March break makes for a week-long break from classrooms, but a museum in Brantford offers the chance to learn how local people served their country in times of war.
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The Canadian Military Heritage Museum at 347 Greenwich Street will open its doors from noon to 4 pm daily starting Saturday, March 9 through to Sunday, March 17.
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“We’re celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force, the 80th anniversary of Juno Beach – the Canadians’ invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944 – and the 75th anniversary of NATO,” said museum chair Bob Ion.
A new display area near the front of the museum contains photos and memorabilia from the No. 5 Service Flying Training School that would later become the Brantford Municipal Airport.
Opened in April 1940, a total of 2,143 trainee pilots learned to fly the multi-engine Avro Anson in intermediate and advanced squadrons, and attended bombing and gunnery schools before they were sent overseas.
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Another showcase pays tribute to Lloyd Bentley, a Second World War pilot-navigator, who died in Brantford in February 2020 at the age of 98.
“I didn’t realize he got some of his (flight) training in Brantford too,” noted Ion. “He was not (originally) from Brantford. I got in touch with his family that generously loaned Lloyd’s things for this commemoration.”
The museum chair opened Bentley’s logbook that showed entries from June 5 and 6, 1944 when he dropped paratroops during the D-Day invasion and took a glider into the area the following day.
Medals Bentley received, his uniform, and photos of him throughout his military career, and later as a veteran, are included.
Ion explained that a good many things have been brought out of the archive room and put into the rotation this season that can’t normally be displayed due to space limitations.
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“Everything in here has been donated by families or veterans,” he noted. “There are stories to tell. We can bring them out of the archives and tell that story.”
One such story is that of Capt. Harold White who received a Distinguished Flying Cross in the First World War.
“He had, I believe, seven kills as a Canadian pilot,” he said. “When those guys were probably 10 years old, there was no such thing as an airplane.”
Another display is a tribute to Robert Weese, an RCAF air gunner whose plane was shot down in The Netherlands during the Second World War.
“We had a family in here from Nijmegen (a city in The Netherlands) a few years ago, and the lady said, ‘I know where that grave is. The grave is not far from the house the pilot avoided before crashing the plane.’”
Ion said Weese’s family gave the museum a large trunk that contained his life story with photos from his childhood through to his death notice, along with his logbook that was missing the entry from his final, fateful flight on March 29, 1943.
“We are really excited about opening to the public,” said the museum chair. “We’ll have an enthusiastic group here to greet you and tour you around.
“Our volunteers put this all together and make this place what it is.”
Admission to the Canadian Military Heritage Museum is free, but donations are accepted.
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