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J12854 Flight Lieutenant Malfred Johan Carl Haakenson 1919–2006 Mal Haakenson was the elder son of Henry and Olea Caroline Haakenson (née Nygaard), born at Bella Coola, British Columbia on 6 January 1919. In 1922 the family moved to Berwyn, Alberta, then and today a small rural village of the Peace River region in the mid-North, settled as recently as 1910. In 1941 the village had been formally incorporated for just five years, so in the national Census that year when its population could be shown separately for the first time, the count stood at just 206 persons.
A steady gaze and a hint of grin. This undated formal portrait as an RCAF officer pilot may have been taken on gaining his wings or perhaps, as his J-series service number attests having enlisted in the ranks, on his commission as a Pilot Officer. Edmonton 1941
The trainee pilot’s personal test...can you fly a Tiger Moth below the span? Yes, you can.
No rank visible, no wings, but characteristic stance. Who’s that in the archway? A shared photo op!
Somewhere about that time, another Albertan, Gordon F Trudgeon, son of Francis F Trudgeon and Ada M Trudgeon of Lamont, also enlisted. The pair met up in 1942 as pilots in Scotland, only to find that back home in Berwyn, it was Trudgeon’s brother-in-law and elder sister who had the local pharmacy.
To Scotland 1942
A treasured picture from the family collection, with Mal and Gordon Trudgeon together, perhaps in 1943 and certainly at East Fortune - an RAF station some 15 miles East of Edinburgh. Left to right, rear: P/O Brown RAF, P/O G Trudgeon RCAF, F/O Street RAF, P/O Thomsett RCAF, P/O Hodson RCAF. Front: P/O Flannery RCAF, P/O MJC Haakenson RCAF. A sunny-bright day in East Lothian but still brisk, from the gloves, scarves and flying boots. It was at East Fortune that the two Canadians met. Haakenson, at least also spent some time in Yorkshire at Catfoss.
Book-ends! The shot as captioned has aircrew names but undated and without location. P/O MJC Haakenson (listed as “Harkinson”) is first left, front row. P/O Gordon Trudgeon is front row, last on the right—both are qualified pilots. The tall man ten from the left in the rear rank is one Sgt Ferguson, wearing the winged O brevet of the Observer, just possibly also destined for 211 Squadron. If so, it is the Scot known to Mal as “Jock”, 1321315 F/Sgt Allan Clark Ferguson, the Navigator/Wireless Operator who shared 21 of Haakenson’s 24 operational sorties. The aircrew are a mix of pilots and observers, both sergeants and officers, under the cheerful eye of F/Lt Nicoll and 44073 F/Lt Harry Gandy (with DFC and what appears to be the then-new 1939-1943 Star). Gandy had been promoted F/Lt on 27 June 1942. Changes in aircrew classification in July 1942 brought new brevets, authorised from 17 September 1942 (AMO A. 1019/42), including the Navigator’s winged N in place of the Observer’s O. A series of provisions allowed those who had already qualified with the Observer badge to retain it. Well into 1943, newly qualified men were still being presented with their O because nothing else was available! As for the medal ribbons, the 1939-1943 Star was first announced in June 1943 with ribbons issued somewhat later. As a rule, having already qualified as aircrew, it was only on starting at an Operational Training Unit (OTU) of some two to three months that pilots and off-siders teamed up as a crew. There were a number of OTUs in Canada, the UK and the Middle East for example, responsible for the final training of Beaufighter crews. This is, with virtual certainty, 10 Beaufighter Operations Course at an OTU. From the variety of dress (roll-necks and a greatcoat) it looks cool to wintry. On badge, rank and ribbon grounds, then, perhaps mid 1943. Haakenson and Trudgeon trained in Scotland and were at RAF East Fortune in 1942 before being posted to the Far East. At East Fortune, No 60 OTU was tasked with night-fighter training from July 1942 using radar-equipped Beaufighters Mark I and II. In late November 1942, the unit disbanded only to reform there as 132 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit for long-range and strike-fighter training, with Beaufighter Mark IIs. The timing, course name and number, and the presence of Haakenson and Trudgeon together in both shots, strongly suggest that this is their final 10 Beaufighter Operations Course shot at 132 (C) OTU East Fortune, perhaps mid 1943. Today, the airfield is the site of the Scottish National Museum of Flight.
Gordon, left and Mal, right. Firmly dated on the rear. Another treasure. A happy sunny shot, possibly from the full kit and light, the same day as the pilot group, above. 211 Squadron 1943 The well-regarded W/Cdr Pat Meagher took command of the Squadron that day, and two days later Acting S/Ldr JSR (Stuart) Muller-Rowland DFC arrived. He would follow Meagher as CO and was likewise well-regarded. Following the dispiritingly disorganised period for Beaufighter men in India up to mid-1943, the new Squadron was starting to pull together: the first two Beaufighters were flown in on 15 October.
F/Sgt Red O'mara, left. F/O Graham, middle. P/O Watson, right.
A rare print from the working-up period. A heavy, sultry day by the look of it. Heat damage to photo negatives and prints like this was quite common.
There was an element of danger in all wartime flying, not just on operations. The Squadron’s working-up period, following a period of comparative inactivity, was thus somewhat tense. From mid October to the end of December, one Bisley and three Beaufighters were damaged, some due to hydraulic problems. More disturbingly, three of the Squadron’s 16 Beaufighters were destroyed in accidents with the loss of five aircrew. From 5 November onwards, the Squadron began to move east to Ranchi, by air, rail and road, arriving on 10 November. At this time, Haakenson fell ill with malaria and was admitted to hospital, one of 16 admissions that month with either malaria or dysentery. They had a lot of trouble with malaria in the first six months. Perhaps it was for that reason that Haakenson does not appear in the Squadron ORB again for some time. Strike-fighter pilots Half a world away from home, their Squadrons were now based within about 40 miles of each other on the great flood-plain of East Bengal. Their roles were much the same: long-range low-level strikes in the pugnacious Beaufighter against the Japanese, an enemy of the fiercest tenacity. Gordon, posted with 27 Squadron to Agartala and then Parashuram, soon had a head start over Mal on operations. On 11 March 1944 he and his navigator F/O Dobson added no less than five to the Flying Elephants’ bag of locomotives destroyed, bringing the unit’s total to 202.
Now Flying Officer with 211 Squadron at Bhatpara, Haakenson’s first sortie came on 15 March 1944 with F/Sgt Lightfoot in the rear seat as they took LZ230 'A' on a four aircraft RP attack on a bridge at Lami. All returned safely. The right tactics for rocketry were still being sorted out, and if (like other bridge attacks) the results reported this time were disappointing, it was not too long before more suitable targets and more satisfying results were in hand. By coincidence most poignant, it was on this same day that J20114 Pilot Officer Gordon Foster Trudgeon RCAF of 27 Squadron RAF was lost, aged 22. In Beaufighter VIF EL453 he and George Dobson were shot down by heavy Bofors fire near Taungup, a strongly defended target. They lie together in Rangoon War Cemetery. But for Haakenson the next sorties with 211 Squadron came quickly. On 19 March he was in the air with F/Sgt Jock Ferguson the Scot in Beaufighter X LZ381 'P', and again with Ferguson on 22 March. By the end of the month the pair had completed a fourth trip together, on 28 March in Beaufighter X NE516 ‘Y’. Despite close personal loss, with four operations under their belts by the end of March the two might start to feel some confidence.
A graphic image, not least because of the apparent heat damage to the print and perhaps its negative. The aircraft is running up, perhaps waiting for clearance to taxi. The cockpit hood is open. Haakenson was later to recall that when cleared for take-off, Beaufighters occasionally failed to taxi out, with the pilot passed-out in the cockpit. In letters home, Gordon Trudgeon also remarked on the conditions, and putting up with the all-too-easily acquired Prickly Heat. For the first half of April, Haakenson carried on at about the same rate with four more operations, two of them in Y-Yoke, one of them at night, and three in all with Ferguson. Having got a real feel for things with eight trips up, the pair now had a break. Then came May and the pace was really on. They carried out no less than 12 sorties that month, all but one of them together, three of them at night, seven of them in Y-Yoke, presumably NE516. Assuming it was the same aircraft, they must have started to feel it was "their" Beau. The ORB summary for May remarks "this month has been an extremely busy one as our efforts were stepped up prior to the monsoon". Indeed Mountbatten, with good reason and RAF support, was about to put aside previous convention and the arrival of the filthy seasonal weather—much rain, wind, thunder and etc—saw little slackening of air effort. Haakenson, made deputy flight commander, was promoted to Flight Lieutenant sometime between 25 May and 31 May 1944. Other than the new rank of his ORB sortie entry there was no note of his promotion, a fairly typical display of ORB terseness in a busy time. On the last day of May, as the Squadron moved to Feni, came their 20th sortie (18th for Ferguson) albeit not in Y-Yoke but in X-Xray. Quite a milestone, though with plenty more to do before reaching the “tour expired” goal of 200hrs of sorties. Flight Lieutenant The Squadron was notable for its strong Dominion character throughout the war, with Australians, Canadians and New Zealanders all well represented. The first Canadian of the Squadron in WWII was 41000 KCVD Dundas DFC of Pelly, Saskatchewan. Ex RCAF, Dundas had joined the RAF direct in 1938 and was posted to 211 Squadron in the Western Desert in mid 1939. In the dark days of April 1941 in Greece, his Squadron Leader missing in action, Ken Dundas was promoted to F/Lt. In Sumatra by February 1942 as Squadron Leader in charge of half the Squadron, Ken Dundas died with his Blenheim crew during a night raid on Kluang from Sumatra. On re-forming as a Beaufighter strike unit in India, about half the pilots of the Squadron were RCAF men attached to the RAF. In that testing non-operational period at Ranchi in 1943, J8141 JR Edgar RCAF died in a flying accident on 27 December, alone in Beaufighter LZ151. A Flying Officer according to the Squadron record, his Commonwealth War Graves Commission entry was as F/Lt Edgar. Retroactive promotion was not uncommon in the RCAF, but unlikely to be widely known of on the Squadron. Now no aircrew of the 1940 to 1942 Blenheim period went on to serve in the Beaufighter Squadron from 1943. The two groups had survived rather different tests and, while equally firm in their regard for "their" Squadron, each sees the other as a rather distinct group to this day. So, then, it is fair to say that Malfred Haakenson was the first RCAF man to be promoted F/Lt on Beaufighter operations with 211 Squadron, while noting with respect the earlier efforts of his lost countrymen. Whatever his inner pride about such an achievement, it is unsurprising he was off-hand about it—a reaction that Dundas and Edgar may have very likely well understood. “Turn again our captivity...” At 0610hrs, somewhere far over Burma, Ferguson was able to get off an SOS signal by VHF and to transmit the long dash seeking a QDM (the radio request for a bearing home). Feni, Chittagong and Cox’s Bazaar all replied, with bearings which placed them somewhere East of Magwe on the wrong side of the Irrawaddy perhaps 350 miles from Feni. Despite the bearings and further calls, nothing more was heard from Y-Yoke: J12845 F/Lt MJC Haakenson RCAF and his Nav/W 1321315 F/Sgt AC Ferguson did not return. Meanwhile, in D-Dog, F/Sgt Dickinson and his NAv/W Sgt Lacey had encountered monsoon weather so unsatisfactory that they made for the Arakan coast and returned to base after three hours in the air. Posted missing, the Squadron had no news of Haakenson and Ferguson until May 1945. They had been shot down. Wounded himself, Haakenson found that Jock Ferguson took some convincing to leave the aircraft. They did bale out, managing by luck to find each other on the ground, only to end up near their crashed aircraft. Taken PoW, they were among the 211s to be held under frankly appalling conditions in Rangoon Gaol. Both survived.
The origins of this well-known shot are uncertain. Copies exist in the Imperial War Museum, in Canadian private archives and appear in a number of books on the Burma war. The lanky form of W/C JES Hill is centre rear. He had been a Flight commander with 211 Squadron before a posting to command of 177 Squadron in late January 1944. Hill was shot down, with his navigator F/O GW Broughton, on a central Burma sortie on 5 October. Identified confidently by Ada Haakenson, Mal Haakenson stands on the left, his bandaging corresponding to the wounds to legs, hip and buttocks that he suffered on being shot down. Haakenson and his navigator, F/Sgt Jock Ferguson, were both well enough in April 1945 to be among the group of prisoners selected by the Japanese to be marched from the Gaol on 26 April. It seems unlikely that Haakenson might have been able to march in this bandaged state. The condition of the men shows clearly that they have been in captivity for some time. Nor does the demeanour of the men, a sort of defiant composure, suggest anything of the sheer joy of other PoW liberation shots (Eric Johnson & co on the Far East page, for instance). Rather than an image on liberation, this may be an example of a Japanese propaganda photograph. Jock Ferguson was one of a number to break away from the march and was later reported safe. He returned to Scotland. 402942 Harvey Besley MM RAAF, who went from 72 OTU to 11 Squadron and survived a collision between two Blenheim IVs over Meiktila on 5 April 1943 to fall captive, was another who broke away with a group, giving a telling account in his Pilot, Prisoner, Survivor long after his return to Queensland. In the main party, Haakenson and the others were also soon safe in allied hands, being taken in by advancing Army units who had had news of their presence. Among the other Canadian survivors of Rangoon Gaol were Keith Cuddy of Manitoba, another 211 who had joined the Squadron as early as 26 August 1943; Herb Ivens, a Thunderbolt pilot of 146 Squadron, who stood armed with wooden spear outside the gates of the Gaol with Lionel Hudson’s scratch Rangoon Force after the Japanese had quietly withdrawn on 29 April 1945; and one F/Lt Kenneth Wheatley J17581 RCAF, apparently of 77 Brigade. Haakenson and Wheatley were both returned by air to India and hospitalised together at 74 IGH Comilla. The others returned to India by sea. Promoted Flight Lieutenant, 24 Beaufighter strike operations over Burma, shot down, and survived the grim pleasures of a year in Rangoon Gaol still with a bit of a grin. A hell of an achievement. Fortis et liber: back to Alberta, strong and free The Far East war had some months to run and he spent some of this time at a rest centre in Northern India recovering, where he started writing again to Ada. They must have been good letters. When he got off the train at Edmonton on 23 July 1945, she was on the platform to meet him. Malfred proposed on the spot and Ada accepted. Ken Wheatley was best man at their wedding on 23 August.
F/Lt Ken Wheatley, best man, left. Malfred and Ada beaming, centre. Right, her sister and bridesmaid, Thelma. Alberta girls! Mal and Ada made their new life together back in Berwyn, north of the Peace River. Although he had some engaging yarns about Squadron life that he was happy to share with family after the war, like many of his fellow servicemen, Mal Haakenson was little inclined to speak of his service or captivity. Interviewed by the Press on his return to Canada, his assessment of the Japanese and their habit of beating up prisoners wounded or hale was terse: “not at all gentle”. A good farm man with a taste for history and literature, in later years Mal Haakenson found practical answers if the shadows of the past loomed. Occasionally he would up-sticks and travel, with Ada or alone: to England, to Cuba, to visit Keith Cuddy and swap the stories that only servicemen can share. Cuddy passed away in January 1997. In his 70s Mal took up flying once more, finding peace in the sky at the stick of C-IFHJ, his 1987 Birdman Chinook WT II. At 83 he finally called it a day, but the neat little two-seater is still on the Canadian register.
His RAF Pilot’s Logbook apparently does not survive, while his RCAF record of service may take some time yet to retrieve. It is thanks to Lorraine and her mother that some of Mal and Gordon’s story can be told here, pieced together from treasured photographs, news cuttings, and fondly remembered yarns, rich additions to the detached record of the Squadron’s work. Malfred Johan Carl Haakenson of Berwyn, Alberta passed away on 26 February 2006, aged 87. A full life, of humour, warmth and quiet steadfastness. Survived by Ada his wife and companion of 61years and their five children, he is much missed. In October 2007, Ada Haakenson and her daughter Lorraine held a memorial service for Gordon Trudgeon in Lamont. It was well attended and warmly received. Sources H Besley Pilot, Prisoner, Survivor (Darling Downs Institute 1986)
www.211squadron.org © DR Clark & others 1998–2008 |
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