{"id":93480,"date":"2025-08-24T12:15:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T12:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/93480\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T12:15:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T12:15:09","slug":"firefighters-save-ww-ii-plane-crash-site-from-west-dalhousie-wildfire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/93480\/","title":{"rendered":"Firefighters save WW II plane crash site from West Dalhousie wildfire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Firefighters in West Dalhousie, N.S., have successfully saved a memorial to a fatal World War II plane crash from a nearby wildfire, preserving a tangible piece of Nova Scotia’s wartime history.<\/p>\n

It\u00a0was in the path of a wildfire that is threatening the area<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A memorial at the site honours two Royal Air Force airmen who died during a training exercise in 1944 while flying a de Havilland Mosquito B Mk XX, a Canadian-built variant of the bomber aircraft.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a wildfire news briefing on Wednesday, Dave Steeves\u00a0of the Department of Natural Resources said\u00a0a division supervisor from the area knew about the significance of the site and did his best to ensure its safety.<\/p>\n

Natural resources firefighter Cory Isenor\u00a0removed a cross bearing a plaque inscribed with the names of the airmen from the site.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ANatural resources firefighter Cory Isenor removed a memorial cross from the site of the crash to protect it from the wildfire. (Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources)<\/p>\n

The aircraft\u00a0took off from RCAF Greenwood on April 19, 1944, for a night training flight and crashed during the mission.<\/p>\n

It went down about 19 kilometres\u00a0south-southeast of Bridgetown, N.S., shortly after midnight on April 20.<\/p>\n

Pilot Officer James Gerald Brown, 20,\u00a0and Flying Officer Hugh Edward McCann, 21,\u00a0were killed instantly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AA memorial cross marks the site where two RAF airmen lost their lives in 1944. (Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources)<\/p>\n

Glen Gaudet\u00a0of the Wartime Heritage Association, an organization\u00a0dedicated to researching and memorializing First and Second World War\u00a0casualties with ties to Nova Scotia, says the site has great historical significance.<\/p>\n

“Some would probably say that it is just a piece of wreckage in the woods, but it is a reminder that during the Second World War, even far from the front lines of Europe and the Pacific, the cost of war was real and personal,” Gaudet said.<\/p>\n

He said the\u00a0memorial is one of the few physical traces of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan’s presence in rural Nova Scotia.<\/p>\n

\"AThe de Havilland Mosquito B Mk XX was a Canadian-built variant of the bomber aircraft nicknamed the Wooden Wonder because of the wood used in its construction. A Mosquito B Mark 25 is shown. (Department of National Defence)<\/p>\n

Brown and McCann were in Nova Scotia under that plan, like so many who came from all over the world to complete air training, he said.<\/p>\n

The Mosquito, nicknamed the Wooden Wonder\u00a0because of the wood used in its\u00a0construction, was a versatile combat aircraft.<\/p>\n

The plane that crashed was part of an operational training unit\u00a0based at Greenwood that\u00a0prepared crews for front-line service.<\/p>\n

The aircraft’s remains, primarily metal components given its wooden airframe, are still scattered across the area, known locally as the “Plane Crash Trail.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gaudet said\u00a0the site’s remote location makes it a poignant landmark.<\/p>\n

\"AThe plane crashed in a remote area about 19 kilometres south-southeast of Bridgetown, shortly after midnight on April 20. (Google Maps)<\/p>\n

“It is one of the only crash sites that is actually marked, where people can stand and reflect on the very tangible impact the war had on Nova Scotia,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s just a reminder that the Second World War came a lot closer in Nova Scotia than we think, and training accidents were fairly common.”<\/p>\n

MORE TOP STORIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Firefighters in West Dalhousie, N.S., have successfully saved a memorial to a fatal World War II plane crash…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-93480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}