LITTLE CURRENT—It is a remarkable artifact of conflict that yesterday’s bitter enemy can become today’s close friends. This fact was illustrated by a visit to Manitoulin Island by Peter and Gaby Brüggen of Cologne, who have become close friends with Philip May and his wife Rachel Trudeau of Sudbury. Mr. May’s father, Royal Canadian Airforce Flight Officer Michael May, was shot down during his last mission over Germany and landed in what would later become the Brüggen family’s garden—a plaque today marks the location where his Halifax bomber crashed.
Mr. May met the Brüggens on a trip to Germany, following the footsteps of his father who spent the last months of the war as a prisoner of war.
“The odds of survival were brutal, 45 percent of completing the standard 30-mission tour,” noted Mr. May. “Can you imagine the courage that took? To get into the plane each time, knowing how the odds were stacked against you?” According to family lore, the pilot of the bomber took one last mission with his crew even though he had completed his 30 missions. “The crews had an incredible bond,” said Mr. May.
Mr. May grew up fascinated with the story of his father. “My favourite memories are of trips to Louisa Island in my father’s 14-foot aluminum boat,” laughed Mr. May. Unfortunately, Mr. May’s parents separated when he was just eight years old and his father died five years later. Like many of those who returned from the war, 2nd Lt. May was held firmly in the throes of alcoholism.
“My father was born in Wainright, Alberta in 1920, but moved to Manitoulin Island when he was eight after his mother died,” said Mr. May. The Mays have deep roots on Manitoulin, being descendants of Humphrey May, the first child of European ancestry born on the Island. “My father was sent to live with his uncle, Jack May, in Little Current.”
When the Second World War broke out, Michael May enlisted in the air force, became part of a ground crew, but transferred to flight crew, eventually rising to the rank of Pilot Officer and found himself assigned to a Halifax bomber as bombardier. It was on his last mission over Germany that his plane was hit by flak and the crew bailed out.
The navigator was stuck in the doorway and 2nd Lt. May had to kick and push him out, but could not fit through the door himself with his parachute. “My father was a large man, he had to leave the plane holding his parachute,” said Mr. May.
Michael May’s plane was shot down in February 1945, just two weeks after the fire-bombing of Dresden. “My father told me that you hoped you were captured by the Wehrmacht (German army) because if you were caught by civilians, you would be summarily executed,” said Mr. May. “Such was the propaganda that followed the bombing of Dresden.”
In four raids between February 13 and 14, 1945, 772 heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force and 527 of the United States Army Air Forces dropped more than 3,900 tons of high explosive bombs and incendiary devices on the city. The bombing and the resulting firestorm destroyed 1,600 acres of the city centre where up to 25,000 people were killed.
The bombardier landed near where the Brüggen family home is located now. Despite a back injury that tortured him for the rest of his life, 2nd Lt. May survived the following death march and the horrific conditions in the POW camp. The Germans considered airmen to be high value prisoners and marched them further away from the advancing Allied forces.
Although he chose to become a professional musician, Mr. May was fascinated by his father’s service and later researched his father’s service online. “I came across this site called, ‘air crew remembered’ that chronicled their service,” he said. “I found a photo of a plaque on a house honouring my father and his air crew—three of seven of the crew had died. At that point it became a pilgrimage, a hadj, something I had to do, I had to go see that plaque.”
He travelled to Germany in 2019. Arriving at the house, Mr. May simply knocked on the door of the house and it was answered by a young woman, the Brüggen family daughter Lara. “The first question he asked was ‘do you speak English?’,” he recalled. “She said, ‘yes, I do,’ she invited me inside and that was how I met Peter and Gaby for the very the first time.”
“What blew my mind was that the plaque, which I had assumed was placed by the Canadian government, was actually part of a project by State Forum (translation),” he said. “This was a group that in 2007 decided to clear the debris. This local group, I was gobsmacked. There was an entire possibility that had the plane crashed a few metres away it would have landed on a munitions dump and the entire family, the farmhouse, would have been obliterated. You can’t imagine how moving that was—that they decided to put up a plaque honouring the crew.”
A second memorial in the back of the house consists of part of the fuselage of the Halifax nestled amongst the rose bushes. “Again, very, very moving,” he said.
The Mays soon became friends and been close ever since. They invited the Brüggens to come and visit them in 2020, but that plan was derailed by the advent of the global pandemic. The visit had to be delayed until summer 2023.
Mr. May is a drummer by vocation (website philipmay.ca where his award-winning albums can be found). His academic training includes history, and he has been encouraged to write about his experience.
“In this time, where people are so fraught, so polarized in society, so angry, with so much resentment, hostility, willingness to do battle at the drop of a pin over trivialities, this story to me is remarkable,” said Mr. May. “It speaks of the notion of compassion, of forgiveness, of recognising history, and yet at the same time not forgetting history, obliterating history. We cannot become slaves of history. That story is universal.”
Mr. May said that he would like to do more to tell that story, either through music or through the written word.
“At first I heard Lara speaking in English, I thought it was someone from school,” said Ms. Brüggen. “She said Mama, Papa, there are people here from Canada.”
Ms. Brüggen said that it took very little time to feel sympathy. Although she was scheduled to work the next day, she called her employers and told them she needed to take a few days off. Over the next three days, the two couples experienced a great deal of emotion. “It was like we had known each other for a long time, many souls,” recalled Ms. Brüggen.
“We talk a lot of the past,” she said. “One time we cleaned the house for the building. We found papers from Peter’s grandmother. We knew that there had been a crash of a Halifax bomber.” The writing was in an old style, so the Brüggens gave the papers to an old man who had been a commissioner. The man took the papers to the internet and “a few texts later we arrived with an email from Canada, we had always thought the Halifax was from England.” They know now it was a Halifax from Canada.
Tom Evenson from Alberta, Canada had contacted them about the crashed bomber, thinking it might have been his uncle’s plane. It later transpired it was not his uncle’s plane. A book was eventually written about his experiences.
Over the years, a number of people have come to visit the site, some even staying with the Brüggens for several days, with the Brüggens taking them to the local cemeteries. “It was a very emotional moment for us,” she said. “When Russ Mendenhus came through our door and said ‘and now we come as friends.’ It was very emotional.”
Even now, the memory chokes Ms. Brüggen’s voice as she recalls those moments.
An ecumenical service was held commemorating the fallen airmen and was attended by government officials.
“The crew was seven persons, three died in our garden, the other four landed by parachute before the plane crashed,” said Ms. Brüggen. “One father found a parachute and took it home. It was very good quality silk. His daughter sewed a coat from the material. The daughter remembered the incident and recalled it during the memorial.
During the memorial, Tom Evenson wrote a text about looking for his uncle. “It was very emotional,” said Ms. Brüggen.
During this time Mr. Brüggen was hospitalized. A friend brought him from the hospital for the service.
Mr. May brought seven rocks selected by children from Louisa Island to Germany, one for each member of the crew, and laid them in the garden with flowers in memory of the servicemen. “I was able to bring Peter and Gabriel to Louisa Island and let them share in the magic of that spot,” said Mr. May. “Would it have been possible for Peter and my father to ever have imagined that their sons would become such close friends. Could he have imagined that the son of his enemy would come to Canada to visit, what is for me, a very special, sacred place—I suspect it goes in the other direction as well.”
That is what Mr. May suggests is the most important lesson to be found within their story. “In a world where we are at permanent fisticuffs, the fact is, there really is hope,” said Mr. May. “We have far more in common than what divides us.”
Lest we forget.
