The place settings at the McCaig homestead in Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague were starting to dwindle by Thanksgiving, 1941.
That Sunday dinner must have been a quiet one and somewhat worrisome for parents Archie and Effie McCaig, as three more of their seven boys had together enlisted that previous week into the Royal Canadian Air Force in Montreal. Archibald “Arnold” and twins Merril Keith and Walter Roderick were headed for basic training. A fourth son, J. Clifford, had already been drafted overseas. There would soon be another conversation between a McCaig boy and his father as Norman Alexander was also considering joining the Royal Canadian Army.
After seeing an advertisement at an army post in 1941 for volunteers for a Canadian/American joint commando force, Clifford McCaig became part of a special service force called the Devils Brigade. As a decorated sergeant, he joined this elite force made up of Canadian and U.S. Army volunteers overseas who received rigorous training in stealth tactics, hand-to-hand combat, the use of explosives for demolition, amphibious warfare, rock climbing, and mountain fighting.
Meanwhile, back in Canada, Norman was about to join in the late fall, Keith and Wally had begun their LAC training as airframe mechanics, and Arnold McCaig was about to embark on rigorous training as an air gunner in Kingston and Fingal, Ontario.
In the early summer of 1942, while on leave in Toronto, Arnold met Nina Bruyer. He proposed soon after and the beautiful couple tied the knot in Toronto on September 30, just five days after he graduated as an RCAF sergeant from air gunner school. He left for Halifax on October 9 and arrived in England on October 18. Nina returned to her family home in Toronto and began a painstaking two-year marriage sending love letters back and forth with her husband.
Arnold McCaig climbed the ranks from sergeant air gunner to warrant officer class 1 air gunner. He was part of the RCAF-RAF 148 Squadron, nicknamed “Trusty,” where he flew primarily on the heavy bomber Halifax 2s. He was posted in Britain to start, then Egypt, Syria, Malta, and Brindisi, Italy. In addition to bombing missions, the 148 Squadron worked closely with special operations executive for crucial special duties such as partisan supply missions’ agent drops and pickup operations
By 1943, WWII was still going strong with heavy losses on both sides of the war campaign. In July of 1943, Allied forces invaded Sicily with close to 150,000 ground and air troops starting their advancement through Italy heading north whereby they were finding strong enemy resistance by German forces.
Norman McCaig went overseas in July 1943 after training in Ontario at Camp Borden (west of Barrie) in militia infantry. He became a private in the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps, which was responsible for all transportation and supply services for the troops. They trained in Canada and Britain, and their major operations included campaigns in Northwest Europe, Italy, and France.
Meanwhile, Clifford continued to work with the Devil’s Brigade. During a special operation in Anzio, Italy, in 1944, the special force was brought ashore on February 1. Unfortunately they suffered many casualties, but continued to move towards Rome, capturing seven essential bridges to prevent the enemy from blowing them up along the way. In May of that year the brigade left Rome to head north and east to capture retreating enemy forces, but not before being thanked by a tumultuous reception of grateful Italians.
Meanwhile, Arnold and the RAF 148 Squadron had also been on the move, leaving North Africa/Egypt for Brindisi, Italy, in early 1944. Their secret missions included regular bombing raids primarily at night and agent pick-up operations to Greece, Yugoslavia, and southern France. They also supplied ammunition, fuel, and aircraft, and assisted with Polish special duties.
Towards the first week of June 1944, Arnold began hearing of some major positive developments in favor of Allied forces and hoped that the war might be ending. On June 6, Canadian, British, and American forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, including his brother Norman, who was on the front lines.
During the first few weeks after the British and Canadian landings on D-Day, June 6, 1944, our forces were met with a barrage of gunfire and surprise resistance. There were many casualties. Norman managed to save two of his crew members from drowning as the forces went on to liberate much of France and Belgium.
Around the third week of June, Clifford McCaig had been wounded for a second time and was being treated at an Italian hospital. According to a letter, Arnold was supposed to have met up with his brother while on leave in Bari, Italy, but he was transferred to a hospital in Rome. Arnold and Clifford would never speak again.
Both Keith and his twin brother Walter achieved the rank of Leading Aircraftman (LAC) airframe mechanic. The pair had never been separated until Walter got chickenpox while stationed in Yorktown, Saskatchewan, while Keith was drafted overseas. By the summer of 1944, both were reunited and stationed in Britain. They also never saw Arnold again.
On July 20, Arnold’s wife Nina received a letter from the RCAF, regrettably informing that her husband was reported missing on active service, after failing to return to base after carrying out special operations in Albania on the night of June 28. He was never found.
Arnold’s name is included on the Malta Memorial in Floriana, which commemorates those who lost their lives serving with the Commonwealth Air Forces and who have no known grave. All four of his brothers returned from the war.