FlyPast 06.2018

WW2WW2 DESERTER OR PATRIOT?DESERTER OR PATRIOT?
AIRCREW PATH F I N D E R

REDEMPTIONREDEMPTION

DESPITE THREE CRASHES AND A COURT MARTIAL, CANADIAN FLT LT ROBERT

BUTTS WENT ON TO BECOME A PATHFINDER. TERENCE LEVERSEDGE EXPLAINS

T

hose of us who’ve served the

military in peacetime know

that a pilot who crashes his

aircraft through his own error has

usually made a ‘career-limiting move’.

Writing-off another one will come

under intense scrutiny from superiors

and a third in quick succession would

be almost unheard of.

Wartime exigencies are, of course,

very different. Let us consider the case

of Robert Allan Butts.

Unfortunately, we know only the

barest details of his personal and

service history. He made his home

in Culverton, New Brunswick, and

enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air

Force (RCAF) at Trenton, Ontario,

as a provisional pilot officer on July 4,

1938.

Receiving his ‘wings’ at Trenton on

June 17, 1939, Butts was promoted

to flying officer on October 1,

1940, eventually being posted to 10

Squadron as of June 4, 1941.

The unit had been hastily formed

by taking over the ageing Westland

Wapiti biplanes, and some of the

personnel, from 3 Squadron at

Halifax, Nova Scotia. To reflect its

new duties, 10 had been redesignated

as a bomber-reconnaissance (BR)

squadron on the last day of October

1939.

Tasked with anti-submarine patrols,

the antiquated Wapitis were hopeless

for long-range, over-water sorties. The

squadron soon relocated to nearby

Dartmouth and re-equipped with

Above

As suggested in this

March 1942 illustration

by Sgt Paul A Goranson,

the conditions in

Gander were typically

very harsh. RCAF

118 FLYPAST June 2018