By Martin Zeilig
On June 8, 1944, Royal Canadian Air Force Pilot Officer Andrew Charles Mynarski (14 October 1916 – 13 June 1944), who was awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously in 1946, penned the last letter he would ever write to his mother in north end Winnipeg.
The missive was written on an official Armed Forces Air Letter. This letter has been edited for length.
8.6.44
“Dearest Mother,
“Just dropping you a few lines to let you know that I am fine and in the best of health, so I hope you are all the same at home. And how is your leg ma. I hope it is not bothering you. And how is Bob getting on at work and Stephie and Caroline and Wanda[i] and dear Vickie[ii] and give everyone all my love and to you ma. And I do miss you all. Well ma I suppose you have read about the invasion. We were over for three nights in a row. We started Tuesday morning just before the invasion started bombing the French coast and we did it the next two nights. The trips (sic) quite exciting for me. We would take off about one or two in the morning and return about five in the morning.
“We are not flying tonight but might tomorrow night. So, I hope our trips are good as the others were. I hope it’s over real soon and that we can be back ma. I just can’t tell you how I wish its over. I sure would be glad to get back. I suppose everyone back home was quite excited about the invasion. I see that everything is going pretty good. So please don’t worry to (sic) much ma as everything is ok with me.
“So, ma dear give everyone all my love. And to all the girls and all my love to Vickie and I do miss her very much. And I do miss you all and how is the weather.
“Well ma darling I will be closing for now and love and kisses to you all. So long for now. Your loving son, Andrew.”
All of Andrew Mynarski’s letters to his mother and siblings are kept in plastic sleeves inside a binder at the Wing Heritage Office.
“They came with the Victoria Cross and other memorabilia from his sister in the early 1990s,” says Gord Crossley, 17 Wing Heritage Officer.
“Those were all provided when the medal was put on display at 1 Canadian Air Division, and they also provided the scrapbooks and other things that the family had collected. They were collected by his mother, originally, and passed on to his sister, and they're now part of our collection.
“The letters were written on different types of letter paper.
At the bases in the Canada and the U.K., the YMCA and different organizations set up huts where soldiers could go and relax and they provided free writing materials, postage was free to the military. So, they have that label at the top.”
The invasion P/O Mynarski referenced in his final letter was, of course, the Allied D-Day Invasion, code named Operation Neptune, on the coast of Normandy on June 6, 1944. The operation began the liberation of France, “and the rest of Western Europe, and laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front,” says online historical information.
A few nights later on June 12, 1944, during a raid on Cambrai, France, Lancaster B.Mk.X KB726 VR-A, of which Mynarski was the mid-upper gunner, was set aflame by a German night fighter, notes a previously written report on the incident.
“The captain ordered the crew to abandon the aircraft, but the rear gunner, Pilot Officer Pat Brophy, was trapped in his turret and Mynarski without hesitation made every effort to free him using a fire axe to try and pry open the doors ‘before finally resorting to beating at the turret with his hands’, but was unsuccessful,” says a report of the incident.
“With Mynarski's flight suit 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.
“Brophy miraculously survived when the flaming Lancaster crashed to the ground. Mynarski parachuted safely,” notes the Canadian Encyclopedia online.
“However, he had suffered extensive burns. French farmers rushed him to a doctor but he died soon after. He was 27 years old. Mynarski was buried at Méharicourt Communal Cemetery, Méharicourt, France.
“Two of the members of Mynarski’s crew were caught and imprisoned while the remaining four managed to return to England.”
Mynarski was the first member of the RCAF in the Second World War to be awarded the Victoria Cross, Canada’s highest military honour.
The citation reads, in part, “He lost his life by a most conspicuous act of heroism which called for valour of the highest order.”
Mynarski's Victoria Cross was passed to Air Command in 1989 and is on display, along with several personal items, in the entrance foyer at the Mynarski Memorial Room of 1 Canadian Air Division, in Winnipeg.
“We also have the Memorial Cross that was sent to his mother with his name on his back,” notes Gord Crossley, 17 Wing Heritage Officer.
“We also have his Operational Wings, which is a small two winged pin with an 'O' for operations. Normally, you had to complete 30 operations to receive the Operational Wings, but if you were killed in action the badge was given to the next of kin.”
No. 419 Squadron in CFB Cold Lake also 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, Mr. Crossley adds. This axe was recently moved to Winnipeg, and will be on display in 1 Canadian Air Division Headquarters.
Over the decades, Andrew Mynarski, the son of Polish immigrants, has been commemorated in a number of ways, as the Canadian Encyclopedia points out: In 1974, Mynarski was among the first veterans inducted into Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame in Calgary.
In 1988, the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Mount Hope, Ontario, unveiled a restored Lancaster and, with members of his crew in attendance, dedicated it to Mynarski’s memory.
A Winnipeg school and a chain of lakes in northern Manitoba (Mynarski Lakes) is named after him. The married quarters at Canadian Forces Base Penhold in Alberta was called Mynarski Park. In June 1994, a memorial was unveiled to Mynarski in the 8-hectare Winnipeg park that bears his name.
In June 2005, members of Mynarski’s crew were present when Corporal Pat Brophy’s daughter unveiled a 10-foot bronze statue of Mynarski near the base where he served at Middleton St. George, England. In 2006, 14 bronze statues formed Ottawa’s new Valiants Memorial to honour people who played major roles in Canadian conflicts; among them is Andrew Mynarski.
The Andrew Mynarski VC Memorial Statue, which was created by artist Charlie Johnston, was dedicated in Winnipeg's Vimy Ridge Memorial Park during a public ceremony at on 12 June 2015.
Mynarski’s story was commemorated in a Heritage Minute by Historica Canada. At the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival and the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Utah, director and screenwriter Matthew Rankin screened his eight-minute Mynarski Death Plummet, which told of Mynarski’s heroism.
A graphic novel type animation of Mynarski’s story can be seen at the 1 Canadian Air Division museum website forvalour.ca
The name and heroism of Andrew Mynarski will live on forever.
[i] Andrew Mynarski’s brother and sisters
[ii] Victoria Safain, Andrew’s fiancé
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