One of the thirteen - “Willie the Wolf”

RCAF Officer’s Mess, Glouster St., Ottawa, 7 August 1991, Nose Artist Thomas Dunn [79 years] stands beside the Halifax Nose Art he painted in England 46 years before. He did not know his original artwork survived until he was interviewed by Clarence Simonsen in 1990. This is the largest nose art in the original thirteen aircraft collection, size 11 ft. 3 in. wide by 5 ft. 1 in. high.

Halifax Mk. VII, serial NP707 was built between 16 June 1944 and 5 July 1944 when it was delivered to No. 432 [Leaside] Squadron. The Halifax received code QO-W, and flew her first operation on 11 July 44 to Thiverney. The aircraft completed 67 operations with No. 432 squadron, flown 24 operations by the crew of P/O A. Potter J87003, possibly the ones who gave her the name “Willie The Wolf”.  The nose artist was Thomas Dunn from Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Thomas E. Dunn was born on 23 December 1912. He had drawing talent but received no training until high school, when he enrolled in hand lettering.

He joined the RCAF on 31 October 1941, completed airframe mechanic training at St. Thomas, for training experience he served at Aylmer, and Rockcliffe, Ontario. In the fall [October] of 1943, it was off to England and his new home at Base No. 62, East Moor, Yorkshire, No. 432, [Leaside] squadron. Tom began painting Halifax nose art in the spring of 1944, and had completed seven when NP707 arrived on 5 July1944.  “Willie the Wolf” was a big hit with the squadron and for his nose art talents, Tom received five [quid] $25 Canadian, which was a lot of money in 1944.

When F/L Lindsay arrived at the Handley-Page repair depot he had the large Nose Art and bomb total of “Willie the Wolf” cut from the Halifax. It arrived in Ottawa in 1946, where it was placed into storage in Hull, Quebec. On 10 June 1976, the War Museum allowed the RCAF Officer’s Mess to take loan of “Canada’s largest” original Nose Art.

The panel was not removed until the year 2000, and now again is in storage in Ottawa, never viewed by the Canadian public.

On 19 September 1943, No. 432 squadron moved to East Moor, [Sutton-on-Forrest] Yorkshire. The squadron had arrived on the backdoor [Strensall], of a young, 12 year old English lad named Gerald Inns. Gerald was captivated by the new Canadians, but his major attraction became the huge Halifax bombers dispersed around the field and the Canadian “Nose Art”. The British schoolboys from the nearby villages each had their particular favorites, for Gerald it was “Willie the Wolf”. The boys would lie in the ditch at the end of the runway and count the Halifax aircraft leaving and returning. Some failed to return but “Willie” always came home.

After the war the airfield runways became derelict, but soon the Handley-Page factory was taken over by a company who manufactured brakes for cars and trucks.

In the 1960’s Gerald Inns began work at the old Halifax factory, which kept his Canadian memories fresh in his mind. In 1973, he became involved with the aviation archaeology “digs” in the York Aircraft Preservation Society. In the desolate Yorkshire moors there are 108 aircraft crash sites from World War Two. From these sites Gerald collected twisted fragments of aluminum aircraft skin, then fashioned a 3-D collage of a Halifax Canadian aircraft. One single aircraft took a year to complete and Gerald was offered $3,000 Canadian for a collage. He rarely sold his work, but prefers to give them away – “In memory of the Canadians who gave their lives in those Halifax aircraft”.

In June 1990, Harold Kearl attended a reunion at East Moor, Yorkshire, England. During the evening he met Gerald Inns and the conversation turned to “Willie the Wolf”. The next day Gerald surprised Harold with the presentation of a collage of “Willie the Wolf”. Today there are five Gerald Inns collage Halifax aircraft in Canada, and one hangs with pride in the home of Harold Kearl.

The pilot who flew “Willie the Wolf” to the graveyard in England in May 45, proudly holds the collage of his bomber.

Sadly artist Tom Dunn and collage maker Gerald Inns are no longer with us.  Their efforts to paint and honor Canadians should never be forgotten and the original “Willie the Wolf” must be displayed for Canadians to see and learn our proud past RCAF history.