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TheReview

‘Wadnasday, November 25, 1992 — €13

Airborne humor spices war time memoirs by Sidney resident

by Valorie Lennox
The Review

When Norman Emmott first
joined the air force, he was so
young that shaving was a novelty.

The one time he ran afoul of the
military establishment was when
he was cited for not shaving before
morming inspection.

Emmott duly explained the
problem to his superior:

“I always shave on Fridays, sir.
And today is only Thursday.”

The incident is one of many

described in Emmott’s book, One -

Foot on the Ground, which details
his 26-year career in the Royal
Canadian Aur Force.

“The book is mostly the humor-
ous aspects of my career — except
for the parts with my bomber
crew,” he says.

He was 17 in 1937 when he first
applied to join the air force from
his home town of Nelson, B.C.

Accepted and initially trained as
a stores officer, he transferred to
aircrew in 1942 despite opposition
from senior officers who were
loath to lose an experienced and
capable stores officer.

Assigned to become a navigator,

he claimed his greatest challenge
was learning to recognize the ships
of the French navy from the air

He put extra effort into studying
pictures of the ships, even creating
flash cards for himself.

The day of the exam, the ser-
geant announced, “You can forget
about the French navy. They sank
the fleet in Toulon Harbor last
night.”

Emmott completed his training
and traded his ledgers for a radar
set.

In his book, he vividly describes
one incident over Germany which
made him wish he was back in
Canada manning stores.

! had just given Linklater the
course to fly to get us back home
when the urgent voice of the
mid-upper gunner came, “Fighter
Starboard quarter — corkscrew
starboard — GO!” Linklater
kicked the rudder and shoved the
nose down and went into his spiral
evasive action, turning thirty

degrees and pulling out five
hundred feet lower, turning sixty
degrees back the other way, climb-
Ing to regain the height he had
lost, and then repeating the

A RELAXED MOMENT, Norman Emmott Gight) with a fellow
recruit in Vancouver in 1939.

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—

NORMAN EMMOTT in
1942.

maneuver, all the time chanting
what he was doing to make sure he
ended back on the right course.

“He's lost us,” the gunner
reported.

Emmott began writing his mem- ~

oirs “in fits and starts” about 20
years ago. He finished the book
five years ago, while still living in
Ontario.

Toronto-based Lugus was the
fourth publisher to whom Emmott
sent his manuscript.

There was a family connection
— the company had already pub-
lished a book, War at Sea, by
Emmott’s brother-in-law Frank
Curry.

Many of the stories in One Foot
on-the Ground — the flour-
bombing of an official parade,
heart-stopping aerial acrobatics by
a disgraced pilot — were told by
Emmott in articles written for a
magazine called Air Force.

“T’ve been writing articles and
stuff all my life, pretty well,” he
says.

Before the war, he used to write
poetry — a practice he dropped
when flying in operations due to a
Superstition that the gods of war

“do not like poets.

aS
Sean Pierce

Like all my comrades, I knew
very well that I would live forever.
Other people would be unlucky
but not me. Even when we flew
through the smoke from a crashed
Hampden at the side of the runway
we knew that we were invulnera-
ble.

Against the odds, Emmott and

his crew maintained their invin-

cibility through the war, although
Emmott came within inches of
being killed by a piece of shrapnel.

After the war, he stayed with the
Air Force unti! 1963 and then took
a civilian job in the aeronautical
industry, retiring in 1984.

He also wrote a children’s book,
Salvador: The Horse that Joined
the Mounties, which was pub-
lished 35 years ago.

A B.C. publisher is now consid-
ering re-issuing the book, Emmott
noted.

He divides his time between
writing, serving as provincial rid-
ing secretary for the Liberal Party
and as a member of the Air Crew
Association and the Allied Air
Forces Reunion Group.

He and his wife Patricia moved
to Sidney three years ago. As
newlyweds, they had lived briefly

on the Peninsula while Emmott
took a torpedo course at the Pat
Bay Airport.

“Four years ago my wife said,
I’ve moved 20 times for you —
you can move once for me.”

They retumed to Sidney, which
is described in Emmott’s book as
“so beautiful that all the promo-
tional brochures extolling the Cote
da Azur, Big Sur and the Riviera
actually describe Patricia Bay.”

BUSY BASKETS ‘30/2
Wp rh

Wishes everyone
avery Mery i, Wt
Christmas and aq Me
Happy New Year! Wl

656-6765
+

Ea DISTRICT OF

gg NORTH SAANICH
Proposed plans for Wain
and Bazan Bay parks will
be on display at North
Saanich municipal hall
until December 4.
Submit any written
comments to district of
North Saanich, P.O. Box
2639, Sidney, B.C. V8L4C1

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