 The "Valiants" Bust of Andrew Mynarski unveiled at the Cenotaph War Memorial on 11 November 2006 in Ottawa, Canada. Andrew Charles (Andy) Mynarski, VC (14 October 1916 - 13 June 1944) was a Canadian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for bravery in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Mynarski was 27 years old, and a Pilot Officer in 419 "Moose" Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War when he gave his life to help rescue a trapped crew member. Victoria Cross medal, ribbon, and bar. ...
October 14 is the 287th day of the year (288th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1916 (MCMXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ...
June 13 is the 164th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (165th in leap years), with 201 days remaining. ...
1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ...
Victoria Cross medal, ribbon, and bar. ...
The Commonwealth of Nations (CN), usually known as the Commonwealth, is a voluntary association of 53 independent sovereign states, the majority of which are former colonies of the United Kingdom. ...
A Pilot Officers sleeve/shoulder insignia Pilot Officer (Plt Off in the RAF; PLTOFF in the RAAF and RNZAF, P/O in the former RCAF) is the lowest substantive commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countries, ranking only above Acting...
419 City of Kamloops Squadron is a Air Force unit with the Canadian Forces. ...
The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) was the air force of Canada from 1924 until 1968 when the three branches of the Canadian military were merged into the Canadian Forces. ...
Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom France Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Charles de Gaulle Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian...
Early years
Andrew Charles Mynarski was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba on 14 October 1916, the son of recent Polish immigrants. Known as Andy by his close friends, he had five other siblings, two brothers and three sisters. Mynarski was educated at King Edward and Isaac Newton Elementary Schools, later graduating from St. John's Technical School. To help support his family after his father's death, at the age of 16, he worked as a chamois cutter for a furrier in Winnipeg. He was well regarded by the furrier as he turned out to be a hard-working and skillful employee, considered "good with his hands." His hobbies included building furniture and aircraft models in a workshop that he built in his family's basement. Nickname: Peg City, Winterpeg, Gateway to the West Motto: Unum Cum Virtute Multorum (One With the Strength of Many) Coordinates: Country Canada Province Manitoba Region Winnipeg Capital Region Established, 1738 (Fort Rouge) Renamed 1822 (Fort Garry) Incorporated 1873 (City of Winnipeg) City Mayor Sam Katz Governing Body Winnipeg City Council...
Motto: Gloriosus et Liber (Latin: Glorious and free) Official languages English and French, per mandate of the Constitution Act 1982 Flower Prairie Crocus Tree White Spruce Bird Great Grey Owl Capital Winnipeg Largest city Winnipeg Lieutenant-Governor John Harvard Premier Gary Doer (NDP) Parliamentary representation - House seats - Senate seats 14...
October 14 is the 287th day of the year (288th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1916 (MCMXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ...
Wartime In 1940, he joined the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, a militia unit, but only served a short time before enlisting in the Royal Canadian Air Force. In September, 1941, he was posted to No. 3 Manning Depot in Edmonton. After basic training, he went to No. 2 Wireless School in Calgary but had trouble with learning Morse Code. He was then posted to No. 3 Bomb and Gunnery School at MacDonald, Manitoba, graduating just before Christmas as an air-gunner, earning his AG "Wing." The Royal Winnipeg Rifles are a reserve infantry regiment of the Canadian Armed Forces. ...
The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) was the air force of Canada from 1924 until 1968 when the three branches of the Canadian military were merged into the Canadian Forces. ...
1922 Chart of the Morse Code Letters and Numerals Morse code is a method for transmitting information, using standardized sequences of short and long marks or pulses — commonly known as dots and dashes — for the letters, numerals, punctuation and special characters of a message. ...
He was promoted to temporary Sergeant in Halifax just prior to going overseas in January 1942. After a series of transfers through operational training units, he joined Flying Officer Art de Breyne's crew in 419 "Moose" Squadron, flying out of RAF Middleton St. George, Yorkshire. This squadron first flew combat operations using Vickers Wellington bombers before converting to the Handley Page Halifax bombers. After a short introduction to this four-engine heavy bomber, 419 squadron began to receive the superlative Avro Lancaster bomber in 1944, including examples built in Canada by the Victory Aircraft Company in Malton, Ontario. Motto: Template:Unhide = E Mari Merces (Wealth from the Sea) Logo: Location City Information Established: April 1, 1996 Area: (former city) 79. ...
419 City of Kamloops Squadron is a Air Force unit with the Canadian Forces. ...
RAF Middleton St. ...
The Vickers Wellington was a twin-engine, medium bomber designed in the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey, by Vickers-Armstrongs Chief Designer, R.K. Pierson. ...
The Handley Page Halifax was one of the British front-line, four-engine heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. ...
The Avro Lancaster was a four-engine World War II bomber aircraft made initially by Avro for the Royal Air Force (RAF). ...
The Victory Aircraft Limited was formed in 1942 when the Canadian government took over ownership and management of main plant of the National Steel Car Corporation of Montreal at Malton, Ontario (near todays Toronto Pearson International Airport). ...
The Last "Op" On 12 June 1944, the 13th "op" of the crew, then Warrant Officer Mynarski was the mid-upper gunner of an Avro Lancaster Mk. X bomber, #KB726, coded "VR-A" when fire broke out after an attack by a Ju-88 enemy night fighter over Cambrai, France. The captain, F/O Art de Breyne, ordered the crew to bail out. As Mynarski approached the rear escape hatch, he saw that his close friend, the tail gunner, Pilot Officer Pat Brophy, was trapped in his turret. Mynarski immediately made his way through the flames to Brophy's assistance, but all his efforts were in vain. Beating at the turret with a fire axe and finally with his hands, with his own clothing and parachute on fire, Brophy eventually persuaded him that nothing more could be done. Mynarski returned to the escape hatch and jumped out. Before he forlornly left the stricken bomber, he turned back to salute his friend. June 12 is the 163rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (164th in leap years), with 202 days remaining. ...
1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ...
The Avro Lancaster was a four-engine World War II bomber aircraft made initially by Avro for the Royal Air Force (RAF). ...
Cambrai (Dutch: Kamerijk) is a French city and commune, in the Nord département, of which it is a sous_préfecture. ...
Except for Brophy, all crew members of the Avro Lancaster managed to escape the burning bomber. Five were in fairly good condition; one had been knocked out while trying to bail out. Jack Friday, the crew's bomb aimer, had tried to release the front escape hatch but the rushing wind ripped it from his hands striking him above his left eye. Flight engineer Roy Vigars finding Friday unconscious, quickly clipped on Friday's parachute and tossed his limp body out the hatch while controlling the man's rip cord. Vigar's actions likely saved everyone on board who were descending though the front escape hatch in the aircraft's nose. Only Andy Mynarski managed to leave via the rear door. Tragically, Mynarski's descent was rapid due to the burnt shroud lines on his parachute with a resulting heavy impact on the ground. He landed alive, though severely burned with his clothes still on fire. French farmers who spotted the flaming bomber found him and hustled him off to a German field hospital but he died shortly afterwards of severe burns. He was buried in a local cemetery. Pat Brophy remained trapped in the bomber and crashed with the plane. By a miracle, he survived the crash and the subsequent detonation of the bombload to find himself propelled from the tail turret, shaken but alive.
Four of the crew members: Brophy, navigator Robert Bodie, radio operator James Kelly and pilot de Breyne were hidden by the French and, except for Brophy, returned to England shortly after the crash. Vigars and the wounded bomb aimer Friday were captured by the Germans and interned until they could be liberated by American troops. Pat Brophy joined French Resistance fighters and, after waging war on the ground behind enemy lines, made it back to London in September, 1944 where he learned of Mynarski's death. However, it wasn't until 1945 when Pat Brophy was reunited with Art de Breyne and the rest of the crew, that the details of his final moments on the aircraft were revealed. He related the story of the valiant efforts made by Mynarski to save him.
At the end of 1945, Art de Breyne started the process of recognizing Mynarski's extraordinary deed by recommending an award for "Andy" and enquiring about the location of his grave. The recommendation worked its way up the command structure of the RCAF and RAF. On 11 October 1946, a Victoria Cross was ultimately awarded for "valour of the highest order" to Andrew Charles Mynarski, postumously accorded the rank of Pilot Officer. October 11 is the 284th day of the year (285th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ...
Victoria Cross medal, ribbon, and bar. ...
The medal The Victoria Cross medal was loaned by the Mynarski family to Air Command in 1989 and is on display in the foyer at the entrance to the Mynarski Memorial Room of the Headquarters, 1 Canadian Air Division, in Winnipeg (where a number of other family artifacts are on display). No. 419 Squadron in CFB Cold Lake displays the original fire axe that Mynarski used to try to free the jammed Lancaster turret; the axe was recovered from the Lancaster bomber at the crash site in northern France. CFB Cold Lake Canadian Forces Base Cold Lake, commonly referred to as CFB Cold Lake or 4 Wing Cold Lake, is a Canadian Forces Base located in Cold Lake, Alberta. ...
 Mynarski Memorial Lancaster
Remembering Andrew Mynarski The story of “Andy” Mynarski is also the story of a north-end Winnipeg hero; today, a Junior High school in Winnipeg, Andrew Mynarski VC School, a park in Alberta, the Royal Canadian Legion "Andrew Mynarski" Branch 34 and 573 "Andrew Mynarski" Air Cadet squadron bear his name. On Remembrance Days, his story is recounted as a tale of individual courage, but it is much more than that, it is a story as timeless as his heroism, it is a story of a community, of Polish immigrants, of young men who went off to war and the generation of today that still needs to know his story. Royal Canadian Air Cadets Crest Cadets Canada logo. ...
Wreaths of artificial poppies used as a symbol of remembrance Remembrance Day (Australia, Canada, United Kingdom), also known as Poppy Day (South Africa and Malta), and Armistice Day (United Kingdom, New Zealand and many other Commonwealth countries; and the original name of the holiday internationally) is a day to commemorate...
The Avro Lancaster flown out of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, Ontario, one of only two airworthy Lancasters in the world, is known as the Mynarski Memorial Lancaster in honour of Pilot Officer Andrew Charles Mynarski [1], and is painted in the markings of his aircraft. Museum building with a CF-104 Starfighter mounted as a monument The Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum is one of the major aviation museums in Canada. ...
A larger-than-life bronze statue of Pilot Officer Mynarski, sculpted by Keith Maddison, was dedicated in 2005 at RAF Middleton St. George, the bomber base in England where he served. The memorial depicts Mynarski at the rear of the stricken aircraft, his right arm raised in a salute.
His hometown of Winnipeg is mobilizing to remember its hero by acquiring an exact copy of the Mynarski statue. A group of local Winnipeggers prominent in business, government, heritage, military and community organizations have embarked on a fund-raising project to cast a new statue and bring it home to Canada.
Further information Grave/memorial at Buried at Meharicourt Communal Cemetery Extension, near Cambrai, France. British Plot. Grave 20. Headstone. Download high resolution version (400x603, 50 KB)Grave photo of Victoria Cross recipient Andrew Charles Mynarski, migrated from the Victoria Cross Reference site with permission. ...
Download high resolution version (400x603, 50 KB)Grave photo of Victoria Cross recipient Andrew Charles Mynarski, migrated from the Victoria Cross Reference site with permission. ...
References - Page, Bette. Mynarski's Lanc: The Story of Two Famous Canadian Lancaster Bombers K726 & FM213. Erin, Ontario: Boston Mills Press, 1989, ISBN 1-55046-006-4.
- Mynarski Statue Project<http://www.mynarskistatue.ca/index.html>
External links - MYNARSKI, Andrew C.
- Andrew Charles Mynarski
- Andrew Mynarski on Historica Minutes
- Find-A-Grave profile for Andrew Charles Mynarski
This page has been migrated from the Victoria Cross Reference with permission. |
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