Air Aces, Season 01, Episode 01, George (Buzz) Beurling
- Thread starter diopter
- Start date
I have read the books published by the great air aces that survived the war. German, American, Jap, etc. One thing in common was exceptional eyesight. The Japanese pilot explained that they had to be able to see the stars in the daytime to qualify.
That probably explains their success and their survival.
That probably explains their success and their survival.
George Beurling spent some time in our area after WW2 before going to fight for the Israelis (only made it to Rome). My Father became friends with him and listening to the program, it matched everything my Father told me about him. I wrote this a few years ago based on my Father's found memories of an old friend.
Canadian George Beurling WW2 Flying Ace.
Photo of my father Gerry Plamondon (in bathing suit) and George Beurling WW2 Flying Ace circa late 40's. My father was spending his summers on break from playing professional hockey at his cottage in the Eastern Townships in Quebec, Canada and George Beurling was pilot & manager of a small Airplane charter business based on the Little Memphremagog lake. They became friends and hung out together, it was quite lively on weekends with a mix of former british RAF (now flying commercially for BOAC on the Montreal run) pilots and hockey players coming down to the lake on weekends. George Beurling was famous for doing crazy stunts, but he was an incredible pilot scared of nothing that came his way. Beurling payed his own way to England and joined the RAF and ended-up in Malta flying against the odds, shooting down Luftwaffe planes by the dozen. His RAF friends told my father many stories of him in combat. He would never fly in formation and was a maverick, when he saw German planes no matter how many he would break formation and attack guns blazings and disappearing into the clouds. Many a time his friends were sure he was killed, but he would always make it back with a plane missing part of a wing or tail section with plenty of new ventliation holes. He rarely came back from these sorties without a kill or two. Once he told of shooting down a plane with only three shots to the engine, naturally no one believed him untill he took them to the wreckage of the ennemy plane and showed them the bullet holes exactly where he had said he put them. After his exploits in Malta he returned to Canada and toured the country helping to sell War-Bonds. During his time at the lake after the War, he became a bit bored and he would fly along the river near Windsor Mills, Quebec and fly his plane under the bridge scaring the living daylights out of the local population. Once he took my father on a plane ride and took his plane up as far at it would go and started a dive towards the lake. My father started to worry he would not pull-up in time, the lake surface was getting closer and closer and my father started figuring out plans in his head on how to get out of this plane, at about a 100 feet Beurling finally levelled off the plane. My father said he never flew with that crazy guy again after that. One day he came to see my father and told him he was leaving for Isreal he had been hired as a fighter pilot to fly for the fledging Israeli Airforce, not long after that he died on take-off ferrying a plane from Rome to Israel. To this day my father is still convinced someone placed a bomb on his plane so he would not reach Israel.
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Date Taken: Late 1940's
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Place Taken: Deauville, Quebec, Canada
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Owner: Gerry Plamondon
Canadian George Beurling WW2 Flying Ace.
Photo of my father Gerry Plamondon (in bathing suit) and George Beurling WW2 Flying Ace circa late 40's. My father was spending his summers on break from playing professional hockey at his cottage in the Eastern Townships in Quebec, Canada and George Beurling was pilot & manager of a small Airplane charter business based on the Little Memphremagog lake. They became friends and hung out together, it was quite lively on weekends with a mix of former british RAF (now flying commercially for BOAC on the Montreal run) pilots and hockey players coming down to the lake on weekends. George Beurling was famous for doing crazy stunts, but he was an incredible pilot scared of nothing that came his way. Beurling payed his own way to England and joined the RAF and ended-up in Malta flying against the odds, shooting down Luftwaffe planes by the dozen. His RAF friends told my father many stories of him in combat. He would never fly in formation and was a maverick, when he saw German planes no matter how many he would break formation and attack guns blazings and disappearing into the clouds. Many a time his friends were sure he was killed, but he would always make it back with a plane missing part of a wing or tail section with plenty of new ventliation holes. He rarely came back from these sorties without a kill or two. Once he told of shooting down a plane with only three shots to the engine, naturally no one believed him untill he took them to the wreckage of the ennemy plane and showed them the bullet holes exactly where he had said he put them. After his exploits in Malta he returned to Canada and toured the country helping to sell War-Bonds. During his time at the lake after the War, he became a bit bored and he would fly along the river near Windsor Mills, Quebec and fly his plane under the bridge scaring the living daylights out of the local population. Once he took my father on a plane ride and took his plane up as far at it would go and started a dive towards the lake. My father started to worry he would not pull-up in time, the lake surface was getting closer and closer and my father started figuring out plans in his head on how to get out of this plane, at about a 100 feet Beurling finally levelled off the plane. My father said he never flew with that crazy guy again after that. One day he came to see my father and told him he was leaving for Isreal he had been hired as a fighter pilot to fly for the fledging Israeli Airforce, not long after that he died on take-off ferrying a plane from Rome to Israel. To this day my father is still convinced someone placed a bomb on his plane so he would not reach Israel.
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Date Taken: Late 1940's
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Place Taken: Deauville, Quebec, Canada
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Owner: Gerry Plamondon
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