Charles Arcand was born January 4, 1925 in Montreal, where he grew up in the city’s east end, near Mont Royal and DeLorimier. His father was a CP Rail yardmaster at that time, so even during the Great depression the family did relatively well. Charles left school in Grade 9, taking work in local grocery stores and the like. The war broke out when he was 14, and when he was 18 Charles decided to enlist, choosing the RCAF. He wanted to be a pilot when he joined in 1943, but when he went into the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan it became clear that the air force had different needs, and Charles was trained as a gunner and sent overseas to England, where he ended up in 425 Squadron as a gunner on a Halifax bomber. Charles and the men in his crew flew together in 33 missions; they were hit by flak, but as Charles recalled they were never seriously damaged – they were lucky. The war steadily wound down through 1945, and when the end came in May Charles and his crew celebrated – they were ready to go home. And that they did in the summer of 1945, as all were ready to find their places in postwar Canada. Charles Arcand was interviewed by Scott Masters at his home in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec in October 2025.
