Transport pilots faced risk with every flight
You could say he was flying high — but they were flights into enemy territory and it was during the Second World War.
Horace Schofield, pilot officer in Squadron 436, flew Dakotas and was well aware of the dangers. Flying into Norway after the Germans had departed was well known that snipers still lurked. The transport airplane Schofield was flying was taking supplies in and wounded out, said his son Laurie Schofield of Medicine Hat. There was always a risk.
Horace served with the Royal Canadian Airforce doing his training in Quebec and then training other pilots before being sent to Europe toward the end of the war.
He had not set out to be a pilot initially. After enlisting in 1940 and joining the infantry he observed pilots doing their training and decided it was something he would like to do. He took the aptitude test and passed, said Laurie.
His young wife Olive moved from Toronto to Quebec to be near him while with the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.
If Horace had any close calls as a pilot during the war he never mentioned them to his wife, said Laurie. He did speak about a bomber pilot he had known well who was killed by “friendly fire” — a bomb being dropped from above.
After the war Horace returned to Toronto, his home town, eager to continue a career as a pilot. He applied to Trans-Canada Airlines but was rejected because he was apparently colour blind. That he had about five years experience as a pilot in the Second World War didn’t matter.
Not deterred in his quest to fly, Horace was hired by Dutch airline KLM, though it meant moving to Holland and Olive was not keen on that. At the time Holland would have been recovering from significant devastation after the war and the transition would probably not have been at all easy.
His pilot’s wings were put aside. Horace’s career included about 25 years working for Loblaws and then for several banks.
“He was very good with math and numbers,” said Laurie.
It would be many years later that Laurie took his father to the air museum in Hamilton where many Second World War aircraft are on display. While father and son stood observing a DC3, staff heard of his war service as a pilot. It did not take long before they had him sitting in the cockpit. Laurie remembers his father’s hands gliding over the controls and he imagined him as a young pilot officer during the war taking command of just such an aircraft.
“It was looking back in the tunnel of time and seeing what my dad could do,” said Laurie.
In 1978 Laurie was living in Lethbridge and when his father was visiting he saw an opportunity for him to have another chance in the air. A pilot took him up in a small aircraft and even gave Horace an opportunity to land it.
Horace passed away on March 18, 2013 at the age of 95.
“My dad was a very upbeat, positive and forward thinking type of guy,” said Laurie. “He was my hero.”