Hynds, Jim

Jim Hynds was born in Toronto in 1922.  He grew up in the city’s west end, in the Bloor-Bathurst neighbourhood that he calls “Hogtown”.  Jim attended Harbord Collegiate and he recalls that life during the Great Depression – at least for his family – was not that rough as his father was able to keep his railroad job.  When the war came, Jim decided to enlist: he remembers that it was the thing to do.  His parents weren’t enthusiastic, but Jim went ahead, choosing the RCAF.  He reported to manning Depot, and began his BCATP training, where he was selected as a navigator.  Training took him to different parts of Ontario, and then to Halifax, where he was told he’d be going overseas to England.  The troop ship got Jim and his fellow servicemen to Europe safely, and he began his operational training in a Halifax bomber, alongside his new crew and the other men of Squadron 431.  The first “trip” saw them bomb the city of Osnabruck, the first of his twenty-two missions.  Jim and his crew were fortunate to make it through that mission and the twenty-one that followed largely unscathed, dealing with one flak hit and no significant injuries.  Other members of his squadron were not so lucky.  When his rotation finished, Jim headed back to Canada, returning to Toronto and his fiancé, marrying just two weeks later.  Jim opted to continue his military career, and he remained in the RCAF through the 1970s, building postwar Canada.

Jim Hynds was interviewed for this project at the Sunnybrook Veterans Wing in March 2019 by Kian Torabi, Aries Wang, and Helen Liu.