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Progress Report No.38
May 27, 2011
Registered Charity 84586 5740
RR0001
As a new era in
the adventures of Halifax 57 Rescue (Canada) begins, I ask you to look above
at the young faces of the warriors standing in front of their sword of
Freedom and their steed in combat, their beloved Halifax.
Their average age was only 22 years when they volunteered to fight in Bomber
Command, some as young as 18. The chances of them surviving a combat tour
was only 1 in 4, with over 70% of them being either killed-in-action, killed
or injured in training, or the lucky ones - becoming prisoners of war!
The Bomber Command loss rate is the greatest military loss rate of all the
Allied forces which fought in World War Two.
And for the past 66 years your families and nation have enjoyed Freedom
because of their sacrifice and effort in Bomber Command. For over 4 years
(from 1941-1944), the only force able to strike back against the Nazis in
Germany and withstand their drive to conquer our free world were these young
airmen, the finest of our fathers’ generation.
As the Bomber Command Memorial in London,UK is being built, with dedication
ceremonies planned in May of 2012, we ask you to think of the great
sacrifice of the 55,000 aircrew of Bomber Command killed-in action (of which
over 10,000 are Canadians).
We also ask you to come to visit us this season at the home of the Bomber
Command Museum of Canada in Nanton, Alberta with our national “Memorial
Wall” where the 10,000+ Canadians of Bomber Command are given final tribute
for their efforts and sacrifice in preserving our Freedom and our way of
life.
See www.bombercommandmuseum.ca
for all the exciting events we have planned for 2011. Our next event is on
June 4 during “Planes, Trains, and Elevators” celebrations.
Meanwhile, Halifax 57 Rescue (Canada) will continue to search the globe to
find that special aircraft, the Halifax, which symbolizes the greatest
effort of our Canadian airmen in Bomber Command and bring her home to our
Lancaster in Nanton.
While our ultimate prize is RCAF Halifax LW170 from the deep, we will not
turn our search away from our other projects to bring a Halifax to the
Bomber Command Museum of Canada. Read on below as the exciting stories of
Halifax treasures being reclaimed so that tribute may be paid to these young
warriors of Bomber Command.
When we have both the Hallie and the Lanc together in Nanton then we will
truly be able to tell the complete and great story of those young aircrews
of Bomber Command who gave everything they had to protect us and keep us
free.
Press on regardless…
On to Business – These are the Hali-facts:
Big things are
happening on all fronts for Halifax 57 Rescue over the next 4 weeks.
The all important Halifax/Hastings shipment of parts is in the final stages
of preparation for shipment by container to the port of Montreal. See below
some of the gear doors and trailing-edge wing sections which were
laboriously removed from the wing sections so that all sections would fit in
the shipping container.
Many hours of hard work was done by our friends Mario, Justin, and George to
get the wing sections to fit in the container, with just 4 inches to spare!
Thousands of dollars have gone into the preparation
for these parts to come to Canada.
As your Project
Manager I will be over seeing final container loading and we hope this will
be completed by June 10 with the parts arriving in Montreal 4 to 6 weeks
later. The cost to ship the container will be
($12,500.) !
This will be the largest expense this year in order to get our treasure
home. BUT this is not all we must pay for and the items I wish to tell you
about now are critical to BEGINNING our Halifax Project when the parts reach
our shores.
I am very pleased to announce that Halifax 57 Rescue (Canada) and SPRUNG
Instant Structures Ltd. in Alberta, world leaders in building aluminum-beam
buildings, have reached an agreement to manufacture brand new Halifax main
spar cap beams. The crucial replacement of those main spars is required as
the originals were cut by torches when our wing sections were placed in the
scrapyard in the 1960’s. This must surely be the first time that the main
spars of a British heavy bomber will be new-built from scratch. Our thanks
to Sprung Structures and the Sprung family, under the blessing and direction
of Sprung V.P. Jim Avery. Special thanks to Luke Pollio for all his work
with the Halifax wing spar blueprints and arranging for the manufacture of
these precious main spar components for the start of our Halifax
center-section rebuild.
As most of you know we were able to save (2) Hasting/Halifax center-sections
including 2 sets of main landing gears for these wings = 4 main landing
gears. In anticipation of some progressive museum in the world wishing to
start their own Halifax project we will be ordering 2 sets of main spars for
these 2 wings! We will use one set of spars and rebuild our own
center-section and will save the other set for the time when another museum
or collector would see the light and importance of beginning their own
Halifax. Where are you, my French or Australian Halifax brothers??
The cost to Halifax 57 Rescue (Canada) to cover the
alloy materials and tooling for the mains spar caps is just under $9,000.
and we do NOT have the final funds (based on present rate of
donations/contributions to the end of May 2011) for the acquiring of these
rare main spar caps. We do have faith that those who read this report will
come through for us with financial support we urgently need. Please read on
for the bigger picture, before you ask yourself what you could do to help us
financially.
Further to this, thanks to the National Air Force Museum of Canada and
Director Chris Colton in Trenton, we have received the loan of a Halifax
propeller blade mold that they used to replicate composite material prop
blades for their Halifax NA337. These blades are so rare that this is the
only economical and logical replacement for Halifax blades for the Hercules-engined
MK III and MK VII Halifax.
George Rosskopf, structures engineer on the Trenton rebuild of Halifax
NA337, is now our Engineering Director for Halifax 57 Rescue. Utilizing his
skills from working in a fiberglass boat factory before becoming an aircraft
engineer, George is already making blades for our Halifax Project as you
receive this report. These blades will be on display later this summer at
the Bomber Command Museum of Canada.
The cost to replicate these 12 prop blades for our
Halifax Project will be in the order
of $4800. including all materials. We do need more funds to complete the
prop blades project and do the important acquisitions at the same time. But
you must read on to get the big picture.
As your Project Manager, I will leave no stone unturned to find every and
all artifacts and parts for the Halifax. I have just returned from a
whirlwind tour of the UK where I have been able to locate airframe, wing,
and engine parts we definitely need to further our rebuild plans into the
future. The items that we have located “do not exist” anymore but because we
have the nose for these items they have been found! When I release some of
the photos of Hali stuff found, your eyes will bug out (but not in this
report). So with our new sources of parts and our new allies in the art of
scrounging we promise great progress. For every piece we find for the
Halifax there is a cost and if you wish me, on your behalf, to gather these
goodies and get them to Canada then help from you must be forthcoming SOON.
So great demands are being asked of you, our friends and supporters, for you
see the big picture and you understand that we have a momentum which should
not be shut down by financial bottle-necks, as we approach mid-year of one
of the most exciting years since we began our Halifax quest some 6 years
ago. I ask no less of you that I demand of myself, for I wake up every
morning and ask what can I do to make this Halifax Project become everything
we want it to be!
These, my friends, are YOUR tools for OUR success.
1) Donate funds to Halifax 57 Rescue (Canada) via the post – see our 2
addresses available at the end of this report
2) Try our NEW PAYPAL internet payment method
for all who have purchased
or contributed online (via your PAYPAL account) to our worthy and honourable
charity. Go to our website
www.57rescuecanada.com and see the golden “DONATE” button which
immediately donates these funds to our cause from anywhere in the world (if
you have a PAYPAL account!)
3) Donate your unused stocks, bonds, and securities to our Halifax 57 Rescue
-
Royal Bank Discount Brokerage account and receive a “full market value” tax
receipt credit for the donation of these securities. You will not have to
pay income tax on the profit portion side of this transfer and donation. You
receive full tax deductible credit for said donation. It is a win-win for
all concerned.
4) Purchase a beautiful limited-edition signed print of our Halifax LW170
“INVINCIBLE ITEM” for ($165.00 including postage) or an unsigned print for
($60.00 including postage). This has to be one of the best prints of a
combat Halifax that has ever been produced. We still have half of the 500
signed prints available to all you Halifax fans. See
www.57rescuecanada.com for all
print info.
And if you think in all of this great excitement about our parts and
beginnings of a Halifax rebuild in Canada we have forgotten about our
ultimate prize, RCAF Halifax LW170 in the Irish deep – the rarest combat
bomber in Canadian aviation history, think again!
I have been in contact with a company these past 4 weeks who have deep sea
sonar contracts this summer near the Halifax LW170, with the highest
technology available which can find LW170 for us. We await word on approval
for them to help us find our LW170 and we hope to have more good news on
this in the coming weeks.
Remember, we now have the start and foundation of not just one but actually
2 new Halifax projects for Canada and we have found many good parts to build
up our project as well as a very good opportunity for locating our ultimate
treasure, LW170, in the deep.
We are actively searching for more corporate sponsors like our good friends
and allies of Sprung Instant Structures Ltd., Canadian Pacific Railway, and
Mullen Trucking. These progressive companies are truly interested in saving
our history and heritage. We thank them for their cooperation and support.
And now it is your turn to do the same for Halifax 57 Rescue. Help us now.
Help us again. Help us for the first time.
You have been told of several ways to contribute. We would love to hear from
you in this regard.
This aircraft, the Halifax, and this project are truly unique. I keenly hope
you can see the historic potential and significance. This project has become
the ultimate adventure and tribute to the huge contribution and sacrifice of
our Allied aircrew of Bomber Command.
As you look below at another fine photo of our young warriors with their
“Sword of Freedom” I hope that you will agree we must not fail them in this
tribute, as they did not fail us when they flew to Victory and Freedom some
60 years ago.
And remember,
WE LEAVE NO HALIFAX BEHIND
Sincerely,
Karl Kjarsgaard
Project Manager
Halifax 57 Rescue (Canada)
Registered Charity :
84586 5740 RR 0001
Halifax 57 Rescue
(Canada) Halifax 57 Rescue (Canada)
P.O. Box
606 Unit 31C – 174 Colonnade
Road
Nanton,
AB Ottawa, ON
T0L
1R0 K2E 7J5
Phone 403 - 603 -
8592 Phone 613 – 863 – 1942
Or 613 – 226 – 4884
www.57rescuecanada.com
email:
57rescuecanada@rogers.com
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