As a new era in the adventures of Halifax 57 Rescue (Canada) begins, I ask you to look above at the young faces of the warriors standing in front of their sword of Freedom and their steed in combat, their beloved Halifax.
Their average age was only 22 years when they volunteered to fight in Bomber Command, some as young as 18. The chances of them surviving a combat tour was only 1 in 4, with over 70% of them being either killed-in-action, killed or injured in training, or the lucky ones - becoming prisoners of war!
The Bomber Command loss rate is the greatest military loss rate of all the Allied forces which fought in World War Two.
And for the past 66 years your families and nation have enjoyed Freedom because of their sacrifice and effort in Bomber Command. For over 4 years (from 1941-1944), the only force able to strike back against the Nazis in Germany and withstand their drive to conquer our free world were these young airmen, the finest of our fathers’ generation.
As the Bomber Command Memorial in London,UK is being built, with dedication ceremonies planned in May of 2012, we ask you to think of the great sacrifice of the 55,000 aircrew of Bomber Command killed-in action (of which over 10,000 are Canadians).
We also ask you to come to visit us this season at the home of the Bomber Command Museum of Canada in Nanton, Alberta with our national “Memorial Wall” where the 10,000+ Canadians of Bomber Command are given final tribute for their efforts and sacrifice in preserving our Freedom and our way of life.
See www.bombercommandmuseum.ca for all the exciting events we have planned for 2011. Our next event is on June 4 during “Planes, Trains, and Elevators” celebrations.
Meanwhile, Halifax 57 Rescue (Canada) will continue to search the globe to find that special aircraft, the Halifax, which symbolizes the greatest effort of our Canadian airmen in Bomber Command and bring her home to our Lancaster in Nanton.
While our ultimate prize is RCAF Halifax LW170 from the deep, we will not turn our search away from our other projects to bring a Halifax to the Bomber Command Museum of Canada. Read on below as the exciting stories of Halifax treasures being reclaimed so that tribute may be paid to these young warriors of Bomber Command.
When we have both the Hallie and the Lanc together in Nanton then we will truly be able to tell the complete and great story of those young aircrews of Bomber Command who gave everything they had to protect us and keep us free.
Press on regardless…
On to Business - These are the Hali-facts:
Big things are happening on all fronts for Halifax 57 Rescue over the next 4 weeks.
The all important Halifax/Hastings shipment of parts is in the final stages of preparation for shipment by container to the port of Montreal. See below some of the gear doors and trailing-edge wing sections which were laboriously removed from the wing sections so that all sections would fit in the shipping container.
Many hours of hard work was done by our friends Mario, Justin, and George to get the wing sections to fit in the container, with just 4 inches to spare!
Thousands of dollars have gone into the preparation for these parts to come to Canada.
Their average age was only 22 years when they volunteered to fight in Bomber Command, some as young as 18. The chances of them surviving a combat tour was only 1 in 4, with over 70% of them being either killed-in-action, killed or injured in training, or the lucky ones - becoming prisoners of war!
The Bomber Command loss rate is the greatest military loss rate of all the Allied forces which fought in World War Two.
And for the past 66 years your families and nation have enjoyed Freedom because of their sacrifice and effort in Bomber Command. For over 4 years (from 1941-1944), the only force able to strike back against the Nazis in Germany and withstand their drive to conquer our free world were these young airmen, the finest of our fathers’ generation.
As the Bomber Command Memorial in London,UK is being built, with dedication ceremonies planned in May of 2012, we ask you to think of the great sacrifice of the 55,000 aircrew of Bomber Command killed-in action (of which over 10,000 are Canadians).
We also ask you to come to visit us this season at the home of the Bomber Command Museum of Canada in Nanton, Alberta with our national “Memorial Wall” where the 10,000+ Canadians of Bomber Command are given final tribute for their efforts and sacrifice in preserving our Freedom and our way of life.
See www.bombercommandmuseum.ca for all the exciting events we have planned for 2011. Our next event is on June 4 during “Planes, Trains, and Elevators” celebrations.
Meanwhile, Halifax 57 Rescue (Canada) will continue to search the globe to find that special aircraft, the Halifax, which symbolizes the greatest effort of our Canadian airmen in Bomber Command and bring her home to our Lancaster in Nanton.
While our ultimate prize is RCAF Halifax LW170 from the deep, we will not turn our search away from our other projects to bring a Halifax to the Bomber Command Museum of Canada. Read on below as the exciting stories of Halifax treasures being reclaimed so that tribute may be paid to these young warriors of Bomber Command.
When we have both the Hallie and the Lanc together in Nanton then we will truly be able to tell the complete and great story of those young aircrews of Bomber Command who gave everything they had to protect us and keep us free.
Press on regardless…
On to Business - These are the Hali-facts:
Big things are happening on all fronts for Halifax 57 Rescue over the next 4 weeks.
The all important Halifax/Hastings shipment of parts is in the final stages of preparation for shipment by container to the port of Montreal. See below some of the gear doors and trailing-edge wing sections which were laboriously removed from the wing sections so that all sections would fit in the shipping container.
Many hours of hard work was done by our friends Mario, Justin, and George to get the wing sections to fit in the container, with just 4 inches to spare!
Thousands of dollars have gone into the preparation for these parts to come to Canada.
As your Project Manager I will be over seeing final container loading and we hope this will be completed by June 10 with the parts arriving in Montreal 4 to 6 weeks later. The cost to ship the container will be ($12,500!)
This will be the largest expense this year in order to get our treasure home. BUT this is not all we must pay for and the items I wish to tell you about now are critical to BEGINNING our Halifax Project when the parts reach our shores.
As most of you know we were able to save (2) Hasting/Halifax center-sections including 2 sets of main landing gears for these wings = 4 main landing gears. In anticipation of some progressive museum in the world wishing to start their own Halifax project we will be ordering 2 sets of main spars for these 2 wings! We will use one set of spars and rebuild our own center-section and will save the other set for the time when another museum or collector would see the light and importance of beginning their own Halifax. Where are you, my French or Australian Halifax brothers??
The cost to Halifax 57 Rescue (Canada) to cover the alloy materials and tooling for the mains spar caps is just under $9,000. and we do NOT have the final funds (based on present rate of donations/contributions to the end of May 2011) for the acquiring of these rare main spar caps. We do have faith that those who read this report will come through for us with financial support we urgently need. Please read on for the bigger picture, before you ask yourself what you could do to help us financially.
Further to this, thanks to the National Air Force Museum of Canada and Director Chris Colton in Trenton, we have received the loan of a Halifax propeller blade mold that they used to replicate composite material prop blades for their Halifax NA337. These blades are so rare that this is the only economical and logical replacement for Halifax blades for the Hercules-engined MK III and MK VII Halifax.
George Rosskopf, structures engineer on the Trenton rebuild of Halifax NA337, is now our Engineering Director for Halifax 57 Rescue. Utilizing his skills from working in a fiberglass boat factory before becoming an aircraft engineer, George is already making blades for our Halifax Project as you receive this report. These blades will be on display later this summer at the Bomber Command Museum of Canada.
The cost to replicate these 12 prop blades for our Halifax Project will be in the order of $4800. including all materials. We do need more funds to complete the prop blades project and do the important acquisitions at the same time. But you must read on to get the big picture.
So great demands are being asked of you, our friends and supporters, for you see the big picture and you understand that we have a momentum which should not be shut down by financial bottle-necks, as we approach mid-year of one of the most exciting years since we began our Halifax quest some 6 years ago. I ask no less of you that I demand of myself, for I wake up every morning and ask what can I do to make this Halifax Project become everything we want it to be!
These, my friends, are YOUR tools for OUR success.
1) Donate funds to Halifax 57 Rescue (Canada) via the post – see our 2 addresses available at the end of this report
2) Try our NEW PAYPAL internet payment method for all who have purchased
or contributed online (via your PAYPAL account) to our worthy and honourable charity. Go to our website www.57rescuecanada.com and see the golden “DONATE” button which immediately donates these funds to our cause from anywhere in the world (if you have a PAYPAL account!)
3) Donate your unused stocks, bonds, and securities to our Halifax 57 Rescue -
Royal Bank Discount Brokerage account and receive a “full market value” tax receipt credit for the donation of these securities. You will not have to pay income tax on the profit portion side of this transfer and donation. You receive full tax deductible credit for said donation. It is a win-win for all concerned.
4) Purchase a beautiful limited-edition signed print of our Halifax LW170
“INVINCIBLE ITEM” for ($165.00 including postage) or an unsigned print for ($60.00 including postage). This has to be one of the best prints of a combat Halifax that has ever been produced. We still have half of the 500 signed prints available to all you Halifax fans. See www.57rescuecanada.com for all print info.
And if you think in all of this great excitement about our parts and beginnings of a Halifax rebuild in Canada we have forgotten about our ultimate prize, RCAF Halifax LW170 in the Irish deep – the rarest combat bomber in Canadian aviation history, think again!
I have been in contact with a company these past 4 weeks who have deep sea sonar contracts this summer near the Halifax LW170, with the highest technology available which can find LW170 for us. We await word on approval for them to help us find our LW170 and we hope to have more good news on this in the coming weeks.
Remember, we now have the start and foundation of not just one but actually 2 new Halifax projects for Canada and we have found many good parts to build up our project as well as a very good opportunity for locating our ultimate treasure, LW170, in the deep.
We are actively searching for more corporate sponsors like our good friends and allies of Sprung Instant Structures Ltd., Canadian Pacific Railway, and Mullen Trucking. These progressive companies are truly interested in saving our history and heritage. We thank them for their cooperation and support.
And now it is your turn to do the same for Halifax 57 Rescue. Help us now.
Help us again. Help us for the first time.
You have been told of several ways to contribute. We would love to hear from you in this regard.
This aircraft, the Halifax, and this project are truly unique. I keenly hope you can see the historic potential and significance. This project has become the ultimate adventure and tribute to the huge contribution and sacrifice of our Allied aircrew of Bomber Command.
As you look below at another fine photo of our young warriors with their “Sword of Freedom” I hope that you will agree we must not fail them in this tribute, as they did not fail us when they flew to Victory and Freedom some 60 years ago.
And remember,
WE LEAVE NO HALIFAX BEHIND
