Wop May
Wilfrid Reid May | |
---|---|
(United States) |
Wilfrid Reid "Wop" May, .
Early life
May was born in
First World War
May joined the Canadian Army in February 1916 during the First World War. He rose through the enlisted ranks to sergeant and spent most of 1916 as a gunnery instructor in Canada. In 1917, his battalion, the 202nd battalion C.E.F. (Edmonton Sportsmen), was shipped to England, where he and his friend Ray Ross applied to join the Royal Flying Corps. His first flight resulted in the accidental destruction of his own and another aircraft; nevertheless, the RFC accepted his application, and May resigned from the Canadian Army. After initial training in London in October, he was moved to a fighter training squadron and graduated in February 1918.
On April 9, 1918,
May fought his first aerial combat on April 20, 1918. The German
Death of the Red Baron
The following day, April 21, saw 209 Squadron again on patrol. Due to his inexperience, Brown gave May similar instructions as before – he was to stay out of the fights and simply keep an eye out. Around 10 a.m., the squadron attacked a group of German Triplanes. At first, during the dogfight, May circled above. But when he spotted a German plane doing the same thing, he decided to launch an attack.
May chased a German aircraft that fled into the middle of the dogfight, and fired on him. The German he was chasing was Wolfram von Richthofen, cousin of Manfred von Richthofen, the "Red Baron". Wolfram had also been given orders to sit out above the fight and watch because he was a novice flyer too.
On seeing his cousin being attacked, Manfred, in a red Fokker Dr.I, flew to his rescue and fired on May, causing him to pull away and saving Wolfram's life.[6] Richthofen pursued May across the Somme.
May spoke about this incident years later, saying, "the first thing I knew I was being fired on from the rear ... [and] all I could do was try to dodge my attacker. I noticed it was a red tri-plane, but if I realized it was Richthofen, I would have probably passed out on the spot. I kept on dodging and spinning, I imagine from about 12,000 feet until I ran out of sky and had to hedge hop over the ground. Richthofen was firing at me continually, [and] the only thing that saved me was my poor flying. I didn't know what I was doing myself and I do not suppose that Richthofen could figure out what I was going to do".[7][8]
Roy Brown, who was flying above, noticed the Red Baron chasing May, dove steeply at very high speed to intervene and then had to climb steeply to avoid hitting the ground.[9] Richthofen turned to avoid this attack, and then resumed his pursuit of May.[9] However, the identity of the person who shot down the Red Baron remains a subject of much dispute.
May continued flying with 209 Squadron until the end of the war and was credited with downing 15 enemy aircraft and probably five others. He was awarded the
Postwar career
May returned to Edmonton after the war. He and his brother Elgin rented a
In September 1919, May Aeroplanes was hired by Edmonton Police Chief Hill during their manhunt for John Larson, wanted on two counts of murder (including of a police officer)[13] and a break-in. May flew Edmonton Police Detective James Campbell to the small town of Edson, and Larson was caught soon thereafter. This was the first time an aircraft was used in a manhunt.
They were soon joined by George Gorman to become May-Gorman Airplanes Ltd. – George Gorman delivered the Edmonton Journal newspaper to Wetaskiwin, 45 miles (72 km) south of Edmonton.
May and Gorman were hired by Imperial Oil Limited to fly two Junkers airplanes, equipped with skis, from New York to Edmonton in early 1921. Imperial Oil planned to use these planes in the Northwest Territories to service its proposed oil developments along the Mackenzie River at what would later become known as Norman Wells. In March, Gorman and Elmer Fullerton flew these two planes across the 60th parallel (the first ever flight into the Northwest Territories) into the Canadian subarctic, proving that aircraft could operate in sub-zero temperatures. This was the start of aerial exploration in the most distant parts of Canada. In 1924, the business failed.
In 1924, May married Violet "Vi" Bode in November. He decided to get a ground-based job, joining
Convinced that flying really was his calling, he returned to Edmonton and formed the Edmonton and North Alberta Flying Club in 1927 and became a flight instructor.
Race against death
In December 1928, Bert Logan, an employee of the
The message eventually reached Edmonton, and on January 1, May was asked if he could deliver the medicine. He left in an
The news of this remarkable flight helped May establish a new company, Commercial Airways, to provide air service to northern Canada. The company won a government contract for air mail to the Northwest Territories, a service that had been pioneered by
Hunt for the Mad Trapper
In early 1932, May was involved in another manhunt, this time for Albert Johnson, soon known as the "Mad Trapper of Rat River." While serving a search warrant for illegal trapping on the Rat River, Constable King of the RCMP was shot and wounded by Johnson, sparking off a long chase that became front-page news across the continent. Johnson killed Constable Edger Millen.[15]
May was again hired to see if he could find Johnson, who had seemingly disappeared. On February 13, May solved the mystery when he noted a set of footprints leading off from
These actions were later heavily fictionalized in the 1981 Charles Bronson film Death Hunt. The film depicts May as the fictional RCAF "Captain Tucker," who in the film fired wildly at everyone on the ground, including the posse, who fired back and caused him to crash into a mountain.
Second World War
With the start of the
While this was going on, the United States was also ferrying huge numbers of aircraft to the Soviet Union, flying through Edmonton on their way. A number of these crashed due to mechanical problems, in which case there was no way for an injured pilot to get out of the "back country". It was decided to form a team of parachute jumpers that could be dropped in on the crash sites to stabilize the injured pilots and start moving them out of the bush. May was involved in this effort.
Early efforts were comical but dangerous, but the US trained a number of jumpers at a
Death
May was on vacation with his son
Legacy
In addition to the Distinguished Flying Cross and the United States Medal of Freedom, Wop May was awarded the Trans-Canada (McKee) Trophy in 1929 and appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1935. In 1974, May was declared a National Historic Person, and a plaque to commemorate him was installed in Edmonton in 1978.[17]
May is immortalized in songs by Stompin' Tom Connors ("Wop May"), The Gumboots ("Wop May"), and John Spearn ("Roy Brown and Wop May"). He was also the subject of a 1979 National Film Board of Canada vignette.[18]
On October 6, 2004, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity located a rock on the south slope of the Endurance Crater on Mars. The 1 metre (3.3-foot) rock was given the name "wopmay" after the legendary Canadian bush pilot.[19]
Canada has a geologic feature known as the Wopmay Fault Zone, lying to the west of Hudson Bay along the Wopmay River, where the earliest mountains in the world appeared during the Paleoproterozoic era, approximately two billion years ago.
The city of Edmonton, Alberta, named the neighbourhood of Mayfield in honour of Wop May.
In 2017 the airport at Fort Vermilion, Alberta was renamed Fort Vermilion (Wop May Memorial) Aerodrome in his honour.
References
- ^ "Wop May." The Canadian Encyclopedia. Accessed 1 January 2022.
- ^ Metcalfe-Chenail, Danielle (28 July 2014). "Wilfrid "Wop" May: An Old-School Hero for a New Generation". Edmonton City As Museum Project. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
- ^ "Fighter Pilot". Archived from the original on 14 November 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
- ^ "Victoria School description". Retrieved 13 November 2013.
- ^ "Aces". Archived from the original on 14 November 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
- ^ Franks & Bennett (1997)
- ^ Kilduff 1994, p. 41.
- ^ Flanagan (ed.), Lieut. Wilfred Woo May`s Account, (1982), p. 112.
- ^ a b McAllister 1982, p. 63.
- ^ "Mayfield Rotary Club." Archived 2008-10-07 at the Wayback Machine Rotary Club of Edmonton Mayfield. Retrieved: May 6, 2013.
- ^ Chalmers, John (22 January 2019). "'New' military aircraft for Alberta museums". Royal Canadian Air Force. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
- ISBN 0920474578. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
- ^ "Constable William Leslie Nixon MM." Officer Down Memorial Page, Inc., Retrieved: May 6, 2013.
- ^ "HeRMIS – PAA". hermis.alberta.ca.
- ^ "ODMP Edger Millen".
- ^ "May, Wilfred Reid "Wop" - TracesOfWar.com". www.tracesofwar.com.
- ^ "National Historic Sites: Wilfrid Reid May." Parks Canada. Retrieved: May 6, 2013.
- ^ James, Blake. "Canada Vignettes: Wop May." ''National Film Board of Canada, 1979. Retrieved: April 22, 2009.
- ^ "Wonderful Wopmay." NASA. Retrieved: May 6, 2013.
Bibliography
- Reid, Sheila & May, Denny "Wings of a Hero" – Maycroft – revised edition 2014
- May, Denny "More Stories about Wop May"- Maycroft – 2011
- Godsell, Philip H. Pilots of the Purple Twilight: The Story of Canada's Early Bush Flyers. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1955.
- "Wilfrid Reid May" The Canadian Encyclopedia.
External links
- 1929 Wilfrid Reid ‘Wop’ May Archived 19 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine NWT Historical Timeline, Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre
- Watch Canada Vignettes: Wop May, National Film Board of Canada
- Entry at thecanadianencyclopedia.ca
- Wop May fonds. Northwest Territories Archives