OTTAWA (CP) - An Air Canada pilot hopes American funding will help save his mission to recover a piece of Canada's wartime heritage.
Karl Kjarsgaard has tried to secure federal government support to recover the last remaining Second World War-era Halifax bomber from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Scotland.
Although he had no luck with the previous Liberal government, Kjarsgaard is hoping an American twist to the Halifax's story could open the doors to joint funding.
Heritage Canada has turned down a request to fund part of the expedition, but Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay's office has taken up the cause as a possible cross-border partnership.
"We're very interested in helping," said MacKay's press secretary, Andre Lemay. "We think it's quite an interesting project."
Before the United States entered the Second World War in 1941, thousands of Americans joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and most who served in the RCAF flew in the Halifax bomber.
More than 700 American names are etched into Canada's Bomber Command Memorial in Nanton, Alta. Kjarsgaard wants the downed Halifax to be housed at Nanton's adjacent air museum.
Kjarsgaard has identified dozens of American war veterans who spent most of their time with the RCAF in the sturdy but slow Halifax.
Before it was replaced by the speedier Lancaster bomber toward the end of the war, the Halifax was one of the Allies' most heavily used long-range aircraft.
When the planes were succeeded by the Lancaster, all but a handful of Halifaxes were scrapped. The remaining few were used for weather tracking and surveillance missions.
The plane Kjarsgaard thinks he's found went down on Aug. 10, 1945, while on a routine weather tracking mission off the coast of Scotland. Despite a recent engine refit, the aircraft was ditched when the engines began to sputter.
The crew was saved by a nearby cargo ship. The aircraft drifted on the high seas for hours before it sank.
Kjarsgaard estimates it will cost $320,000 to conduct a sonar sweep of the area where he believes the plane is located. Once found, he estimates it will cost $750,000 to raise the plane 1.5 kilometres to the surface of the Atlantic.
Having spearheaded a 1994 project to recover a partially intact Halifax bomber from a lake in Norway, Kjarsgaard is mystified why his latest project has not yet found a backer.
"Even if you've proven yourself, it holds no credence," he said. "I understand that this is a new government that is a little tentative (about spending)."
Dave Burroughs of the Nanton Lancaster Society Air Museum said the recovery effort is facing an uphill battle for two reasons.
"Part of (the problem) might be that there is already a Halifax in Trenton, Ont.," he said. "Also, if we had an image of the plane floating on the bottom of the ocean, things might be different."
Officials with MacKay's office are considering a media launch for Kjarsgaard's project in Washington, D.C., in the coming months. Kjarsgaard is also promoting his project at the Oshkosh, Wis., air show later this month.
The Royal Canadian Legion has thrown its support behind the recovery effort.
Douglas Sample, an 80-year-old veteran who flew as an air gunner in the Halifax, said the aircraft was the unsung hero of the Second World War.
"They were much better than the other aircraft," he said. "They were built like a brick outhouse."
Sample recalled one Halifax surviving an onslaught from three enemy aircraft on one mission.
"I heard the rear gunner screaming on the intercom," he said. "All of a sudden, the sky was up, then the sky was down.
"I didn't find out until later that there were three planes after us."
Kjarsgaard said stories like this are what make the Halifax such a crucial part of Canada's military legacy.
"It has to get to a point where we realize this is such a treasure, we can't ignore it," he said. "I'm not giving up."
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http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2006 ... 70-cp.html
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