Gander
USAAF B-24 taxiing in front of Administration Building and Hangar 20, ca. 1943
The development of Gander airport originated from a 1935 agreement between Canada, the
United Kingdom, the Irish Free State, and Newfoundland. This agreement called for
cooperation in establishing a regular North Atlantic flying boat service with Botwood,
Newfoundland, as a main refueling terminal. It was further proposed at the time to
experiment with land-based aircraft. To accommodate land operations officials chose a
large heavily wooded and uninhabited plateau on the north shore of Gander Lake. Known
locally as Hattie's Camp, the site boasted good weather and lay adjacent the Newfoundland
Railway, an important consideration when it came time to ship building supplies and
equipment. Equally important was nearby Gander lake, a potential flying boat base and bad
weather alternative should Botwood be inaccessible. Furthermore, both Botwood and the
proposed Gander Lake sites were on the great circle route - the shortest geographic air
route from eastern North America to Europe.
Construction of airport facilities at Gander - or Newfoundland Airport as it was then
called - began in 1936. Three years later the airfield had four paved runways and was the
largest airport in the world. The first landing occurred in 1938, completed by pioneer
Newfoundland aviator Douglas Fraser
piloting a ski-equipped Fox Moth. The first landing of an aircraft from abroad occurred on
15 May 1939. Pilot Charles Bachman, twenty-five, en route to his native Sweden, departed
the following day and was never heard from again. That same month two British Handley Page
Harrow tanker aircraft arrived to conduct mid-air refueling trials in conjunction with
Imperial Airways' transatlantic flying boat service. Although they discontinued the
experiment soon after war was declared, the idea was later adopted and further developed
by the United States, becoming routine in post-war air force operations.
Flight refueling Harrows, Gander, 1939
War prompted immediate military activity at Gander. In 1940, Canadian infantry units
and Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Digby aircraft of No. 10 Bomber Reconnaissance
Squadron arrived to defend the airport. From 1942 to 1944, RCAF Hurricane fighters, made
famous during the Battle of Britain, rendered aerial support and guarded the coastline
while RCAF Cansos and long-range anti-submarine B-24 Liberators escorted marine convoys
and patrolled the northwest Atlantic. By war's end RCAF aircraft from Gander had destroyed
at least three enemy submarines.
Gander's location on the great circle route made it an ideal wartime refueling and
maintenance depot for bombers en route overseas. Making these flights in midwinter -
previously regarded as too risky - was first tried in November 1940 by the Canadian
Pacific Railway's Air Services Department. The success of these delivery flights prompted
increased aerial activity and by 1945 Gander had serviced thousands of transient aircraft
from the Royal Air Force Ferry Command and the United States Air Transport Command.
Wartime Gander also became a stop-over for Trans Canada Airlines (later Air Canada) which
included Newfoundland in its North American routing in May 1942.
Airman in "Teddy Bear" suit preparing for overseas flight
With so much activity accidents were inevitable. In Gander and vicinity, aerial
mishaps claimed the lives of about one hundred military personnel. Many of them are
interred in the nearby Commonwealth
War Graves Commission cemetery. The most publicized accident occurred in February 1941
with the loss of a Hudson Bomber en route from Gander to Prestwick, Scotland. Three of
four occupants were killed including Major Sir Frederick Banting,
co-discoverer of insulin and Canada's first Nobel Prize winner. In 1990, Gander's 103
Rescue Squadron airlifted the wreckage to nearby Musgrave Harbour where it is currently on
display adjacent the Banting Interpretation Centre. After war's end in 1945, Gander's
location on the New York to London air route continued to make it a vital refueling and
maintenance terminal for east- and westbound traffic. By 1950, with upward of one thousand
passengers passing through daily and eight international airlines using its facilities,
Gander was affectionately termed "Crossroads of the World."
USAF F-80A Shooting Star, serial 44-85470, Gander, 1948
Credit: Derek Kearney
Pat Hickey, Gander Control Tower, 1950s