Jane Hudson had heard the rumours that her residence on Maria Street had once been home to a soldier from Sarnia who had died in action in WWI or WWII. Early this summer, Jane learned that the rumours were true and that the soldier's name was William “Bill” Cameron.
Jane, who has a passion for local history, felt honoured that the house she had lived in since 1987 was once home to the Cameron family. And she has every reason to be touched. To many, and especially to another family with ties to Sarnia, Bill Cameron remains a hero nearly 90 years after his death. He was only 22 when he died, but his selfless actions on the morning of September 1, 1943, will never be forgotten.
Bill was born on March 28, 1921, the only child of Don and Ellen Cameron. When the Cameron family moved from Watford to Maria Street, Don worked as a pipe fitter at Imperial Oil to support his family.
At both London Road Public School and SCITS, Bill became a well-rounded student and athlete. He did well in a variety of subjects—English literature, trigonometry, zoology, and French composition—and was eager to play hockey, softball, and baseball. In August 1941, the year Bill graduated from high school and enlisted with the RCAF in London, the principal of SCITS endorsed him in a reference letter to the military. Bill, he wrote, “is a dependable and conscientious student and would, I believe, prove a very acceptable applicant to your Force.”
In August 1942, a year after he had enlisted, Bill was awarded his Pilot’s Flying Badge Of his graduating class of 80 students, only two graduates were chosen for immediate service overseas. One was Bill Cameron--he was that impressive, even at 20 years of age. Bill wasn't just thinking of the war, however; he was planning his life. After the war ended, he'd return to Canada and study engineering.
If he made it through the war, that is. Anyone who enlisted with the RCAF or the RAF knew the risks. During the course of the war, one of Canada's most significant contributions was its approximately 50,000 citizens who served with the RCAF and RAF in Bomber Command operations. Next to Britain, Canada was the largest contributor to Bomber Command, making up more than a third of all of Bomber Command personnel. The men who served in Bomber Command faced some of the most difficult odds of anyone fighting in the war.
The odds were not in his favour, but that didn't dissuade Bill. By June 23, 1943, he had become a member of RCAF #419 Moose Squadron with the rank of warrant officer class II-pilot. Named after its first commanding officer, Wing Commander John “Moose” Fulton, the Moose Squadron was part of Bomber Command. Its motto “Moosa Aswayita”, written in Cree, not Latin, translates to “Beware the moose--a ferocious fighter.” By 1943, the Moose Squadron was flying Handley Page Halifax bombers from RAF Middleton St. George in northeast England.
In early August 1943 at their Maria Street home, Don and Ellen read an article in the Canadian (Sarnia) Observer about an attack over Germany which involved their son. In the recent heavy attacks made by the R.A.F. and the R.C.A.F. on Mannheim and Ludwigshafen, Bill had piloted a Halifax bomber. The mid-upper gunner in his crew was fellow Sarnian, Sgt. Beverly Scharf.
Bill's reputation as a skilled pilot was well known among crewmen. Scharf was with Cameron's crew two weeks later when their Halifax was “coned” by searchlights on a raid over Pennemunde on August 17. When this occurred, Scharf reflected, it was “usually a death sentence for aircrews.” But Bill did not panic; his crew escaped unharmed because he made the Halifax bomber “bob and weave like a skilled boxer.”
Bill survived this time, but he was not as fortunate weeks later on his 19th mission.
At RAF Middleton St. George, Bill informed Bev on Monday, August 31, that the crew's assignment that night was to bomb Berlin. When Scharf protested, saying they'd be told that they were going on leave, Bill smiled and said, “Don't worry, Bev; it'll be our last one.” Bill knew that his mid-upper gunner was anxious to become a pilot. Scharf had lied about his age to join the RCAF when he was only 16. He was 18 on the night of the Berlin raid, but Cameron knew authorities were going to inform Bev after the raid that he would be returning to Canada to begin training as a pilot.
Later that night, Bill Cameron’s Halifax II aircraft JD270 (markings VR-P) took off from Middleton St. George, one of 622 Halifax and Stirling bombers involved in the raid. Scharf had wedged his six-foot frame into the tight space of his mid-gunner's turret and had a clear view of what unfolded as they approached Berlin. Despite facing flak that Scharf described as being “so thick it looked like you could walk across it”, Cameron found the target, waited for the aircraft to unload her bombs, and then escaped into the darkness past the ring of searchlights.
It was now after midnight. Unfortunately, only minutes after the Halifax had dropped her bombs, an enemy single-engine fighter aircraft, either on purpose or by accident, crashed into the port wing of Cameron’s aircraft. The sequence of events in the next ten minutes were both chaotic and terrifying: the outer tip of the Halifax’s port wing was sliced away; the port engine caught fire; and after flight engineer J.T. ‘Paddy’ Mullany managed to extinguish the flames, the propeller then refused to feather.
The crew had reached the point of no return and Cameron knew it. With the Halifax plummeting to the ground, he gave the order to evacuate the aircraft. The plane was now completely out of control, vibrating violently with some of her sections falling off during the rapid descent. But, Scharf remembered, Cameron never stopped trying to steady the bomber to give his crew a chance to escape. He managed to put the Halifax in a shallow dive at 5,000 feet, allowing crew members to parachute to safety. Their last image of Bill Cameron was the pilot perched in the cockpit, still fighting the controls to keep the bomber stable enough for his crew to exit the aircraft.
Only three crew members were able to escape: Sgt. Les H. Duggan, the wireless operator, was the first to make his way to the rear escape hatch; Sgt. R.E. 'Bert' Boos from Calgary followed him out; the last man to exit was Sgt. Bev Scharf. Years later, Scharf told his son, Gregory, that while he was parachuting to the ground, he saw no one else leave the stricken Halifax before she hit the ground and exploded. Since an escape hatch was in the cabin, Bev still wondered “why others didn't make it out.”
Perishing with Warrant Officer II-Pilot William Donald Cameron were FS. Victor Joseph August ‘Windy’ Wintzer; FS. George Ernest Percy Birtch; and Sgt. John Thomas Mullany (RAAF).
Not long after, the Camerons received a telegram from the Director of Records in Ottawa, informing them that their son and only child SERGEANT WILLIAM CAMERON WAS REPORTED MISSING IN ACTION AFTER HIS NINETEENTH OPERATIONAL FLIGHT OVER GERMANY. In February 1944, Don and Ellen received another telegram from Ottawa that gave them hope their son was still alive. This telegram advised them that SERGT WILLIAM CAMERON HAS BEEN PROMOTED TO FLIGHT-SERGEANT DATING FROM FEBRUARY 14.
His parents received no further details. Months passed and for a long time Ellen hoped that their only child would soon return, that he'd walk up the front steps and open the front door where his father and she would be waiting. Her heart leapt every time she heard someone coming up her walk, only to feel her hopes sink when she realized the person approaching the door was a postman or a visitor. Photos of Bill adorned the walls of their house and she hung his civilian clothes in the living room for when he returned home.
The war in Europe ended in May 1945. Months later on an autumn day, Ellen saw the silhouette of a young man walking up the front steps of their Maria Street home. At first, Ellen thought that it was Bill returning and she rushed to open the front door. Before Don and Ellen Cameron stood a young man whom they had never met but whose name they had heard before: Bev Scharf.
That Bev Scharf had survived the war was due to sheer determination and good luck.
When he landed safely near Berlin on September 1, 1943, his problems were just beginning. Villagers who lived near where he landed grabbed him, spat on him, threw things at him, and almost lynched him. The Sarnian was saved by the arrival of Luftwaffe soldiers who trained their machine guns on the crowd.
They brought Bev to a German POW camp, the first of several, where he remained a prisoner for the rest of the war. Life as a POW was difficult, but the most challenging part for him was the Death March of 1944-45. With the Russians advancing, the Nazis marched stalag prisoners and concentration camp prisoners west during a bitterly cold winter. The SS soldiers were as brutal as the weather along the way. During the six-day death march, anyone who could not keep up or continue was shot. Many others died of exposure, hunger, or exhaustion.
After the Germans surrendered in May 1945, Scharf and his fellow prisoners remained in a POW camp, now held by the Russians. He risked death by escaping from the camp in August 1945. Bev saw his opportunity and jumped on the spare tire of an ambulance, hanging on until the ambulance made it to the American lines. In the fall of 1945, he returned to Sarnia.
Throughout his two-year ordeal, he had never forgotten Bill Cameron.
When he returned to Sarnia, his mother urged him to speak to the Camerons to give them some peace. Even before he began speaking about Bill at their Maria Street home, Bev noticed all the photos of his former pilot throughout the house and his clothes hanging neatly in the living room. He recounted Bill’s courageous attempt to keep the plane stable, thus allowing the three survivors to get out. Bev also told Don and Ellen that as he was parachuting to the ground, he saw the Halifax dive and crash with Bill and three crew members still aboard.
Gregory Scharf remembers his father telling him that, upon hearing of Bill's death , Ellen “almost seemed relieved to hear the news.” In the next couple of years, she received medals, his logbook, and other reminders of Bill's time with the RCAF. When she passed away, Bev thought that she had passed away of a broken heart.
In April 1946, Bev got married, had two children, lived in Sarnia for a while, and eventually moved to Southern California where he worked in the aerospace business. In the 1960s, Bev and his wife, Marilyn, travelled to Berlin and visited the graves of Bill Cameron and the other crew members of Halifax JD270. Over 20 years had passed, but seeing Bill's grave must have evoked painful and poignant memories for Bev. Inscribed on Bill's headstone are the words PSALM XXIII.4
The limited space on the headstone left no room for the actual words of Psalm 23 Verse 4: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”
Beverly Scharf passed away in 2008 at the age of 84, but his family continues to honour Bill Cameron. Each Remembrance Day, Gregory Scharf pays a special honour to Bill because “without his courage or heroism, my family would not exist. We are his legacy.”
And Jane Hudson, who now lives in the former home of Bill Cameron, understands the sacrifice the young Sarnian made so that others would live.