WW2 Cdn Army Repatriation

[David Dunlop]

I should have seen this earlier, but did not recognize the data for what it actually was, because of the surrounding maritime data.

What I assumed to be mysterious 'numbered ships' are in fact Civil Aviation Registration Numbers for a Trans Canada Airlines Douglas Aircraft of some unknown model and a series of Colonial Aircraft from the United States all delivering passengers to La Guardia Airport in New York in the same time period as the previously mentioned ships arrived in port. All passenger processing was apparently done by the same local Immigration Office and merged for the day.

The aviation passengers all seem to be British, Polish, Czech, Russian, Canadian and American. None have any military ID, but all seem to have an 'Exempt' Customs Status. Most are travelling on some sort of business, although a 'housewife' does show up. Where they have to declare where they have been recently, odd places show up like Cairo, Egypt and Bogota Columbia. They all seem to know two or more languages.

David

[Grant Bowker]

You may already have checked this - in the Canadian Civil Aircraft Registration database http://wwwapps2.tc.gc.ca/Saf-Sec-Sur...en/history.asp CF-TDL does not show any records far enough back to be useful. My thoughts for type are that they are unlikely to have been using DC-3 for oceanic flight. and DC-6 first flew 1946 so I think DC-4 or C-54 is most likely. U.S. FAA registration database is at http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinqu...t_inquiry.aspx but on first glance only gives curent information, not historical.
I don't know enough about Customs rules to define "exempt" but wonder if they are people who would currently be classed "diplomatic".

[David Dunlop]

Hello Grant.

I had thought of those sites but not got around to having a look. Turns out Colonial Airlines was a Canadian operation initially, flying Fairchilds in Canada, but very quickly in the 1930's built up a fleet of DC-3's routing between Montreal, Ottawa, New York La Guardia and Washington DC. By war's end, they had added the Douglas C54 to their fleet. All these aircraft were registered in the USA for some reason. By 1946, Bermuda was added to their routes and shortly thereafter, they were merged with Eastern Airlines.

The only registration I could trace was for NC-88887. This was a Douglas C54E-DC Serial # 27289. The registration was cancelled 17 Jan. 1990.

David

[Wayne McGee]

My father returned in six days aboard the Aquitania on 04 (or 05?) JUN 1946 to Halifax under far superior conditions than his sixteen day trip over on the SS Volendam. The Aquitania had many war brides and their children on board