By the time the war ended, Wallace had completed eleven operations. The most dangerous he remembers was on Hamburg on March 31, 1945. All 14 heavy bomber squadrons of 6 Group were airborne early that morning and flew to Flamborough Head and out over the North Sea to Holland. Because it was daylight, they were ordered to fly in a gaggle with a Master Bomber in the lead. Crossing the coast of Holland, the Master Bomber began to dog-leg to lose time. The navigators knew that they were on time and on track. Radio silence could not be broken. Someone in the lead aircraft had misread a pinpoint on the coast: they were only at Bremen when the Master Bomber informed them that his job was done and he was heading home. He did not realize that 200 heavy bombers from 6 Group were still ten minutes away. When they arrived over the Hamburg, the city was shrouded with smoke up to 15,000 feet and a stiff wind was blowing the markers away.
Wallace believes that in the confusion, they dropped most of their bombs on the countryside. Enemy ME 262 jets came up to catch the stragglers and caught the 200 Canadian Lancs and Halifaxes which they strafed with their angled cannon. Gunners in Wallace’s aircraft called out 13 bombers going down in flames within two minutes.
With their bombs gone, the crew fled across the Kiel Canal and turned west. Mustangs escorting the first wave returned and the German jets took off for home. Over Heligoland, charts called for the wave to descend to 10,000 feet. A novice crew nervously sought to gain height instead of losing it, and plunged into the belly of a Moose Lancaster. A few parachutes were seen but the woud be dead in 15 minutes in the cold North Sea. Three crews of the Moose and Ghost Squadrons did not return - and 21 men were missing from the mess that day.

Wedding of Roberta Marian Samson in Calgary on May 5, 1962 to Wallace.

Painted by
W.Stapelton
at Yarmouth N.S.