Page 14 - RCAF Centenary

2nd Officer Marion Powell Orr (1918-1995)
Marion Alice Powell was also born in Toronto, the youngest of five girls. She became a licensed pilot in 1939 and in 1942 joined the No. 12 EFTS at Goderich, Ontario as a control tower operator. Soon after she, like Warren who became her friend, passed her flight tests administered by the RCAF and set off for England in April 1943. There she joined the ATA and became as a ferry pilot. Known colloquially as ‘Attagirls’, these women did the same job as men, and from 1943 on, they were
also paid the same as well. Like the other
pilots in ATA, she sometimes made 8 flights
a day, flying 4-5 different models and types
of aircraft, picking them up from factories and
repair depots, and delivering them to operational bases.
After the war, Marion became the first woman in Canada to receive her helicopter pilots license. And like Vi Warren, she
was inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame and
was awarded the Order of Canada in 1993. Two years later she died in an automobile accident just shy of her 77 birthday. Other Canadian women who flew with them were Elspeth Russell who delivered 291 aircraft during the war, Jaye Edwards who was qualified to fly 20 different aircraft from single engine Spitfires to 4-engine bombers and 1st Pilot Officer Helen Harrison who was the first Canadian female ATA pilot.
And now let’s look at two of a group who managed to survive being shot down over enemy territory and survive to become became POWs, Prisoners of War, colloquially known at the time as ‘Kriegies’.
Flight Lieutenant George E. McGill (1918-1944)
We pick up the story of George McGill in 1936 who at age 18 entered the Chemical Engineering program at the University of Toronto where he continued for two years. With the war enveloping the Commonwealth and Europe his patriotic duty kicked in and he
put his civilian life on hold, enlisting in April 1940. By then he was married. In the RCAF George easily completed his training as an observer/navigator, was commissioned and waved goodbye to his wife and son as he was dispatched to England. That was July 1941. After completing further operational training, he was assigned to the No. 103 RAF Bomber Squadron.
On a night mission over the German navel port of Wilhelmshaven, his Vickers Wellington #Z1142 piloted by fellow RCAF Flt. Sgt. Charles L. Bray, while making a second pass over the target, the bomber was violently rocked by anti-aircraft fire which dislodged an armed reconnaissance flare, setting off a white-hot fire and filling the aircraft with smoke. Illuminated now by up to 30 search lights and fearing for the lives of his crew, Bray ordered them to bail out. McGill and 3 gunners parachuted into the dark of night. That was two hours before midnight January 10, 1942. Soon after safely reaching the ground, he and the others were captured, interrogated and sent to POW camp IXA in Spragenberg. There the enterprising McGill became involved in organized escape plans. However, when this was discovered by his captors and to ensure he would not have this opportunity again, he was transferred to Stalag Luft III where escape would be much more challenging.