonar survey which we hope to conduct next summer. We must use the latest in technology and computer data to locate LW170 and the U.S. Coast Guard has the very best data in the world. Thanks to Art Allen at the Coast Guard Research and Development office we now have the very best final data as to the sonar survey box. This is the vital application of the most up to date drift dynamics and scientific principles applied to our LW170 ditching of 61 years ago. As Project Manager we will leave nothing to chance in our quest to locate and recover RCAF Halifax LW170.
We have a new supporter of our project in the person of noted author and playwright in the Calgary area, Sandra Dempsey. Sandra has written a great play about the RCAF and bomber crews of World War Two. Her book is titled “Flying To Glory” which contains the exciting story of “Prairie boys taking flight in the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II.”
Not only has Sandra done this to pay tribute to our RCAF heroes but she also wants to help support the Halifax Project by donating a portion of the proceeds of “Flying to Glory” to our cause. Please check our official website soon to see the special page for the preview and promotion of “Flying to Glory”. Once again gifted Canadians of many walks of life have stepped forward to give strength and energy to our cause as we proceed on our mission to save Halifax LW170. Well done, Sandra.
One main item on the technical and scientific side is the development of communications with certain scientific groups in the UK and Europe who go out each summer to explore the deep ocean as it is our last frontier of the unknown on this planet. I have been very fortunate in the last month to come in contact with several scientists who are going out next summer to explore the area of the North Atlantic which is very near the resting place of our Halifax.
I have been able to underline to these scientific groups that not only is LW170 a historic treasure but she is also a scientific treasure as she is the ideal test bed for sedimentation and aquatic sea life experiments as LW170 has attracted these elements of the deep sea for over 60 years. I hope to meet with the leaders of these explorations groups soon (in the New Year) to discuss a joint venture this summer to fulfill their objectives and find the Halifax on sonar on one joint mission. I hope to have more for you on this in the next progress report after these first meetings with these expedition organizers.
It has been decided by the Directors of Halifax 57 Rescue (Canada) that we will now pursue, immediately in the New Year, a corporate sponsor campaign to search out a major corporate sponsor for next summer’s proposed sonar survey expedition. This will be in conjunction with, and in support of, the joint scientific/historic expedition we hope to negotiate in the coming weeks with the deep sea scientific interests in the UK.
Perhaps when you do not hear from this determined little group for a time you may think that our determination and drive to save our Halifax has waned. When you wake up each day realizing that you are free and your children are free and your grandchildren too, and you know who gave you this and they did it in that aircraft and it is out there waiting to come home ( and all it takes is money to do this) you know that we will never give up. Sooner or later the people who have the money will “acquire” the vision and intestinal fortitude to support us in our quest. We must remain resolute and keep our eyes on the target.
“Press on Regardless…”
Sincerely, Karl Kjarsgaard Project Manager 212 - 2980 Colonial Road Sarsfield, ON K0A 3E0 Halifax 57 Rescue (Canada) phone 613 835 1748 website: www.57rescuecanada.com email: 57rescuecanada@rogers.com
|
