Veteran Bert Hunter- WWII, F/L #J10650 No. 162 Squadron; RCAF

Bertram Fairbourn Hunter was born and raised in Langley, British Columbia on December 10^th, 1919. At the age of 21, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in Vancouver. Bert was then assigned to Brandon, Manitoba for initial training and then to Ontario where he received his pilot wings. He was sent to P.E.I., before being posted to No. 162 Squadron in Yarmouth, N.S. In early 1944, they were sent to Iceland under RAF’s Costal Command, where Hunter co-piloted a Canso reconnaissance aircraft in search of German U-Boats. His plane, #9767, was the first of the Squadron to spot and sink a U-Boat during the war.

Bert joined the Air Force on June 4^th, 1941. He was sent to Manitoba for basic training and then to Winnipeg for a short time to do ground duty before being sent to Regina for Initial Training School. There, he studied the principles of Flight, Meteorology, Aircraft Recognition, Navigations, etc. and was part of the 30% percent of students, enlisted to be pilots, that was accepted. After a series of training courses, Bert graduated as Pilot Officer on the Harvard aircraft in March 1942, in Ontario. When Hunter was sent to P.E.I. for further Air Navigation Training, he was offered and accepted to be a Staff Pilot. He stayed in Summerside for 5 months during the opening of the General Reconnaissance School as part of the expanding Commonwealth Training Program and it was during this time period that he met his future wife, Wanda Mill. In January 1943 Bert was sent to Pay Bay, BC to train to fly off water.

In May, he was posted to No.  162 Squadron in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia as a Second Pilot on the new Canso A aircraft. This long-range “bomber reconnaissance” Squadron was to patrol over the sea to protect convoys or search for German U-Boats. In that same month, Bert and Wanda married. In October, Bert and the Squadron went to Mont-Joli, Quebec to join the search for a Liberator plane in flight from Newfoundland to Ottawa that went missing.

In January 1944, The Squadron from Yarmouth was posted under the RAF’s Coastal Command and ordered to move to Iceland, where they were to remain until the end of the war. Nearby their base in Reykjavik, Iceland, was a British Squadron (No. 53) and an American Squadron located about 20 miles away but they were more involved in communications and didn’t do much flying. While there, they stayed in Nissen Huts that were half-moon shaped structures with walls of corrugated steel and concrete floors.

On April 17^th, 1944 while on patrol, Bert’s aircraft #9767 spotted a U-Boat about 10 miles off. Possibly because it did not see the plane in the sunlight, the U-Boat did not submerge and was subsequently sunk by depth-charges from the Canso aircraft. This was the first of five U-Boats sunk by the Squadron. During June and July, 1944, the Squadron operated out of Wick Scotland as the Germans were attempting to break through the North Transit Area to stop the Allied.

When the pilot at the time, F/O Cooke left, Bert gave up his position as co-pilot and took over as primary pilot, a position he maintained until the end of the war. He completed his Tour of Operations by March 13, 1945 and was posted back in Summerside. He was again put on duty as Staff Pilot flying Anson aircraft for the students undertaking training. His Squadron was officially disbanded on August 7, 1945 and Bert was officially discharged on September 13^th. 

When Bert was posted to the No. 2 Air Navigation School in Charlottetown P.E.I., he was asked to stay on as a staff pilot after he completed the navigation course. Bert and several of his fellow officers lived in the officers’ Quarters when the No. 1 GRS opened in July 1942. They would take a bus or taxi into town to socialize at Chan’s Restaurant and at the popular dance hall; the maple leaf Garden. It was during a dance that he met 19-year old Wanda Mill. It was not long after that Bert became a frequent visitor to the Mills’ farming home in Clermont. On February 1^st, 1943 Bert and Wanda became engaged.

Bert had been posted to Vancouver in January so he and Wanda had sent letters back and forth but when he was reassigned to Nova Scotia, they planned a wedding. They got married on May 24^th, 1943 in Clermont. Bert had his Air Force friend, Bob MacAlpine as his best man. The Newlyweds borrowed the Mill family car and traveled to Charlottetown for a brief honeymoon.

Bert went on a posting in Iceland and Wanda lived in P.E.I. with her parents. He and his crew flew in anti-submarine patrols over the North Atlantic. Bert was in the middle of a flight to Scotland, when a wireless message announced the birth of their first child, Carol, on June 6^th, 1944. He was posted back to Summerside in May 1945 to wait for his discharge.

Bert, Wanda and their newborn daughter rented a room at the Wyatt home and made plans for the future. When his service career ended on August 30^th, 1945 he was ready to study. A couple weeks after his discharge, Bert left Summerside in September for a 3-year optometry course in Toronto. Wanda moved back with her parents while Bert completed the program with summers spent on the island and visits for Christmas. Upon graduating, he returned to Summerside and established an optometry practice until his retirement in 1991. His business was located upstairs in the Smallman building on Water Street.

He and his wife moved into a brand new home on Schurman Avenue in 1951 and raised five daughters. They visited British Columbia many times to maintain the relationship with Bert’s family but never considered living any place except P.E.I. It was assured from the beginning of the marriage that they would live in Summerside where fate had brought them together.

-Hannah Hunter