Old Seal Beach Warrior Remembers 1945

Gordon Logan was bitterly cold that January night 65 years ago.

In addition to the temperature the 19 year old was also more than a little apprehensive the there were no clouds beneath the plane.  This would certainly make them a better target for the ‘88s’ …. the ack-ack (Anti-Aircraft) guns of the German Army.

His RCAF Halifax bomber was carrying 16 five hundred pound bombs that they successfully dropped on Ludwigshaven, Germany that night. The German Army had just suffered a tremendous defeat at the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes forest of Belgium.  Hitler’s Army may have been reeling but his air defenses were still formidable.

Logan looked back on that evening in a conversation with me last week.  “It was a ‘good bombing’ by that I mean  ‘successful.’  No bombing is really good when civilians are killed but that raid was one I will never forget.  There were hundreds of searchlights and we felt like every German gunner was looking just at our plane.  Flak was everywhere. Hundreds of pieces of burning metal going all over the sky.   On that mission our Halifax had some holes in the skin.  Many of our missions were ‘fair dinkem ‘ but not Ludwigshaven”  he said. (Note “fair dinkem” loosely translates into “piece of cake”)

Logan, a resident of Seal Beach (College Park – East) for 40 years, was 18 years old when he went to the recruitment office in Chicago to enlist.  After a brief conversation the recruiting sergeant told him he couldn’t enlist without a lot more paperwork because he wasn’t an American.
Gordon didn’t know he wasn’t an American.  His family had moved to Chicago from Canada when he was a youngster. Rather than go through the rigmarole of collecting all the required paperwork he decided to go to Canada with a friend and enlist there. One problem was the $5 bus fare. He was a little short.  His Dad asked how much more he needed.  “Four dollars” was his answer.  Pop  reached in his pocket loaned him the four dollars which was promptly paid when Gordie returned to Chicago in 1946. (Gordie didn’t know he was an “illegal alien.”)

In Canada he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force and went to Gunnery School and  then shipped out to England.  His crew was together for the entire duration of the war.  28 missions. Hanover, Hanau, Sarrbrucken, Stuttgart, Mainz, Essen, Berlin.

Logan flew on Lancasters, Halifaxs and Mosquito bombers.   His favorite was the wooden Mosquito,  a wooden plane that was one of the fastest bombers of the war. Normally the Mosquito’s went to the target early, in a sort of “pathfinder” group that dropped incendiary bombs to light the target.  (To view video of Mosquito click here.)

On one Mosquito mission, April 9, 1945, 300 of the planes went to Kiel Bay, Germany to bomb the sub-pens. An added prize was the pocket battleship the Admiral Scheer. (Similar to the  “Bismarck) The Scheer was by far the most successful German capital ship of the war and it fell to the RAF and the RCAF that day.

When I asked why he preferred the Mosquito…..I could tell by his glance I’d asked a really dumb question. “Because we got back to base a few hours earlier and that gave us more time at the Pubs!”

Gordie told me that he really didn’t mind the de-briefings that many of the flight crews complained about.  “As soon as we were debriefed we were given our ration of rum, about two ounces.  I was a youngster and two ounces was enough to quickly make me mellow.  We’d leave the  de-briefings, jump on our bicycles and ride of to the pub. “I was a pretty fair athlete in those days and could play the pub-games pretty well.  I usually won enough to pay for my pints.  I can tell you that the next mornings we’d look at those bikes and there was many a front wheel that was no longer round.”

On May 8, 1945 his notes say “Cessation of Hostilities.” His next three missions May, 8, 9 and 10, were his best of the war.  Each flight returned 24 released prisoners of war and they were rushed to hospitals in England.  In all Gordon had 456 hours in the air.

Gordon said that everyman in their crew believed that Captain Moffat, their pilot, was the best commander any crew could have had.  His only question, not really a complaint, was that Captain Moffat got the Distinguished Flying Cross and since all the members of the crew went to the same places and faced the same dangers he always wondered why the whole crew didn’t get a DFC?

The rest is history.  Gordon returned to Chicago and married his high school sweetheart Shirley in 1946. They moved to California and Logan retired from Metropolitan Life. This year the Logans celebrate their 63rd anniversary and 40 of those years were in Seal Beach, with there two sons and two daughters and their grandchildren. They  are truly a wonderful family.

Seal Beach can be happy that the flak over Ludwigshaven missed  our friend and neighbor, Gordon Logan. We’d have never heard about his gambling successes in the English pubs.
(IF YOU KNOW OF A LOCAL VETERAN WITH A STORY TO TELL – – WE WANT TO PRINT IT HERE!)

We should also remember other local veterans.  Here are a few:

Alex Gates Sr., Mike Bianco, Paul Knight, Jack Greenly, Joe Stok, Joe Rubio, Gil Hadad, Alan Mutke, Joe Boray, John Flude, Ken Able, Tom Spotskey, Don Bowen,Bob Conway, Joe Conway, Lou Faubert, Del Smith, John Child, John Clarke, D. “Willie” Williams, Bob Hamilton, Clark Mears, Sandy Hay, Ken McKenna, Jack Halpin, Gerry Halpin, Don Olson, Dick Sargent, Jason Rayburn, Bill Halpin

…….and thousands more.

Bless ’em all!