Chapter 14

Special Assignment

 

The next morning Emily and Madge packed up their gear for the flight to Newark on the B-25 bomber. On their way to the flight line, a messenger handed Emily a note summoning her to the office of the commander. Madge continued walking to the B-25 as Emily veered off to the commander’s office.

The commander told Emily that they needed her to fly to Nova Scotia, Canada to deliver some very important top-secret information to the commander of the air base in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Emily was surprised to see Mrs. Deaton was present at the meeting; she had recommended Emily for the mission and had flown to Long Beach to speak personally to the commander. Mrs. Deaton always thought that Emily would be a good candidate for the Secret Service; she was discreet, sharp, and got the job done.

“You are not to breathe a word of this to anyone,” re-iterated Mrs. Deaton.

“Understood, yes ma’am,” answered Emily smartly. Emily always felt there was more to Mrs. Deaton than met the eye. Emily had no doubt that these orders were absolutely against the rules. She turned on her heels as she left the office. The blood was coursing through her veins with excitement. They all understood that they were breaking the rules, but this was wartime; sometimes rules had to be broken. The women pilots of the WASP organization were restricted from flying outside of the USA. Emily was certain the ‘Brass’ secretly bent the rules once in a while; this was proof that they did break them. The information was required right away, so she would fly a P-51 Mustang that could travel at over four hundred miles per hour. There was no time to lose.

The orders were clear. Emily would be alone in the cockpit of the single seat pursuit aircraft, with the top-secret information locked in a briefcase. She would have no one to assist her with the navigating, she was to maintain radio silence at all times until she had to call the tower at the Halifax air base for clearance to land.

Emily was surprised at the last minute change in plans, but that was how the USAAF worked when it came to top-secret assignments. She was also very excited about the importance of the mission. She had twenty minutes to study the maps and familiarize herself with the navigational route to Canada. She sat in an office down the hall from the commander’s office with a navigator who would help her go over the route maps and landmarks that she should follow.

It was up to Madge to take over as pilot of the B-25 and fly it to Newark, New Jersey along with a co-pilot from the group of WASP based at Long Beach. Madge would without doubt ask Emily questions about the sudden change in plans. Emily would have to come up with a viable explanation before she returned from the mission.

Twenty minutes passed by very quickly, but Emily was confident that she could follow the route set out by the navigator. Emily was familiar with the east coast of the USA, as she had studied navigational routes to Newark, New Jersey for the delivery of the B-25 Mitchel bomber as well as the P-51 Mustang. She was not familiar with the coastline of Canada, but the navigator had given her a clear picture of how to reach Halifax Harbor in the province of Nova Scotia.

She was ready to takeoff in the P-51 to Canada. Just as she was ready to leave for the flight line, the commander came into the room, took her aside to make sure that she had her pistol with her. Emily carried it with her in her B-4 bag; it was now part of her gear.

Emily climbed into the cockpit of the P-51 Mustang; she did a routine pre-flight check and then revved up the engine. She loved to fly this aircraft; it was both fast and maneuverable; she also had plenty of experience flying it. She waited for the tower to clear her for takeoff.

Emily was airborne and on route to the east coast of the USA from there, she would head north to Canada. She would (RON) remain over night at the halfway point to re-fuel and have something to eat as well as a night’s rest. The P-51 was a long-range fighter, with a range of 1650 miles. Emily climbed to 10,000 feet then travelled at a cruise speed of 360 miles per hour.

Emily could tell no one about her destination; if anyone asked she was flying to Newark dockyards to deliver the P-51 Mustang. She would re-fuel once again at Newark, New Jersey just before she turned north to Canada. If anyone asked about her destination from Newark, she would say that she was flying to Buffalo, New York.

She kept the briefcase well hidden to avoid answering any questions. She stopped at the pre-determined base to re-fuel and (RON) as instructed, but she could not wait to continue the flight to Canada. She did not sleep well that night as she kept thinking about the top-secret contents of the briefcase.

Emily was up early and ready to continue flying to her destination. The next part of the trip could prove difficult as she was unfamiliar with the landmarks of Canada, but she was confident that she could find Halifax Harbor with the help of the aerial maps, pictures, and instructions that she had received from the navigator.

Emily figured that she was flying over the southern tip of Nova Scotia when she spotted the Yarmouth Lighthouse. She had an aerial map of Halifax Harbor, she was positive she would recognize it when she saw it, it was not far now.

Emily was still quite a distance from the harbor, as she flew at a low altitude approaching from the Atlantic Ocean. She proceeded with caution, as she was not sure where to find the landing strip of the airbase, when she noticed a merchant ship with what looked like a German submarine in pursuit. The merchant ship was zigzagging trying to avoid a torpedo fired from the enemy submarine.

Emily was quite familiar with the way German U-Boats skulked around the Atlantic Ocean sinking ships that carried supplies headed for England. Emily had to do something to help the merchant ship, but she did not know what she could do without any ammunition or bombs on the P-51. All she had was her pistol, and that was of no help in this situation. She had to think fast. Without wasting too much time, she headed toward the U-boat buzzing close above it at a high rate of speed. She quickly gained altitude, out of range of the U-boat’s firing capability. They must be completely bewildered as to why the P-51 did not fire at them or drop a bomb she thought. She could almost picture the expressions of confusion on the faces of the German crew.

She circled around deciding to come back at full speed for another pass above the submarine. It worked; the U-boat was diving into the sea. They were not going to wait for the P-51 to return and bomb them. If Emily had not been so scared, she would have laughed. She flew above the merchant ship that headed at top speed out to sea away from U-boat. She tipped her wings as the crew waved and cheered even though she had not attempted to sink the German submarine. Emily figured that they must be as befuddled as the Germans. She changed direction back toward the harbor; she would report the spotting of the enemy U-boat skulking so close to Halifax Harbor once she landed the P-51 Mustang.

Emily could see the airbase landing strip now, so she broke radio silence to ask the tower for permission to land. A voice crackled across her receiver “Lady, get off the air. I am trying to talk to a pilot.” Emily answered back after thinking for a quick second, “I am the pilot” There was dead silence at the other end, for a full minute. Then in a hesitant voice, he gave her permission to land. Emily could not stop thinking about the WASP arrested for impersonating an officer back in the USA. This might be worse; she was in a foreign country, even though Canada and the USA were Allies.

They were expecting a P-51 Mustang from the USA, but what they were not expecting was Emily as she climbed out of the cockpit and walked toward the welcoming committee of six armed guards. It appeared that the Royal Canadian Airforce had not heard of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, who ferried military aircraft. Emily figured that the WASP was the best-kept secret of the war.

They all stared at her with shocked expressions of disbelief on their faces. Emily could not understand why they were all looking at her that way and then she remembered. She had met Canadian women pilots with the ATA in England who told her that Canadian women did not fly military aircraft in Canada that is why they went to England to join the ATA. She concluded that obviously women still did not fly military aircraft in Canada.

Emily regarded them, appearing confident as she asked with authority where she could find the commander of the base. The guards removed the briefcase from her grip as well as her B-4 bag and ordered her to follow them. They surrounded her as they marched her to an office building on the opposite side of the runway. She was worried about them finding her pistol under all her underwear and change of clothes.

The base commander was equally surprised to see that the pilot delivering the top-secret information was a woman. Emily introduced herself as the guard handed over the briefcase and her B-4 bag to the commander. I will have to search your bag he stated. He looked through all her personal items and found the pistol on the bottom under some personal items. Emily quickly said, “It USAAF issue sir.”

The commander asked, “Are you trained to use it"?

“Absolutely, sir,” answered Emily.

“I will keep the pistol in my office while you are here, you can pick it up before you leave,” he said in a voice that suggested his decision was final.

Emily did not feel comfortable about not carrying her pistol, but she had no choice in the matter it seemed.

The commander asked Emily what USA squadron she was part of in the USAAF. Emily explained that she was a pilot with the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots. He was not familiar with that organization, which did not surprise Emily. She explained that the WASP ferried military aircraft from the factories to the airbases or a point of embarkation within the USA. She conveniently left out the part about being a civil service organization. The Canadian commander looked surprised. “Canadian women do not fly military aircraft in Canada,” he stated.

“That is too bad,” remarked Emily, “There is a Canadian pilot from British Columbia who joined the WASP. She is an excellent pilot. I am sure there must be more female pilots in Canada, who would be willing to use their piloting skills to help win the war.”

The commander looked even more surprised at this piece of information; he was not quite sure how to respond.

“Well, maybe someday, but most women in Canada are busy working in factories building aircraft or bombs,” he replied.

He then changed the subject, apologizing, saying that they did not have any facilities on the base for female pilots, but he would arrange transportation and accommodations for her to stay overnight in the nearby town. Emily thanked him and decided that she should tell him about the German U-boat that she spotted trying to sink the merchant ship that was fairly close to the harbor. She thought that it was best that she did not tell him the rest of the story, about how she buzzed the German submarine.

Emily spent the night at a small Inn filled with friendly locals; it reminded her of the pubs in England. She could tell that they were all curious about her arrival in Halifax as well as her uniform, but she could not divulge the real reason for her trip to Canada. She quickly made up a fictitious tale that she expected they did not believe, but she bought them all a round of beer, which seemed to help mollify their curiosity.

She figured that a military vehicle would pick her up early in the morning before any of them were awake. Her stopover in Halifax would probably be the topic of conversation for days. She ate a delicious meal of fish stew and had a good night’s rest in a comfortable bed. The following morning she would fly the P-51back to her base in the USA.

She was wrong about no one in the village being awake in the morning; apparently, the men in the tiny fishing village got up very early to catch their fish for the day. They all stared at her and waved as she drove away in the RCAF jeep toward the airbase. She would have to stop at the commander’s office to reclaim her pistol before taking off.

Too bad, she could not share the experience with Madge; possibly, after the war was over she would tell her the truth. For the time being, she would have to come up with a feasible explanation, but she would have to think of a good story to tell her on the way back to the USA. Madge was not an easy person to convince, she was not a gullible person and she could usually tell if someone was not telling her the truth. Emily climbed into the cockpit of the P-51 Mustang and readied herself for takeoff back to the USA.