The mysterious Listowel, Ont.-connected crew pose for a wartime photo. [Courtesy Wendy van Leeuwen]

The seven men in the faded photograph squint into the sunlight as they pose by the wing of a Lancaster bomber. Likely taken in the spring of 1945, the photo has fascinating historical connections to the small town of Listowel, Ont., during the Second World War.

The framed image is part of the modest archives of the Listowel District Secondary School library. Its recent rediscovery prompted several questions. Why was the photo donated? Is there a local connection to any of the seven crew members or to the plane?

A handwritten notation on the back of the photo’s frame indicates that it was donated by Neil Schade on April 21, 1988. Schade died in May 2020 at the age of 92, in Brussels, Ont., 30 kilometres west of Listowel. His obituary stated that he was affectionately known as “Mr. Lanc.” He would have been 16 in 1944, so not really too young, just borderline, to serve in the Second World War, but had been a Lancaster bomber enthusiast, hence the moniker, and had a wealth of knowledge about the iconic aircraft.

Schade’s son, Don, remembered his father speaking of the crew in the photo as his friends.

“Al Petrie was a rear gunner. Richard Harris was an Englishman. Dad corresponded with him until Alzheimer’s stole his memories,” said Don.

Allen Petrie is front right in the photo. Next to him crouches pilot Dennis Varden. To his left is Russel Abrams, mid-upper gunner. In the back row, left to right, stand bomb aimer Neville Grayer, wireless operator Claire Mackie, navigator Richard Harris and flight engineer William Moffatt. All survived the war. But none were from the area.

So, if they weren’t local lads, why donate the photo to the school? Perhaps there was a connection to their plane? The aircraft partially visible in the photo is clearly a Lancaster, the heavy bomber relied upon by Royal Air Force Bomber Command for nighttime bombing campaigns over Europe from 1942 until VE-Day. People from 60 countries served in Bomber Command, many of them from Commonwealth nations, including Canada, and they were instrumental in changing the outcome of the Second World War.

Lancaster bombers roll off the line at Victory Aircraft in Malton, Ont.[ Ingenium Archives/CAVM-30470]

“The successes of Bomber Command were purchased at a terrible cost,” says the Bomber Command Museum of Canada. “Of every 100 airmen who joined Bomber Command, 45 were killed, six were seriously wounded, eight became prisoners of war, and only 41 escaped unscathed (at least physically). Of the 120,000 who served, 58,000 were killed including over 10,000 Canadians.”

Of the 7,377 Lancasters built for the war effort, 3,932 were lost. Still, the Lancaster proved to be Bomber Command’s most successful aircraft. In September 1941, a decision was made to also manufacture them in Canada, out of range of German bombers. In total, 430 Lancs were built at Victory Aircraft in Malton, Ont., then headed across the Atlantic. Each was coded with three letters and a registration consisting of two letters and three numbers. In the school library’s photo, the letters NA-S are visible, and to the far right, a faded “KB,” indicating that this plane was built in Canada. Could it have been the Lancaster purchased by the townspeople to support the war effort?

The March 29, 1945, Listowel Banner told that story.

“Listowel citizens raised $374,100. The bomber was purchased and named ‘Listowel, Ont.’ It is now travelling the highways of the air over enemy territory.”

“In November, 1944, Canada launched its Seventh Victory Loan. Listowel’s first objective was $283,000. Then the happy thought came that Listowel should raise the objective to $350,000 and buy a Lancaster bomber to be presented to the RCAF. The promise was then made that if Listowel would raise $350,000 a new Lancaster bomber would come off the assembly lines, the crest of Listowel would be painted on the bomber and that it would fly across the Atlantic to join that vast armada of the air that is doing such a grand job in bringing victory to the forces of freedom. That promise has been fully kept. Listowel citizens raised $374,100. The bomber was purchased and named ‘Listowel, Ont.’ It is now travelling the highways of the air over enemy territory.”

There is a justifiable note of pride in the article. The amount raised was a tremendous sum for a town of about 3,000 people in 1944, when the average annual income was $2,500.

Some sources describe the bomber purchased by the town as being named “Spirit of Listowel.” It served for the last couple of months of the war with 428 Squadron, RCAF, based at Middleton St. George, England.

“Spirit of Listowel,” however, was coded NA-V, so it’s not the plane in the picture. So, the one in the image is another Lancaster, but which one?

An important clue was hidden under the frame at the right-hand edge of the photo: the faded beginning of a number 8 following the KB. So it must be NA-S KB864, which also served with 428 Squadron, beginning in February 1945.

Historian and artist Clarence Simonsen said that this plane was a very popular subject for photos because of its nose art, which was painted by Sergeant Thomas Walton. On one side of the nose, Walton, who served as wireless air gunner on this bomber, recreated Alberto Vargas’ January pin-up girl from the 1945 Esquire calendar.

The plane itself was nicknamed “Sugar’s Blues,” after a popular jazz dance tune that was a favourite of its American-born pilot, Pilot Officer Latumer. A reproduction of the fuselage of “Sugar’s Blues,” complete with nose art painted by Simonsen, is displayed at the Bomber Command Museum of Canada in Nanton, Alta.

“Spirit of Listowel” and “Sugar’s Blues” were among 288 Lancs returned to Canada. The latter participated in a cross-country bond tour in the summer of 1945 to raise money for the ongoing war effort in the Pacific. Many of the returning planes, including the former, were ferried to Nova Scotia, to 661 Heavy Bomber Wing of Tiger Force based in Yarmouth. The intention was to reorganize and retrain the crews and repaint and refit the bombers to ready them for operations in the Pacific by December. The war ended in August, however, and Tiger Force was disbanded.

Subsequently, 160 of the Lancasters were moved to Alberta and placed in long-term storage, where both “Spirit of Listowel” and “Sugar’s Blues” were eventually sold for scrap metal.

The plane’s eventual pilot, Flight Lieutenant Dennis Varden, and his wife Clare, helped save the crew of a B-24 that crashed near Montreal in June 1945. [Courtesy Wendy van Leeuwen]

After arriving in Nova Scotia at the beginning of June, crews were immediately given a month’s leave.

Flight Lieutenant Dennis Varden, the pilot in the photo, hurried home to his wife Clare in Montreal, with instructions to report back for duty in July. Then, on June 30, 1945, an 11-man RCAF crew from No. 6 Ferry Unit based in nearby Dorval took off to deliver a Canadian-built B-24 Liberator to the RAF in England. But the plane crashed near the runway and burst into flames. Varden rushed to the scene.

He pulled two survivors from the flaming wreck, then managed to rescue a third. He then recovered two dead crewmen. Two other survivors were still trapped in the plane amid the burning hot metal. Varden’s wife brought him water, which he used to help cool the metal while he worked to save the men. He eventually freed them, suffering burns to his hands in the process. He only ceased his efforts when others arrived on the scene and took over.

For his actions, Varden was awarded the George Medal, which recognizes acts of bravery by civilians or military personnel not under enemy fire, on Feb. 21, 1947.

That might be the end of the story, but the faded operations record books archived at the Bomber Command Museum provided the final pieces needed to solve the puzzle of the photograph. They include hundreds of entries detailing daily missions: bombing runs, bad weather, damaged aircraft, targets destroyed, and the names of crew members.

The records for 428 Squadron indicate that Varden and the rest of his crew shown in the photograph were posted as a unit to the squadron on Feb. 28, 1945, and flew numerous missions during the next two months. On April 10, 1945, Varden and his crew were sent out on a night-time bombing run over Germany, which was noted in the log as a “good attack” with minimal damage to the aircraft.

That aircraft was KB899, “Spirit of Listowel.”

In the one and only recorded bombing run carried out by the Lancaster bomber purchased by the people of Listowel, the pilot in this photo, Varden, and most likely the six men with him, served as its crew.

Spirit of Listowel’s crew had posed for the photo in front of another bomber—mystery solved.

The Lancaster bomber purchased by the citizens of Listowel, Ont. [www.canadianheadstones.ca]