A Forgotten Tragedy

Report and photos by Will Chabun
It was one of the worst, and possibly least-known, accidents involving the peacetime RCAF.
It happened on the morning of September 15, 1946, when an RCAF Dakota transport took off from the civilian airport at Minot, North Dakota, flying northwest to Estevan, Saskatchewan. There, it crashed as its crew attempted a landing, killing all 21 airmen aboard it. To commemorate the loss, 75 years later to the day, 15 Wing Moose Jaw held a small, but poignant, memorial service.​
A special memorial service saluting victims of the 1946 crash at Estevan was held literally beneath the wings of a Harvard IV displayed at the entrance to the base.
The story of this crash starts with the 1941 American Lend-Lease Law, which allowed the US government to buy military equipment and send it to allies – on the proviso that equipment not destroyed in combat or training be returned to the US postwar.

Fast forward to the summer of 1946, when a group of airmen from the RCAF’s 124 (Ferry) Squadron was flying Cornell trainers acquired under the Lend-Lease to dispersal points at two North Dakota cities, Fargo and Minot. With each delivery completed, a Dakota from 124 Squadron would pick up the pilots and bring them back to Estevan, where Cornells were being collected.

On the morning of Sunday, September 15, twenty RCAF pilots and one ground crewman, rose and climbed aboard the Dakota and set off for Estevan. Overlooked was a gust lock applied to the aircraft’s elevators that limited control. The aircraft took off and made its way to Estevan, where it approached the airfield, home of the wartime No. 38 Service Flying Training School, at which point it climbed steeply for an instant, then fell back to earth and exploded. 

Among non-combat crashes of Canadian military aircraft, the death toll was exceeded only by the crash of a Liberator in Quebec in late 1943. Estevan residents turned out en masse a few days later for a funeral service before the airmens’ caskets were sent to their hometowns. And then, inexplicably the tragedy was almost forgotten.

Two chronologies of Canadian aviation history ignored it. Published in 1978, Squadrons of the RCAF, told the story in a few lines, but erred on the number of dead. A few newspaper articles over the years remembered it, but even military personnel are unfamiliar with it.

Correcting this historical myopia has become the work of retired trucker Lester Hinzman. The son of a wartime infantryman, he worked tirelessly to get a wooden sculpture honouring all those who died. This project put him in touch with Estevan’s Marie Donais Calder, author of a long string of books, many with a theme of wartime sacrifice and remembrance. She set to work on a nonfiction book on the crash, successfully tracking down photos and family members of all twenty-one airmen. Together, they approached 15 Wing with an idea for a memorial service on the 75th anniversary of the crash. Assigned to organize the ceremony was Capt. Edward Soye, a CAHS member.
​RCAF Officers with a poster showing the wooden sculpture created to salute the victims of the 1946 crash and a poem written by Estevan’s Lester Hinzman
Curbed by Covid, the memorial service was small, but poignant, with remarks by the wing chaplain and Col. Jonathan Bouchard, the base’s commanding officer. Author Calder read out the names of those killed in 1946. All the pilots were combat veterans, and many had been decorated. Most were married; they left behind 17 children. After the ceremony, CAHS National President Gary Williams thanked Bouchard for the service and presented him with a copy of Calder’s book and several recent CAHS Journals.
Marie Donais Calder, author of a recent book on the 1946 crash, with Col. Jonathan Bouchard and Gary Williams, National President of the CAHS
Cover of Marie Donais Calder’s book on the crash. 
How did this tragedy come to be forgotten? One theory blames its nature as a tragic accident, as opposed to wartime combat. Another holds that Canadians were numbed by six years of war, when the armed services sometimes recorded one-day death tolls in the hundreds. Other explanations cite the disbandment of 124 Squadron only two weeks after the crash, leaving no peacetime unit to commemorate the event. Calder and Hinzman are planning a gathering for families of the fallen airmen on the second weekend of July 2022 in Estevan and, if possible, a showing of the sculpture the same weekend at 15 Wing.

Said Calder; “They were never forgotten by their families; we’re determined they will not be forgotten by the country.”

Marie's book can be purchased for $40 a copy (which includes taxes and shipping). Payment can be  made by cheque or e-transfer. Please email [email protected] to place your order and make payment arrangements.
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