Andrew Charles Mynarski
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| Andrew Charles Mynarski | |
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 "Andy" Mynarski c.1943
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| Born | 14 October 1916 Winnipeg, Manitoba |
| Died | 13 June 1944 Cambrai, France |
| Occupation | Aviator |
Andrew Charles (Andy) Mynarski, VC (14 October 1916 - 13 June 1944) was a Canadian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for bravery in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Mynarski was 27 years old and flew with 419 "Moose" Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War when he gave his life to help rescue a trapped crew member.
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[edit] Early years
Andrew Charles Mynarski was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba on 14 October 1916, the son of recent Polish immigrants. Known as Andy by his close friends, he had five other siblings, two brothers and three sisters. Mynarski was educated at King Edward and Isaac Newton Elementary Schools, later graduating from St. John's Technical School. To help support his family after his father's death, at the age of 16, he worked as a chamois cutter for a furrier in Winnipeg. He was well regarded by the furrier as he turned out to be a hard-working and skillful employee, considered "good with his hands." His hobbies included building furniture and aircraft models in a workshop that he built in his family's basement.
[edit] Wartime
In 1940, he joined the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, a militia unit, but only served a short time before enlisting in the Royal Canadian Air Force. In September, 1941, he was posted to No. 3 Manning Depot in Edmonton. After basic training, he went to No. 2 Wireless School in Calgary but had trouble with learning Morse Code. He was then posted to No. 3 Bomb and Gunnery School at MacDonald, Manitoba, graduating just before Christmas as an air-gunner, earning his AG "Wing."
He was promoted to temporary Sergeant in Halifax just prior to going overseas in January 1942. After a series of transfers through operational training units, as a Warrant Officer (second class), he joined Flying Officer Art de Breyne's crew as the mid-upper gunner in 419 "Moose" Squadron, flying out of RAF Middleton St. George, Yorkshire. This squadron first flew combat operations using Vickers Wellington bombers before converting to the Handley Page Halifax bombers. After a short introduction to this four-engine heavy bomber, 419 squadron began to receive the superlative Avro Lancaster bomber in 1944, including examples built in Canada by the Victory Aircraft Company in Malton, Ontario. In early June, de Bryne's crew received Avro Lancaster Mk X bomber, #KB726, coded "VR-A" (call sign A for Able).
[edit] The Last "Op"
In the aftermath of D-Day attacks, on 12 June 1944, the 13th "op" of the crew, Mynarski was aboard VR-A, taking part in a raid on northern France. After encountering flak over the coastline and briefly being "coned" by searchlights, the Lancaster was attacked by a Ju-88 enemy night fighter over Cambrai, France. Raked by cannon fire with major strikes on the port engines and centre fuselage, a hydraulic fire engulfed the bomber. Loosing both port engines, the captain, F/O Art de Breyne, ordered the crew to bail out. As Mynarski approached the rear escape door, he saw through the inferno in the rear that his close friend, the tail gunner, Pilot Officer Pat Brophy, was trapped in his turret. The tail turret had been jammed part way through its rotation to escape position.
Without hesitation, Mynarski made his way through the flames to Brophy's assistance, but all his efforts were in vain. Beating at the turret with a fire axe and finally with his hands, with his own clothing and parachute on fire, Brophy eventually waved him away. Mynarski crawled back through the hydraulic fire, returned to the rear door where he paused and saluted. He then reputedly said "Good night, sir," his familiar nightly sign-off to his friend, and jumped.
Except for Brophy, all crew members of the Avro Lancaster managed to escape the burning bomber. Five were in fairly good condition; however, one had been knocked out while trying to bail out. Jack Friday, the crew's bomb aimer, had tried to release the front escape hatch in the aircraft's nose but the rushing wind ripped it from his hands. The hatch caught him above his left eye. Flight engineer Roy Vigars finding Friday unconscious, quickly clipped on Friday's parachute and tossed his limp body out the hatch while controlling the crewman's rip cord. Vigar's actions likely saved everyone on board who were descending though the front escape hatch. Only Andy Mynarski managed to leave via the rear door.
Tragically, Mynarski's descent was rapid due to the burnt shroud lines on his parachute with a resulting heavy impact on the ground. He landed alive, though severely burned with his clothes still on fire. French farmers who spotted the flaming bomber found him and brought him to a German field hospital but he died shortly afterwards of severe burns. He was buried in a local cemetery. Pat Brophy remained trapped in the bomber and remained with the airplane when it crashed. He survived the crash and the subsequent detonation of the bomb load and was propelled, alive, from the tail turret.
Four of the crew members: Brophy, navigator Robert Bodie, radio operator James Kelly and pilot de Breyne were hidden by the French and, except for Brophy, returned to England shortly after the crash. Vigars and the wounded bomb aimer Friday were captured by the Germans and interned until they could be liberated by American troops. Pat Brophy joined French Resistance fighters and, after waging war on the ground behind enemy lines, made it back to London in September, 1944 where he learned of Mynarski's death. It wasn't until 1945 when Pat Brophy was reunited with Art de Breyne and the rest of the crew, that the details of his final moments on the aircraft were revealed. He related the story of the valiant efforts made by Mynarski to save him.
At late 1945, Art de Breyne started the process of recognizing Mynarski's extraordinary deed by recommending an award for "Andy" and enquiring about the location of his grave. The recommendation worked its way up the command structure of the RCAF and RAF. On 11 October 1946, a Victoria Cross was postumously awarded for "valour of the highest order" to Andrew Charles Mynarski, by then, also awarded the rank of Pilot Officer.
[edit] The medal
The Victoria Cross medal was loaned by the Mynarski family to Air Command in 1989 and is on display in the foyer at the entrance to the Mynarski Memorial Room of the Headquarters, 1 Canadian Air Division, in Winnipeg (where a number of other family artifacts are on display). No. 419 Squadron in CFB Cold Lake displays the original fire axe that Mynarski used to try to free the jammed Lancaster turret; the axe was recovered from the Lancaster bomber at the crash site in northern France.
[edit] Remembering Andrew Mynarski
The story of “Andy” Mynarski is also the story of a north-end Winnipeg hero; today, a Junior High school in Winnipeg, Andrew Mynarski VC School, a park in Alberta, the Royal Canadian Legion "Andrew Mynarski" Branch 34 and 573 "Andrew Mynarski" Air Cadet squadron bear his name. On Remembrance Days, his story is recounted as a tale of individual courage, but it is much more than that, it is a story as timeless as his heroism, it is a story of a community, of Polish immigrants, of young men who went off to war and the generation of today that still needs to know his story.
The Avro Lancaster flown out of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, Ontario, one of only two airworthy Lancasters in the world, is known as the Mynarski Memorial Lancaster in honour of Pilot Officer Andrew Charles Mynarski [1], and is painted in the markings of his aircraft.
A larger-than-life bronze statue of Pilot Officer Mynarski, sculpted by Keith Maddison, was dedicated in 2005 at RAF Middleton St. George, the bomber base in England where he served. The memorial depicts Mynarski at the rear of the stricken aircraft, his right arm raised in a salute.
His hometown of Winnipeg is mobilizing to remember its hero by acquiring an exact copy of the Mynarski statue. A group of local Winnipeggers prominent in business, government, heritage, military and community organizations have embarked on a fund-raising project to cast a new statue and bring it home to Canada.
[edit] Further information
Grave/memorial at Buried at Meharicourt Communal Cemetery Extension, near Cambrai, France. British Plot. Grave 20. Headstone.
[edit] References
- The Moose Squadron: 1941-1945, The War Years of 419 Squadron. Cold Lake, Alberta: 419 Tactical Fighter (Training) Squadron, 1977. No ISBN.
- "Moosemen": 419 Squadron History. Crosstown Printers.
- Mynarski Statue Project. <http://www.mynarskistatue.ca/index.html>
- Page, Bette. Mynarski's Lanc: The Story of Two Famous Canadian Lancaster Bombers K726 & FM213. Erin, Ontario: Boston Mills Press, 1989, ISBN 1-55046-006-4.
