George Owen Johnson

World War I service

Born in Woodstock, Ontario in 1896, George Owen Johnson initially served as a subaltern with the Corps of School Cadet Instructors (CSCI) (now known as Cadet Instructors Cadre (CIC)) from 1913 to 1916. He was accepted for the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) in Canada, but transferred to the Royal Flying Corps before going overseas in May 1917. Serving with No. 84 Squadron RAF he became an ace with one aircraft destroyed, two shared aircraft destroyed, and three 'out of control'. Later, serving with No. 24 Squadron RAF, he was credited with one aircraft destroyed, one shared balloon destroyed, two 'out of control', and one shared aircraft captured^[1] including Leut. Kurt Wüsthoff.^[2] In total he was credited with 11 victories. He also crash landed three times,^[3] damaging the aircraft he was piloting (one terminally), and his discharge papers noted he had a deviated septum (broken nose) suffered in an air crash.

He trained at No. 24 Training Squadron RFC and "A" Squadron Central Flying School RFC (now known as the Central Flying School), starting on July 7, 1917, graduating with 54 hours flight time, 38 hours 10 minutes of which was solo, September 27, 1917 for an 85-day course of instruction.^[4]

He served as a fighter pilot in Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 aircraft (According to aviation author Robert Jackson, the S.E.5 was: "the nimble fighter that has since been described as the 'Spitfire of World War One'"^[5])^[6] on the Western Front—in No. 84 Squadron RAF, 22 October 1917 to 18 April 1918; in No. 24 Squadron RAF, 18 April to 19 June 1918. He was awarded the Military Cross (MC)^[7] and Croix de Guerre avec Etoile en Bronze.^[8] In total, he flew 140 "Offensive Patrols" (OPs).^[9] These patrols were a combination of strafing and bombing raids and air superiority 'sweeps' designed to deny enemy aircraft access to the skies. The air superiority sweeps were flown at altitudes of 12-17,000 feet, which was no doubt uncomfortable in the small open cockpit airplanes which offered neither heat or oxygen.

After a months leave in June and July 1918, he spent July to December 1918 instructing in England in training squadrons (served at Training Depot Station (TDS) No.56, Cranwell, No.4 TDS, Hooton (Flight Commander and Instructor) and No.51 TDS, Shotworth).

He was posted to the Canadian Air Force (1918–20) No. 1 Squadron as a flight leader upon its formation overseas in November 1918.

personnel of No. 1 Squadron [Canadian air Force 1918-1920}

His MC citation read in part:

"He has destroyed two hostile machines, has driven down two others out of control, and has always displayed the greatest courage and coolness in the most difficult situations."^[10]

Interwar years

In July 1919 he returned to Canada and was appointed officer commanding, War Trophy Party, Canada, July 1919 to January 1920. Working with a team of approximately fifty men he assembled enemy aircraft for (mostly static) display in Canada. Several of these aircraft remain on display in Canadian Museums, including an AEG G.IV,^[11] a Junkers J.I,^[12] and a Fokker D.VII.^[13][14]

He was commissioned as a flight lieutenant in the Canadian Air Force (1920–24) in 1920 (His service number was C4—just four^[15]).

He was appointed superintendent of Camp Borden (now known as CFB Borden), previously "the wartime home of the RAF Canada flying training scheme. It included machine-shops, schools, garages, offices, quarters and messes, a central heating plant, paved roads, a swimming pool, golf course, and tennis courts. Most important, there were eighteen hangars each able to house ten aircraft."^[16]

But when he arrived January 1920, he found the buildings deserted, except for a caretaker and his assistant. With a crew of 9 men, he set about assembling the aircraft of the Imperial Gift. "Their task was to prepare the base to receive the gift aircraft then en route by sea from Britain. The first arrived by rail in mid-January, packed in cases weighing two to four tons. These were, Johnson reported, 'lifted from the cars by means of a differential chain tackle, lowered onto a sleigh and drawn into a hangar by horses. It was a very slow and tedious process involving a lot of heavy work but gradually better equipment was acquired. Drifting snow was a great handicap, for every morning it was necessary to cut a roadway through the drifts by hand so that the sleigh could get into a hangar. During the month of February the drifts were from eight to ten feet deep. The spring thaw slowed unpacking until the men, who had to open up quarters and kitchens between shipments, rigged a wheeled, team-drawn trailer to replace the sleighs. Hiring casual labour allowed the skilled mechanics to concentrate on assembling aircraft. All had been damaged in transit and needed careful attention before they could be flown, but Johnson had the first, an Avro 504, fitted with Curtiss snow skids and test-flew it himself early in March. Johnson tested each of the other machines as it was assembled, including four Airco DH.9As which were then shipped west for the first trans-Canada flight later that year."^[17]

He remained station superintendent for Camp Borden until appointed Assistant Director of Flying Operations, CAF, June 1921 under Wing Commander Robert Leckie in the Air Board. He participated in the first trans-Canada flight (Started from Halifax NS October 7, 1920 and arrived in Richmond BC October 17, 1920 using a relay of five of the Imperial Gift aircraft). He was then appointed to permanent force, Royal Canadian Air Force, April 1924 (this being his sixth Air Force to date, including the RNAS, RFC, RAF, CAF of 1918-19 and CAF of 1920) and was posted to RCAF Headquarters as Assistant Director of Air Staff and Personnel.

He went on to command flying stations, commanded Air Station Winnipeg (now known as CFB Winnipeg (May 1925 to August 1927), The duties of an Air Station commander in the 1920s involved considerable travel by road, rail and occasionally air to the various sub-stations. The record for 1926 is typical. He was on Temporary Duty (TD) for Militia Service, Fort William, 3–7 March 1926; TD to Lac du Bonnet by car, 27 April 1926; TD to Lac du Bonnet by car, 5 May 1926; TD by rail and boat to Norway House, 2 June 1926 and from there to Cormorant Lake by air, 7 June 1926 (return to Winnipeg 7 June 1926); TD by rail to Cormorant Lake, 9 June 1926; TD by rail to Lac du Bonnet 18 June 1926, returning 19 June 1926; TD by air to Lac du Bonnet, 26 June 1926, returning by rail 27 June 1926; TD by rail, Victoria Beach, 14 July 1926 and return same day; TD by road to Lac du Bonnet and return same day, 16 July 1926; TD by rail to Kashabowie, 22 July 1926, returning 24 July 1926; TD by rail to Collins, 28 July 1926, returning same day; TD by rail to Collins, 30 July 1926, returning same day; TD to Victoria Beach, 2 August 1926, returning same day; TD by car to Lac du Bonnet, 10 August 1926; by air from there to Norway House the same day; flew early morning of 11 August 1926 from Norway House to Cormorant Lake; proceeded by railway gas car from Cormorant Lake to The Pas, 11 August 1926 and thence by rail to Winnipeg the same day; Inspection Duty by rail, 22 August 1926; Inspection Duty to Lac du Bonnet and return by rail, 23 August 1926; Inspection Duty to Lac du Bonnet and return by road, 12 September 1926.

He attended the Preparatory Staff College course at Royal Military College of Canada, 1926, then RAF Staff College, Andover, 1926-27; Promoted Wing Commander, January 1929 and on same date appointed Assistant Director of Civil Government Air Operations, then Acting Director, Civil Government Air Operations, January 1931. Appointed Air Staff Officer, November 1932. Appointed Acting Senior Air Officer, June 1933. became Assistant Director of Civil Government Air Operations. From June to December 1933 he was Acting Senior Air Officer, Royal Canadian Air Force, commanded Air Station Trenton (now known as CFB Trenton) for two years (1934–36). attended Imperial Defence College (1936–37) (now known as Royal College of Defence Studies), and In March 1938 appointed first Commanding Officer of RCAF Western Air Command,^[18] based in Vancouver at the Jericho Beach Seaplane base. Throughout this period he was involved in the expansion of civil and military aviation, the use of aircraft in the exploration and mapping of Canada, exploring their use in mining, forestry, forest fire fighting and the creation of national and international air mail service.^[19]

He said of his interwar service it "was attempting to make bricks without straw", referring to the meager government appropriations and constant lack of equipment.^[20]

World War II service

He was made Air Member for Organization and Training (October 1939) and began work on creating and executing the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.

He then served as Deputy Chief of Air Staff (November 1940), and was promoted to Acting Air Marshal while deputized for the Chief of the Air Staff during the Ottawa Conference held in May and June 1942 where he was in charge of the arrangements and the planning of material for discussion. The result of the conference was an extension of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan to see it through the end of the war, and the entry of the Americans into the plan.^[21][22]

AOC No.1 Training Command of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (July 1942),^[23]

AOC RCAF Eastern Air Command (January 1943) 1943 is widely considered the turning point in the Battle of the Atlantic when allied tactics and technology combined to turn the tide against the U-Boats, and

AOC RCAF Overseas (April 1945 to July 1946), where he was occupied with completing the plans to redeploy the RCAF component of the 'Tiger Force' from bases in Europe to the Pacific Theatre via Canada, where they were to refit and train for the new mission^[24] and "to oversee the repatriation of RCAF personnel and to administer the RCAF's thirteen- squadron contribution to the British Air Forces of Occupation (Germany)."^[25]

He was awarded the Commander of the Bath (Military),^[26] the Legion of Merit (Commander) and the Légion d'honneur (Commandeur) as a result of his World War II service. He retired as Air Marshal in 1947. He died in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, March 28, 1980.

His CB citation^[27][28] read in part:

"Air Vice Marshal Johnson, as Deputy Chief of the Air Staff, was responsible for the excellent planning and construction of the vast number of stations required for the successful operation of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan as well as the increased Home War plans."

Personal life

Johnson married Jean Eleanor McKay (1894-1968) in 1924, and they had two children, Jean Margaret (1930-1995) and Doreen Eleanor (1933-2008). He married Sarah Jane ('Bobby') Roberts RRC^[29][30] (1896-1977) in 1969.

After living for some years post retirement in Florida, he returned to Canada in the 1960s and lived the remainder of his life in Vancouver, BC. He was always in attendance at the annual Remembrance Day Dawn Patrol breakfast held by the Air Force Officers' Association of Vancouver.^[31]

Legacy

There was a school named in his honour at the Royal Canadian Air Force base and training school in Summerside, Prince Edward Island. The Air Marshal Johnson School opened its doors in 1949 and served as an elementary school for the children of Canadian Forces personnel from Kindergarten through Grade IX until the base was closed in 1989.^[32]

Some memorabilia and his medal set reside at the National Air Force Museum of Canada.^[33]

According to Air Marshal Robert Leckie:

"During Air Marshal Johnson's many senior appointments in the Royal Canadian Air Force, including his responsibilities in such positions as Deputy Chief of Air Staff, and Air Officer Commanding in Chief of Eastern Air Command and the Royal Canadian Air Force Overseas, he at all times was considered a brilliant leader and an inspiration to those with whom he came in contact."^[34]