Gander Lake’s B24

We have just posted this story under the same title on our website. This correlates with the project that Tony Merkle has undertaken to locate and attempt to recover this airplane. In recent correspondence he informs us that he is has made contact with the pilot’s son in hopes that he can attain more information on the crash itself. The pilot's son is now 72 years old and was born 21 days after his father was lost. Tony has completed a couple of searches with some positive results receiving interesting targets on the sonar returns. He had trouble with his underwater video equipment but has now re-equipped with higher tech gear. He plans to be back on the lake in June to continue the search.

Nominations Requested for the Board of Directors

The GAHS Board of Directors is requesting nominations for a director to replace a vacancy on the board.  This vacancy does not necessarily have to be replaced by someone from Gander.  Those who are interested please forward your intentions to serve as a Director to gahs.webster@gmail.com for our consideration no later than July 31. 

GAHS Officially Incorporated

We have been informed by our legal counsel that we have officially received our Incorporation entitlement. Our official title is now Gander Airport Historical Society Inc.( Incorporated). The next step is to receive charitable status from the Canadian Revenue Authority. Then we can proceed in raising funds for the old Airport Town Model. We will have more to report on this model after talks with the model craftsman later this summer. 

Restructuring of the WWII Era in the GAHS Website

We have just completed some housecleaning (restructering) in the GAHS website by adding an overdue section on Ferry Command. Our posting policy is not to flood the website with information but to prioritize our postings in an orderly and readable manner. This section is planned to eventually highlight some of the history of Ferry Command and of those that contributed historically to this venture. As in all restructuring work, errors in missing links,typos and omissions etc. will occur so we trust our readers to inform us of these ‘flaws’ throughout the website. Please keep us advised by using our website mailing address gahs.webster@gmail.com .

Opinion of Gander From A USAAF Officer In 1942

We just posted a confidential report from a USAAF Officer to his superiors on the living conditions in Gander in 1942. It is quite obvious the officer had not served before in a war zone in which the airport was considered to be. His observations on the conduct of others at the base is understandable but the living conditions is a different matter. He was very fortunate not to have had to live in a tent as others had to do in the western part of Europe at that time. One must also take into consideration the fact the US had just entered the war and maybe not prepared for living conditions in a war zone at that early stage. It is interesting to read about the observations of others on Gander at that time.