123 Sqn Flight Line (1943) Derbert, NS

Photo Source: 439 Sqn archives

In February No. 123 lost two more of its old-timers when F/O (1) H.R, Pinsent and P/O A. Middleton were posted overseas. (A.F.H.Q. informed the Squadron that it was planned to send two pilots a month overseas.)  Both officers were from the Argentine and had travelled to Canada at their own expense to join the RCAF. Harold Pinsent had been with the Squadron since the beginning, in October 1941; Algernon Middleton was one of the November 1942 additions.  Another major change in membership occurred in March 1943 when fifteen airmen were sent overseas, and nine officers were dispatched westward to Boundary Bay, British Columbia, where a new Army Co-operation Squadron (No. 163) was being formed. One of the nine pilots, F/O W.K, Scharff, had been with No. 123 since the beginning; the others, F/O R.C. Calvert, F/O H.A. Spence, P/Os H.M. Smith, J.T. Brown, J.N. Donnelly, R.H. Laurence, C.W. Moncrieff and H.J. Hardy, had joined it during 1942 or early 1943. Then at the beginning of May F/O R.C. Johnson, another of the originals, and P/O R.H. Hunter left for over-seas.

One of the Squadron's airmen showed a decided flair for technical improvements, which won recognition in the award of the British Empire Medal in the New Year's honours list for 1944.  He was F/S R.C.D. Honour, the NCO (Non Commissioned Officer) i/c  (in charge of) Armament, who had first joined the unit as an LAC at the time of its formation in 1941.  One of the first developments on which he worked, in conjunction with P/O R.T. Walsh, the engineering officer, F/S J.H. LeCompte, the NCO i/c Photo Section, F/S J.A. Malo, the NCO i/c Workshops, and Sgt A.D. Job, was the installation of an F.24 camera in the Harvard and the devising of a suitable sighting arrangement,  The Harvard was a far better trainer and much easier to keep serviceable than the Lysander, and it was hoped that by this camera installation it would be possible to use the Harvard for all phases of Army co-operation training.

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F/S Honour next adapted a Browning machine-gun for use in aircraft with blank ammunition, to lend realism to training exercises with the Army, Standard .303 ammunition was used with the ball removed and the open end of the cartridge crimped.  On the gun a plug was fastened to the muzzle in place of the flash eliminator.  This plug had a small hole to allow the gases to escape except sufficient to operate the recoil mechanism of the Browning. After Honour had designed and constructed all the necessary parts in the Squadron Armament Section, S/L Ranking air-tested the gun and found it a decided success requiring only a few minor adjustments.  Some weeks later, in early May 1943, the blank-firing Browning were tried out in a demonstration scheme with the Army. The diarist reported "the guns are the pride and joy of the unit. We think (and secretly hope) they scare the devil out of some of the Army, because they are doubtful as to whether the ammunition is really blanks."