In case this helps, this was my dad. After completing his training at RCAF Manning Depot in Toronto he served in the station hospitals at RCAF Depot 4 Yarmouth, NS and at Goose Bay, Labrador. He was discharged on medical grounds in 1945 and he never talked about it.
A sister of his claimed that a plane he was in was shot down and he sustained serious injuries including the need for a metal plate in his forehead. He never talked about what happened. However, for several years after the war he suffered from seizures and would get quite emotional whenever there was the sound of a plane diving/crashing in tv shows/movies. After he and my mother passed away I came into possession of their courting letters and in one he revealed to my mother that he was in a plane crash in WWII. He had an album of pictures of the base in Goose Bay and about half a dozen or so of the pictures were that of a large burial procession of about a dozen coffins.
In looking at the records of servicemen deaths in Goose Bay in the online database of the Canada War Graves Commission (CWGC) 11 servicemen died on 6 July 1944. This was clearly the procession in question as the only other multiple deaths recorded there were 3 deaths on 10 March 1943 and 4 on 3 November 1944 (with another death there a week later). It does not look like this was the incident affecting my dad as he was not hospitalized around this time. They were:
Toronto Composite School hospital, from Friday, 4 June 1943 to Monday, 21 June 1943, (18 days followed by 14 days sick leave from 24 June 1943 to 7 July 1943);
Yarmouth station hospital, from Monday, 3 January 1944 to Friday, 7 January 1944 (5 days);
Goose Bay station hospital, from Wednesday, 6 December 1944 to Saturday, 9 December 1944 (4 days);
Goose Bay station hospital, from Tuesday, 12 December 1944 to Friday, 22 December 1944 (11 days);
Dartmouth station hospital, from Thursday, 11 January 1945 to Thursday, 25 January 1945 (15 days); and
Moncton hospital, from Tuesday, 6 February 1945 to Wednesday, 7 March 1945 (30 days followed by 14 days special leave from 7 March 1945 to 20 March 1945).
Based on the information I learned to date, the evidence suggests that any accident occurred enroute from Goose Bay to Dartmouth for Temorary Duty at #5 CMB Hospital Dartmouth. He flew there on 10 January 1945 and was admitted to Dartmouth station hospital the next day where he remained for 15 days. Twelve days later he was back in the hospital where he remained for 30 days. He was then granted 2 weeks special leave and then he was discharged. I presume that he was readmitted due to him starting to have seizures.
This is quite a family mystery. All I was able to get from Veterans Canada was standard genealogical type documents. The rest is sealed for 20 years after his death. I won't get access to this for a few more years. My health has been such that perhaps I won't make it to solve this.
Help on his proper uniform accessories and any ideas about what plane crash he might have been in is appreciated.
