Brown, Herb

Herb Brown was born August 7, 1925 in Chatham, Ontario. He grew up on a farm a few miles outside the town, attending school via Greyhound bus!  The difficulties of the Great Depression forced Herb to leave school in Grade 11, and he took work at the Chatham Daily News.  During this time Herb’s two older brothers joined up, one in the armoured corps and the other in the navy, and when Herb’s turn came he chose the RCAF.  He reported to Manning Depot, where he entered the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, attending schools in Calgary and Fingal en route to becoming a Wireless Air Gunner (WAG).  Operational training in Nassau in the Bahamas was the next step, and it was there that Herb was crewed up.  The men then boarded the Mauretania for transit to England, where they stayed at a hotel in Bournemouth while awaiting their assignments.  Herb and his crew were deployed to India, and then assigned to 160 Squadron in Ceylon.  They flew 19 missions against Japanese-occupied areas and targets, notably in Malaya.  They began by dropping naval mines in the Strait of Malacca, and at a later point they were selected for “special duty”, flying solo long range missions  – including a 24-hour one – where they dropped soldiers and supplies deep into the jungle.  They encountered all the normal realities of World War Two missions, including flak, weather and tedium – and in Ceylon they also encountered elephants on the runways!  They flew missions right up to the end of the war, and even were in the air on the day they heard of the surrender.  Within a few weeks they were on a freighter bound for England; they stayed for the winter, bound for Canada in February 1946.  Once back home, Herb returned to his job, and he reconnected with Louise, and the two of them married and raised a family together, finding their way in the rhythms of postwar Canadian life.  Herb Brown was interviewed by Scott Masters and Zach Dunn at the Sunnybrook Veterans Wing in December 2025.