P/O. William Holenchuk
Royal Canadian Air Force No. 426 Squadron
(d.9th Jun 1944)
William Holenchuk, my great-uncle, was born on 12th April 1919 at Gonor, Manitoba, Canada and was the son of George and Sofie (nee Bloshot) Holenchuk. His parents appear to have both been born in the Bukovina area of Romania/Ukraine (Austria at the time) and had both emigrated to Canada. His mother died in 1928 and his father re-married the following year. William attended school in Manitoba but then moved to Ontario. As a young man he undertook various jobs including truck driving, gold mining, and latterly at a nickel mine at Sudbury, Ontario. He married Annie Polesky and the couple had two children.
William also undertook a pre-enlistment pilot/observer WETP course at the Ontario Training College in Hamilton in early 1942. He then enlisted for RCAF service in Hamilton on 6th of April 1942, and after training in Canada he was awarded his air observer's badge (after bomb aimer training) on 19th of March 1943. He arrived in the UK in the summer of 1943, and following training at 4 (O)AFU, 22 OTU, 1666 HCU and 1679 CF he was posted to 426 Squadron on 4th February 1944. He received a commission on 21st March 1944.
On the night of 8th of June 1944, No. 426 Squadron took off to bomb railway facilities at Mayenne, France. The mission was successful, but upon returning home visibility became very poor and the Squadron had difficulty locating their airbase at RAF Linton on Ouse. They finally located the airbase, but shortly after 04.00am P/O Holenchuk’s bomber (Halifax LW598), nearly out of fuel, was attempting an emergency landing when one of the bomber’s engines caught fire, causing the pilot to lose control of the aircraft. The bomber crashed into some houses in a village near the airbase and all but two of the aircrew, including William, were killed.
William was my grandmother's brother. They were very close and it broke her heart when he was killed. She never really talked about him, and it wasn't until after she died that I knew she had a second brother in the war.
