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Grimsby Airman Gets Commission
Ottawa, April 1, 1942 —Twenty-two more Royal Canadian Air Force men — pilots, observers and wireless-operator-air-gunners — have won commissions overseas and in Canada. The Ontario list follows:
Overseas:
Pilots — Flight-Sergeant H. L. Cook, Windsor; Flight-Sergeant G. A. J. Ryckman, London; Flight-Sergeant E. A. Crist, Wallaceburg; Sergeant F. R. Patrick, Toronto; Sergeant C. R. Scollan, Ottawa; Flight-Sergeant J. D. Snider, Grimsby,
Air observers — Sergeant A. L. Lumsden, London; Sergeant J. E. H. Emon, Toronto; Sergeant H. B. Cable, Toronto; Flight-Sergeant R. M. Craine, Newtonbrook.
Canada:
Pilot — Warrant Officer No. 2 R. H. Osborn, Aylmer.
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Born 8 January 1916 in Hull, Quebec.
Son of George (deceased) & Florence (nee Beatrice May Block)
Scollan of 25
Avon Lane, Ottawa, Ont.
Home at 142 Crichton St., Ottawa (his house is attached at the
back to his mother's
on Avon Ln. He was supporting her).
Attended Hull Intermediate, 1923-30.
Kent Street, 1930-31.
St. Patrick's College, 1931-32
Glebe Collegiate, 1932-33.
Hull Technical (night course in Mathematics.
Ottawa Technical (night course in Aeronautics).
?? Business College, 1934 (Commercial Business course).
Correspondence course, 1939 (Aircraft Welding).
Member of the Ottawa Flying Club from June 1935.
Holder of Commercial Pilot's License #1505.
Claimed 93.25 hours solo on application form.
A Paper Finisher at the E.B. Eddy Co., Hull, Qc. 1935-1940.
Enlisted in June 1940.
Trained at:
No.1 ITS, Toronto, course #3, 24 June to 20 July 1940,
No.3 EFTS, London, Ont., course #3, 22 July to 16 Sept. 1940 &
No.31 SFTS, Kingston, course #1, 8 Nov. to 30 Dec. 1940
(Awarded PFB, 14 December & winged on 16 December 1940).
Taken On Strength (TOS) CFS Trenton, 8 January 1941.
TOS No.1 B&G School, Jarvis, 7 March 1941.
TOS No.1 "M" Depot, Halifax, 9 July 1941.
No.57 OTU, course #27, 24 Sept. to 11 November 1941.
To 416 Squadron 11 November 1941.
Commissioned, 17 March 1942.
To 601 Squadron, 3 June 1942.
On the morning of 10 November 1942, while on a patrol over
enemy territory in Spitfire EP451, he was attacked by 8 Me109s.
In the dogfight that followed, his Spit was seen falling out of
control, and in flames, towards the sea in the Sidi Barrani area.
He has no known grave. His name is on the Alamein Memorial. |
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Nazis Dodge Scotland As Eager RCAF Waits
With the R.C.A.F., Somewhere in Scotland, May 4, 1942 — Scotland's rare beauty is something to be admired, but the war can't be won by gazing at rolling green hills or tree-fringed locks. That's how airmen of a Canadian Spitfire squadron stationed in Scotland feel.
They are "browned off"—fed up— and want action. Enemy inactivity over this part of Britain has left them virtually jobless.
"We'd like to go to the Middle East," said the squadron commander, Squadron Leader Lloyd Chadburn, 22-year-old pilot from Aurora, Ont., "Even the south of England would be good enough."
Flight Lieutenant W.W. Murray of Woodstock, Ont., a flight commander, felt the same way. Still in his flying boots and Mae West after a cannon-firing test, he said he would go anywhere to "get a little action."
He almost saw his wish fulfilled a little while ago, when the German warships Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen were making their spectacular escape from Brest.
Murray and seven other Canadian airmen were ordered to fly to an air station in the south. When they landed there, they were sent out to attack aircraft escorting the vessels.
"We raced almost to the Hook of Holland," he said, adding regretfully that "when we got there we found the warships were several miles further away." So Murray and his mates had to return home because they didn't have enough gasoline to take them any further.
"I wouldn't mind at all being back in the south, where you're only a few minutes away from enemy territory. I saw some action when I was down there before with another squadron."
Recalling how he lost a wing tip in a tilt with a Messerschmitt 109 during a sweep over France, Murray said he shot at the Nazi, "and I think I got him, but I wasn't able to confirm it."
Members of his flight who were lounging around in the flight office included Pilot Officers Clyde Scollan, Ottawa; Philip Blades, Victoria; W.T. Johnston, Calgary; Bob Turp, Aurora, Ont.; Flight Sergeants Roy Wozniak, Regina; Doug MacPherson, Edmonton; Jim McNamara, Montreal; Jack Rae, Toronto, and Jack Moul, Port Alberni, B.C.
In the other flight, commanded by Flight Lieutenant P.L. Archer of Barbados, B.W.I., are Pilot Officer Roger Paradis of Shawinigan Falls, Que., the French-Canadian pilot with the squadron; Pilot Officer Buckham of Vancouver; Flight Sergeants Angus Kelly, Regina; Howard MacDonald, Sydney, N.S., and Gene Richardson, Windsor.
The 25-year-old Paradis, who has been with the squadron since it was formed, was a machine operator in a cellophane factory before he joined up.
"This is a very good life," he said, "but I wish we would see some action."
One of the flying control officers at the station is a Canadian, Flying Officer Reg Fisher of Toronto. He supervises the landing and taking off of aircraft from the watch office.
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Ottawa Flyer Busy Over Desert Strafing Fleeing Axis Troops
P/O Scollan's Hard-Working Squad
Paves Way for Bombers to Blast Rommel Remnants
CAIRO, Nov 6, 1942 – (CP) – One of the hardest-working aerial squadrons in the incessant blasting of the retreating Axis forces in the desert is that led by an American. F/L J. H. Curry of Dallas, Texas, and containing several Canadians.
The Canadians in the squadron are P/O Clyde Scollan of Ottawa, Flt-Sgts. Ernie Shea of Moose Jaw, Sask.; Bill Gwynne, of Edmonton and Bill Steals, of Montreal. Curry is the leader of the group in victories, being credited with 7⅓ enemy planes. But this particular squadron has been engaged mostly in strafing enemy trains, trucks, airdromes and troops rather than engaged in dogfights against the Italian and German fighters and bombers and has but one plane downed since the latest big push began. That one fell to Curry's guns.
There was no let up for Curry of his Canadians today. They went on two strafing engagements over Nazi landing grounds and grounded aircraft and retreating Axis personnel. They paved the way for Allied bombers to pour explosives on an Axis column rushing backward on the road to Bardia.
Telling of the Axis plane he shot down in the recent push, Curry said, “There were nine of us up and we all saw him together. It was a Macchi 202 but I got there first."
Only a few months ago Curry was an instructor at the Commonwealth Air Training School at Jarvis, Ontario.
Enlisted In June 1940
Pilot Officer Clyde Scollan, 26, is a son of Mrs. Florence Scollan, 25 Avon Lane, Ottawa. He enlisted in the RCAF in June 1940 and went overseas a year ago last July. Though he often writes his mother, he says little about his experiences as a fighter pilot. Since being posted to duty in the Middle East, he has seen much action in Palestine and Egypt.
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Air Casualties
Ottawa, Dec. 22, 1942 – (CP) - The R.C.A.F., in its 454th casualty list of the war, tonight reported 15 men missing after flying operations overseas. The latest list of casualties with next-of-kin includes :
SCOLLAN, Clyde Russell, PO, missing after air operations overseas, Mrs. G. A. Scollan (mother), 142 Crichton St. Ottawa
SMITH, Albert Ivan, FO, missing after air operation's overseas. H. T. Smith (father) Islington, Ont.
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No known air to air Victories
S/L G.H.F. Plinston, in a letter to Clyde's mother states, "As a pilot your son was of the best and he had shared in the destruction of several enemy aircraft both in Malta and in the Western Desert."
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Clyde's "Canada's Air Heritage" Booklet, issued to new Service Pilots,
can be seen here. Scollan got his
at No. 31 SFTS Kingston.
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