Donald James Mathew
"Don" Blakeslee

_________________________________________________

Three Empire Air Forces Participate in Ceremony

(By C. W. MacQueen, Staff Writer - The Globe and Mail)
Camp Borden, March 17, 1941 - The air forces of three nations of the British Commonwealth were represented at the wings ceremony which marked conclusion of the training period of Class No. 16 of the Air Training Plan here late this afternoon. The graduating class was composed two-thirds of members of the Royal Australian Air Force and one-third of students from the Royal Canadian Air Force. In addition there were several officers of the Royal Air Force in attendance at the ceremony in the huge drill hall.
Squadron Leader G. A. R. Bradshaw of the R.A.F. pinned the wings an each member of the class after Group Captain R. S. Grandy, officer commanding the station, had addressed the graduates.
There was a decided change from the procedure which has marked the wings ceremonies in connection with other classes that have graduated lately. Close to one-third of those who received their wings this evening were addressed as pilot officers for the first time, while the remainder were called by their new rank of sergeant pilots. Up until today all graduates under the Commonwealth Air Training Plan have been leading aircraftmen.
Among those who received their wings were the following:
Royal Australian Air Force:
Pilot Officers — E. H. C. Ely, B. A. Willis, J. N. Ollivier, H. J. Jones and W. J. Kennedy of Sydney, N.S.W.; H. V. Shearn and H. A. Duplex of Perth, West Australia; M. G. Baker and J. W. Greening of Melbourne.
Sergeant Pilots — L. R. Williams, P. H. Watson, R. G. Spencer, W. A. Brew, G. F. Inkster, F. Falkiner, J. G. Marrett and J. Donald of Sydney; E. R. Bassett, E. P. Jackson, A. L. Bull of Melbourne; P. C. Voller, Brisbane; J. Rutherford, New South Wales; W. H. B. Burvill, Queensland; K. V. Williams, R. H. Bevan, J. E. L. Clarke and W. H. Wright, New Guinea; W. J. Wilkinson, Murwillumbah, New South Wales.
Royal Canadian Air Force:
Pilot Officers — H. E. Naylor and C. G. Russell of Toronto; H. W. Rowley, London; D. Blakeslee, Fairport, Ohio; W. G. Reeves, Brantford; C. A. Walker, Fort William.
Sergeant Pilots — D. H. Arnot, H. W. Russell and J. W. Sills of Toronto; H. L. Nelson, Jefferson, Iowa; H. R. Smith, Truro, N.S.; C. I. Nutbrown, Sherbrooke, Que., G. D. Williamson, Saint John, N.B.; C. B. Ramsay, Newcastle, N.B.; H. K. Mann,. Trenton.

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER VISITS AIR-FIGHTER DEPOT
Group Captain Campbell, Hamilton Officer, in Attendance
COUNTRY IS PROUD

Somewhere in England, Sept. 6, 1941 - (CP Cable) - Prime Minister Mackenzie King, visiting the first all-Canadian fighter station in Great Britain, told airmen today that "there is nobody in the world more in the hearts of all of us than you."

Enjoying Visit
Obviously enjoying his visit to the great station, the Prime Minister chatted with young flyers standing beside their Spitfires, Hurricanes and Beaufighters.
Scores of the Royal Canadian Air Force men snapped pictures of Mr. King as he stood on the wing of an aeroplane and later sat in the cockpit of a Hurricane wearing a helmet and talking to the station control room over radio telephone.
"Nothing could inspire me more than meeting you airmen," he said in the longest informal speech he has made since coming to Britain. The speech was made to a Spitfire squadron.
"I suppose there is nobody in the world more in the hearts of all of us than you. I can't begin to tell you how proud we are of our air force.
"The people of Canada follow with pride and thankfulness your gallant exploits. Your bravery and courage are known to them."

Pleasing Plan
Mr. King recalled that he had paid tribute to the R.C.A.F. flyers in his speech this week at the Lord Mayor's luncheon in London and said that no words he had ever uttered gave him more pleasure.
He added that "no act of the government ever pleased my colleagues and myself more than the working out of this plan with British representatives," referring to the initial conversations with Lord Riverdale and a British mission which led to the Commonwealth air training plan.
"From my heart I trust the all-seeing and living Providence will watch over you." Mr. King concluded: "God bless you all, boys."
Wearing a grey suit, a black Homburg and carrying a cane, Mr. King was in a jovial mood as he talked with the airmen. He climbed up on the wing of one of the new model Spitfires to shake hands with P/O Win Ash, of Dallas, Tex.
As photographers took pictures, the Prime Minister quipped: "Don't start this plane while I'm here. These press men would like nothing better than to have me taken up 60 feet and dropped."

Meet "The Boys"
"I wonder if I may shake hands with these men?" he said when he greeted F/L Kit Bushell, of Qu'Appelle, Sask., in charge of a group of Spitfire pilots who were lined up in front of their dispersal hut. Those he met included Pilot Officers Boyd Gartshore of Toronto; Ken Boomer of Ottawa; R. W. McNair of Prince Albert, Sask. and Sgt.-Pilots Dick Ellis, of Montreal; Bill Hagyard of Perth, Ont. and Aubrey Ferguson of Glace Bay, N.S.
Two of their mates — Ash and P/O Donald Blakeslee of Cleveland, Ohio — staged a practical scramble into their planes and Mr. King's hat was blown off by the slipstream caused by the propellers.
A squadron, led by Squadron Leader Paul Pitcher of Montreal, told Mr. King there was a scarcity of magazines and newspapers from home.
The Prime Minister was cheered as he headed towards Beaufighter squadrons, where he was greeted by F/L Bruce Hanbury of Vancouver. While Mr. King was inspecting the airmen, L.A.C. Stuart Lee, of Almonte, Ont., photographed him. Later Mr. King took pictures of the lads with Lee's camera and visited the squadron's operations room.

With Hamilton Officer
Mr. King was accompanied throughout his tour by Air Commodore Leigh Forbes Stevenson, air officer commanding the R.C.A.F. in the United Kingdom, and Group Capt. A. P. Campbell, of Hamilton, Ont., the first Canadian named to command an air station in Britain.
There was a touch of sadness when he asked of one group, "Who trained these men to their present fine efficiency?" He was told they were trained by an officer who was killed a few days ago — Wing Cmdr. N. R. Peterson, of Winnipeg.
Mr. King concluded the visit by chatting with members of a Hurricane squadron led by Squadron Ldr. Norm Johnson, of Winnipeg. Among the men were P/O Don Ball of Edmonton and F/L "Bev" Christmas of Montreal.
The Prime Minister climbed into the cockpit of a Hurricane and P/O Bud Connell of Nipawin, Sask., showed him how to work the radio telephone. Mr. King sent greetings to the control room.

_________________________________________________

Canadians Bag 4 Nazis In Honor of New Chief

(By DOUGLAS AMARON) London, Nov. 23, 1941 - (CP) - Canadian fighter pilots, who celebrated the arrival of Air Vice-Marshal Harold Edwards in Britain by shooting down four German planes over Northern France, were visited today by the new air officer commanding the R.C.A.F. in Britain and his predecessor, Air Commodore L. F. Stevenson.
Less than twenty-four hours after he stepped from a plane which brought him from Canada, Vice-Marshal Edwards went to the Canadians station and heard first-hand accounts of the engagements of the previous day, which are considered by air authorities to be one of the finest performances of the war in the particular type of operation in which the Canadians were engaged.
The Canadians, who also were credited with one probably destroyed and four seriously damaged enemy aircraft, were the toast of the station, and received an informal message of congratulations from Sir Archibald Sinclair, Secretary of State for Air, and a formal message from Air Vice-Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory, under whose command the squadron operates.
"Congratulations on a splendid showing. Well done, Canadians!" said Vice-Marshal Leigh-Mallory's message, read to all the squadron's personnel.
Like an excited crowd of youngsters who have just won a football game, the Canadians talked shop most of the day, telling and retelling about their combats with what was estimated to be a force of at least sixty German fighters.

Get First Huns
Attention centered on Pilot Officer Ian Ormston of Montreal, Pilot Officer Don Blakeslee of Fairport Harbor, Ohio; Sergeant Omer Levesque of Mont Joli, Que., and Sergeant Don Morrison of Toronto, each of whom shot down his first plane of the war.
It was a particularly satisfying day for Blakeslee, Levesque and Morrison. Levesque, in addition to his confirmed victory, came to grips with a second Nazi and last saw him breaking up in mid-air, while Blakeslee and Morrison also both inflicted serious damage on a second German plane.
The squadron's commanding officer, Squadron Leader Norman Johnstone of Winnipeg and Regina, and Sergeant Jeff Northcott of Minnedosa, Man., were given credit for the other damaged German aircraft.
"Those boys made a might good show of it," said Johnstone, beaming with fatherly pride. "The odds were considerably against them, both in numbers and in consideration of the sweep that took us over enemy territory. It was the first real flight for a majority of them and they pitched right into battle with plenty of courage and no end of ability."
Ormston, who with Flight-Lieutenant E. L. Neal of Quebec City, Blakeslee and Morrison dived into a group of Messerschmitt 109's and new Focke-Wulf 190's, literally blew his Messerschmitt out of the air.
Levesque, who said that "once in action I forgot the perils because things were happening too fast," forced the pilot of the first plane he attacked to bail out and shot part of the wing off the second.

“He Simply Exploded”
Blakeslee, who enlisted at Windsor, Ont., said he spotted the Messerschmitts at 15,000 feet and dived on them at 6,000. "All we did was dive and a one-second burst got my man," he said. "He simply exploded."
Morrison, who earlier in his first week with the squadron, scored a probable, spotted three Germans on the tail of Neal's plane.
"I came up from below and knocked off one," Morrison said. "He apparently didn't know I was there. Later I nearly joined three Focke-Wolf 190's which I thought were Spitfires. I took a crack at the last one and when last seen he was pouring out black smoke."
The Canadian fighter squadron co-operated with an English squadron whose members bagged another two enemy craft.
A veteran RAF wing commander with a personal score of eighteen confirmed victories led the combined English-Canadian squadrons operating from the fighter command's top-scoring station. The six planes destroyed brought the station's total of aircraft shot down since the start of the war to nearly 900.
"We saw fifteen Messerschmitts about two miles below us climbing hard," the wing commander said in describing the action. "Leaving the British squadron on top, I sent down several sections of the Canadians to attack. I stayed with the others, keeping a look-out in case assistance was wanted. It wasn't. Those boys just sailed into the German fighters and they were a grand sight to watch, whooping down and mixing it with the Hun

Chased Into France
"After the fight had been going on for some time our pilots started to chase the Messerschmitts deeper into France, and, as I didn't want them to get too widely scattered, I told them over the radio to come back and call it off. It was well that they did, for another bunch of Messerschmitts had approached higher up."
The wing commander sent the English squadron after these, and one German fighter promptly was sent smoking down to earth. Both squadrons then started for home, running into another batch of enemy fighters on the way.
During the flight home Levesque, who transferred to the air force from a French-Canadian army unit, got his Nazi.
"He was having a tough struggle," the wing commander said. "The Messerschmitt he was fighting finally plunged into a wood just inside the French coast and exploded like a bomb."
Over the coast and the Channel the squadrons met more German fighters in ones and twos, and the commander estimated that they encountered about sixty in all.
"Really," he said, "it was a grand afternoon for both squadrons."
J. P. Bickel, Toronto mine owner, who has held positions of importance in the Ministry of Aircraft Production, arrived with Air Vice-Marshal Edwards, as did Brigadier G. R. Turner, who is returning to his post at Canadian Corps Headquarters after a visit to Canada.
Mr. Bickel was met by Sir Archibald Rowlands, Permanent Secretary of the Aircraft Production Ministry. He said he was here "for a couple of weeks."
Flight Lieutenant Bill Broadribb of Ottawa also accompanied Edwards.
The flight across the Atlantic was described as "cold.”

_________________________________________________

Don Blakeslee and Al Harley of 401 Squadron RCAF

Canadians See Action On Air Escort After Paratroops Patrol
Sgt, Morrison, Toronto, Saves Fellow Flier and Gets 'Probable'
'BUNCH OF 109'S'

(By LOUIS V. HUNTER) An R.A.F. Station Somewhere in England, March 1, 1942 - (CP) - Canadian fighter pilots and bomber crews took part in Saturday's paratroop-Commando raid that destroyed an enemy wireless location station at Bruneval, France, but for a Canadian Spitfire squadron which formed part of the umbrella for the raid the dawn job was just the start of the day's work.
A few hours after the squadron completed what its members called a "routine patrol" it was in action again. It escorted Blenheim bombers in Saturday's daylight attack on Ostend, during which Sergeant Pilot Don Morrison, young Toronto flier who is the squadron's "high man," added to his score one plane probably shot down and one damaged. His tally had stood on Feb. 21 at two destroyed, two probables and one damaged.
Flight Lieutenant Al Harley of London, Ont., was one of those in charge of a section of Spitfires guarding the vessels carrying the returning paratroops. The squadron's commanding officer, Squadron Leader A. G. Douglas, R.A.F., and Flight Lieutenant Gene Neal of Quebec City were in charge of the other sections.
"It was just like an ordinary patrol," said lanky Flight Lieutenant Harley. "There wasn't a thing around and I didn't even see the ships."
Pilot Officer Hugh Merritt of Smithville, Ont., agreed it was a "dull trip." He said he met the convoy about midway across the Channel and "saw the ships all right, but I don't know yet what they did."
The airmen in Harley's section were Flight Sergeant Deane Macdonald of Toronto, Flight Sergeant Jack Ferguson of Victoria, a former star of the Calgary Bronks football team, and Sergeant Pilot Gerry Clarke of Winnipeg, who was reported missing after the afternoon operation.
Sergeant Pilot Jack Aubrey Ferguson of South Port Morien, N.S.; Flight Sergeant Jim Whitman of Edmonton; Pilot Officer Ian Ormston of Montreal; Pilot Officer Don Blakeslee of Cleveland, Ohio and Morrison were the other pilots in the fighter screen.

Canadians in Crews
Canadian members of the crews of the Wellingtons and Whitleys, which carried the paratroops, included, besides pilots whose names are not immediately available: Flight Sergeant A. Bradshaw of. Edmonton; Wireless Operator-Air Gunner Sergeants L. J. Narveau of Cornwall, Ont. and L. D. Jackson of Saint John, N.B.; Air Gunner R. J. Heather of Toronto; Observer J. Dremers of Timmins, Ont.; Wireless Operator-Air Gunners A. E. Shaw of Paris, Ont. and R. W. Taylor of Victoria; Observer T. R. Cattle of Toronto; Air Gunners D. F. Campbell of Toronto, R. J. Chisholm of Vancouver and H. W. Bydwell of Montreal and Wireless Operator-Air Gunner H. F. Tice of Hamilton, Ont.
During the second escort job of the day Morrison tackled a Focke-Wulf 190 which was roaring in to attack Ormston. It was the second time the dark-haired Toronto youngster had saved his Montreal companion from attack by a Nazi aircraft.
"Ormy," Morrison said, "was about 100 yards in front of me when the 190 suddenly appeared about fifty yards over my head, going for Ormy. I sort of pulled up after him and chased him around, but I took a squirt at him and saw the shells explode in the front of his cockpit. He just rolled over and went down in a dive with a trail of smoke behind him."

Went for Two More
Morrison followed the Nazi down to 12,000 feet in an 8,000-foot dive, but had to leave him "because I saw two more Jerries over on my left and went for them."
"They attacked a bunch of Spits," he continued. "One of them broke off and I took a squirt. He started shooting out black smoke and I was just about to close in and administer the coup de grace when two more Jerries came down and began to circle around. I figured it was time to go home — and did."
Morrison and his companions were uncertain what happened to Clarke. The Toronto flier said he did not see Clarke during the action and Harvey said he heard the Winnipegger report over his radiotelephone that he had been hit.
"We ran into a bunch of 190's on the way back and apparently one of them went for Clarke," Harvey said. "I heard him say his aircraft was hit but that he was all right. Later someone in another squadron saw a Spit going down and it must have been Gerry."

_________________________________________________

BLAKESLEE, F/L Donald James Mathew (J4551) - DFC - No.133 Sq.
Award effective 23 July 1942 as per London Gazette dated 14 August 1942 and
AFRO 1413/42 dated 4 September 1942.

This officer has completed a large number of sorties over enemy territory. He has destroyed one, probably two, and damaged several more hostile aircraft. He is a fine leader whose keenness has proved most inspiring.

_________________________________________________

In "Fourth Mission Of The Day" by Gil Cohen, Blakeslee in depicted leaving his Spitfire after completing his 4th sortie on this long and harrowing day which saw approximately 5,000 Canadians, 1,000 British commandos and 50 American Army Rangers "test" German defenses by landing on the beaches of Dieppe. August 19th 1942, "Operation Jubilee" is now considered to have been one of the greatest air battles of the Second World War. Unlike D-Day, at Dieppe the Germans came out in force and the Allies had their single worst day of losses with 119 planes failing to return. The Luftwaffe, now with the "home-court"advantage, fared better with only 46 planes lost. Blakeslee was one of the fortunate ones, not only did he survive but he managed to destroy a Do217, probably destroy a FW190 and damage two other FW190s.

_______________________________________________

Victories Include :

RCAF / RAF

_________________________________________________

Read a great article on Don here at WW2 Ace Stories

American Aces

--- Canadian Aces ---

________________________________________________

Don Blakeslee holds the record for the most combat hours flown by an American during the war

_______________________________________________