Donald Mervin Eastman

Before Donald enlisted in the Air Force and became a Royal Canadian Air Force officer, he attended Glebe Collegiate Institute from 1937–1942. After that, he went to MacDonald College at St. Anne de Bellevue. He mostly likely enlisted due to the fact that he didn’t have a firm occupation and that he was young. The events that could have contributed to his enlistment were Hong Kong (December 25, 1941), Dieppe (August 19, 1942), and the conscription plebiscite (1942). Donald was 21 (Dec. 9, 1942) when he enlisted in the RCAF. He spent nearly three years in training (1942–1944). He trained at Victoriaville P.Q. and St. Eugene and received his "wings" as a fighter pilot at Uplands, Ontario, shortly before V.E. Day, which was in early May, 1945. He was recommended to be part of the flight crew but became a pilot instead and flew a Spitfire XIV.

 Donald arrived in England on October,14.1944 and died June, 9, 1945. So he was on or near the front for approximately 259 days. He was part of 83 GSU which was a group within the RAF's second tactical airforce (2TAF) during WW2. By the eve of the D-Day landings, 83 Group had grown to a strength of 29 fighter, ground-attack and reconnaissance squadrons and four artillery observation squadrons, grouped into ten wings. At the time of Operation Market Garden (September 17-25. 1944) it consisted of the RCAF's 39 Reconnaissance Wing, 121, 122, 123 and 143 Wings flying Hawker Typhoon fighter-bombers, 125 Wing with Spitfire fighters, and the RCAF 126 and 127 Wings also flying Spitfires. His job was to provide cover for ground troops and the Typhoon fighter bombers.

    Donald was killed during a flight accident on June, 9. 1945. He was preforming a "sector recce" when he collided with a hemp cord which held up an aluminium sea maker MK III. The cord was suspended from a helicopter; which did not sustain any damage whereas Donald and his Spitfire were not so fortunate. There were nine witnesses to this event, and reports stated that he left Dunsfolds Station at 11.00 hours and levelled at 6,000 ft, the aircraft was next seen travelling from North to South over Lymington in a power dive. An aircraft flashed below a helicopter at approximately 11.45, which was flying at about 5,000 ft. Two miles south of Lymington. From the helicopter was suspended a hemp cord approximately 200 ft in length, and to which was attached an aluminium sea maker MK. III. The hemp cord and the sea maker were destroyed by the plane. An object detached itself from the aircraft at about 300 ft seconds before the crash and the time was approx. 11.45 hours when the plane crashed.

    
The group commander said that LACW Gardner made a mistake and did not distribute the Air Ministry Signal which stated that "No aircraft should fly within 500 yds. of the helicopter." Later the commander says "A mistake on the part of LACW Gardner and the Pilot cannot be held to blame. The blame must, therefore, lie with LACW Gardner." So it would seem that Donald was innocent in this event but LACW Gardner was more to blame for not distributing an Air Ministry Signal.

He was buried in Surrey, England, and lies in the Woking (St.John's) Crematorium.

Works Cited

Donald Mervin Eastman- The Canadian Virtual War Memorial - Veterans Affairs Canada, https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/detail/2834394. Accessed 1 November 2023.

“Second World War Service Files – War Dead, 1939 to 1947.” Collection Search, http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=kia&id=10268&lang=eng   . Accessed 26 October 2023.

Works Cited: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._83_Group_RAF

http://www.archives.mcgill.ca/public/exhibits/mcgillremembers/results.asp?id=89

Edited by P. Towler.

'If we do preserve it, we honour them, and when we in our turn pass on, we will know that behind us lives a generation of free men and of free women to be the keepers of this great heritage of ours - Canada.'

- Ian A. McPhee, former student at GCI, 1937.