Robert Anthony Pitt

Flight Sergeant Tony Pitt

Royal Canadian Air Force Wireless Operator / Air Gunner Second World War

Tony Pitt was born in Hove, Sussex, England, in 1925, but his life quickly became tied to Canada. His father came to Canada in 1927 and worked in the CNR hotel system, serving at Jasper Park Lodge and later in other major railway hotels across the country. Tony and his mother followed in 1929, beginning a childhood marked by movement through Port Arthur, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, and finally Halifax, Nova Scotia.

As a young boy, Tony was sent back to England for part of his education, travelling alone across the Atlantic at about seven years of age under a CPR steamship arrangement. He later recalled that the fare was only about fifty dollars, with an extra pound paid to the stewardess to keep an eye on him. These crossings continued until 1935, after which he resumed schooling in Ottawa. His father, then Resident Manager of the Château Laurier Hotel, wanted Tony to receive a bilingual education and sent him to Académie de la Salle. Tony remembered the experience with humour, saying he learned to swear in French, play hockey, and fight in self-defence — but not French.

One of Tony’s vivid childhood memories was being driven to school on occasion by Prime Minister R. B. Bennett, who was then a permanent guest at the Château Laurier. In 1936, the Pitt family moved to Halifax, where his father became Resident Manager of the Nova Scotian Hotel. Halifax, with its harbour, military presence, and wartime atmosphere, became Tony’s home as the world moved toward war. In 1939, the family had the honour of meeting King George VI and Queen Elizabeth during their visit to Halifax, when they stayed at the Nova Scotian Hotel.

Tony’s father had always regretted being too young to serve in the First World War. When the Second World War came, he volunteered immediately, was accepted in late 1940, trained with the Army, and went overseas in 1941. With his father away and the family no longer living in hotel quarters, Tony went to work at only fifteen years of age.

In June 1943, Tony persuaded his mother to allow him to join the Royal Canadian Air Force. He was sent to the Eastern Manning Depot at Lachine, Quebec. His military career began inauspiciously when, upon arrival, he was diagnosed with chicken pox and sent to an infectious disease hospital in Verdun for two weeks. Several others who had travelled with him on the train also came down with the illness.

Like many young aircrew trainees, Tony had hoped to become a fighter pilot. Instead, the RCAF needed air gunners and wireless air gunners, and he was selected for that stream. He was sent to Queen’s University in Kingston for a pre-aircrew education course, intended to improve mathematics before technical training. From there, he went to No. 4 Wireless School at Guelph, followed by flight training at St. Catharines, Ontario, where he flew in Tiger Moths and Yales. He then trained at No. 4 Bombing and Gunnery School at Fingal, Ontario, flying in Bolingbrokes. A planned posting to Ancienne Lorette, near Quebec City, to train as a wireless-navigator on Mosquito aircraft was cancelled.

After receiving his wings, Tony and a small group were posted to No. 111 Operational Training Unit in Nassau, Bahamas. They travelled by train from Lachine to Miami and then by boat to Nassau. For many of the young Canadians, it was their first real exposure to an RAF-style unit, where officers and enlisted men lived in very different conditions. Tony trained first on B-25 Mitchells, then converted to B-24 Liberators, his crew being earmarked for service with Coastal Command.

The crew was next posted to Moncton, New Brunswick, to await overseas movement. They then travelled to Halifax and boarded the Île de France, crossing the Atlantic to Liverpool before being sent to Bournemouth. After a prolonged wait in England, Tony visited family near Angmering-on-Sea, Sussex, but the delay soon ended. The crew was ordered to London and St. John’s Wood, where they were quietly prepared for service in the Far East. They received yellow fever injections, tropical kit, Boer War-style topees, and sidearms — though no ammunition, as authorities apparently thought better of giving armed weapons to teenage airmen.

The crew was then sent to Poole, Dorset, where they boarded a Sunderland flying boat named Canopus. Their route to the Far East was a remarkable wartime journey: first to Augusta, Sicily; then Cairo, landing on the Nile; then Bahrain; and finally Karachi. From there, they spent weeks in a holding camp before travelling across India to Bombay and Calcutta. Tony remembered India as fascinating but also deeply troubling, especially the severe poverty he witnessed in Calcutta.

Eventually, Tony was posted to No. 354 Squadron at Cuttack, but little happened there for several weeks. He was then transferred to No. 203 Squadron, based at Kankasanturai, known as KKS, at the northern tip of Ceylon, near Jaffna. This became his operational home until the end of the war. Life on squadron consisted of continued training flights, detachments to Akyab off the coast of Burma, and operations from the Cocos or Keeling Islands.

Tony’s operational flying included attacks against Japanese supply vessels. On one mission off the north coast of Sumatra near Sabang, his crew attacked a small supply vessel known as a “Sugar Dog.” The aircraft made three low-level skip-bombing passes. Although the bombs missed, the crew inflicted damage with their .50-calibre machine guns. On the final pass, the Liberator was hit by light machine-gun fire in the starboard outer engine. The engine was shut down, the propeller feathered, and the aircraft broke off the attack. Unable to return to KKS, the crew flew for approximately four and a half hours on three engines and landed at China Bay, Trincomalee, the Royal Navy’s major naval and air station on the east coast of Ceylon.

In early August 1945, Tony was back at the Cocos Islands among Dutch Catalina crews, airmen whom he knew would be ready to search for and rescue them if they were forced down at sea. On August 14 or 15, they learned of Japan’s surrender. Tony and his comrades celebrated victory with their Dutch friends, marking the end of a long and dangerous journey that had begun when he was still a teenager.

Following the Japanese surrender, Canadian and other “colonial” personnel were ordered home as soon as possible. Tony returned to Bombay and eventually sailed aboard the S/S Georgic, a troopship that had previously been bombed, sunk, refloated, and returned to service. The voyage to Liverpool took three weeks, including five days delayed in the Mersey River with limited water and short rations. He later sailed home aboard the S/S Scythia, arriving in Halifax on February 9, where he was met at Pier 23 by his mother and sister.

Tony Pitt was discharged from the Royal Canadian Air Force on March 30, having completed 33 months of service. In his 1999 address to the Aircrew Association in Victoria, British Columbia, he looked back on his wartime service with modesty, humour, and affection for the men with whom he served. He emphasized that these experiences had happened when most of them were very young and that, though such stories were not always shared with family and friends, they remained powerful memories among those who had lived through them together.

Tony served as a Flight Sergeant Wireless Operator/Air Gunner in a multinational crew that included men from Canada, the United States, and Britain. His listed crew included skipper F/O Frederick Rau of Detroit, Michigan; second pilot F/O Arthur Willoughby of Hertfordshire, England; navigator F/O Scott Nelson of Vancouver, British Columbia; fellow wireless air gunner F/S Gordon Hughes of Woodstock, Ontario; nose gunner Sgt Ginger Thompson of Derby, England; tail gunner Sgt Alec Wilkinson of Manchester; flight engineer Sgt Jock Phillips of Milngavie; and wireless electrical mechanic Sgt Len Kirk of London, England.

Tony Pitt’s service was not the story of a famous ace or decorated commander, but of the young Commonwealth aircrew who trained across Canada, crossed oceans, endured long postings, and flew dangerous maritime operations in distant theatres of war. His recollections preserve the voice of a Canadian airman who served far from home, faced enemy fire over the waters of Southeast Asia, and returned with the humility and humour so often found among those who had done their duty.