Alfred B. Thompson

Thompson’s first experience of military life was in April 1933, at the age of 17, when he enlisted as a part-time reservist in the Simcoe Foresters, a local infantry unit of the Canadian Non-Permanent Active Militia in which his father too had once served. He joined as a private, but in December 1934 was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant.[9] (In December 1936, the Simcoe Foresters were amalgamated with the Grey Regiment to form The Grey and Simcoe Foresters.[10]) Thompson ultimately resigned his commission in The Grey and Simcoe Foresters, effective March 7, 1937, upon being granted a commission in the Royal Air Force.[11]

In 1936, Thompson went to Britain to become a pilot in the Royal Air Force (RAF). At the time, Canada’s small air force had far more applicants than it could accept.[12] The RAF, however, was expanding in the face of the threat posed by Nazi Germany, providing another option for young air-minded Canadians like Thompson. (Allen John Blackwell of Penetanguishene, a longtime friend of Thompson's who had grown up on the same street, was another Canadian who, in 1937, joined the RAF as an officer and pilot trainee.) Thompson, under RAF sponsorship, began elementary flight training at a civil flying school in Hamble, Hampshire, in late December 1936.[13] Upon successfully completing this course, he formally resigned his commission in the Canadian militia as of March 7, 1937. The following day, he was granted a short service commission in the RAF (General Duties Branch) as an acting pilot officer (on probation), committing him to four years of active service; his commission was retroactively effective from December 21, 1936.[14] On March 8, 1937, Thompson commenced initial officer's training at the RAF Depot.[15] In May 1937, he then started intermediate flight training at 5 Flying Training School, at RAF Sealand in northeastern Wales.[16] He was awarded the pilot’s flying badge (or “wings”) on June 25, 1937.[17]

In November 1937, Thompson was posted to 102 Squadron for flying duties.[18] At that time, 102 Squadron was a night bomber unit stationed at RAF Honington, Suffolk, and equipped with the Heyford, a large, twin-engined open-cockpit biplane bomber.[19][20][21] On the first anniversary of his service with the RAF (i.e. on December 21, 1937), Thompson was confirmed as a pilot officer.[22] In July 1938, 102 Squadron moved to RAF Driffield, Yorkshire, where in October it began conversion to the twin-engined Whitley Mk III, which by the standards of the day was a modern heavy bomber.[23][24][25][26]

On September 3, 1939, Britain declared war on Nazi Germany. Thompson flew his first operational sortie on the night of September 4-5, dropping propaganda leaflets on Germany. His second operational mission, another leaflet-dropping raid to the Ruhr Valley in Germany, was a few days later on the night of September 8-9. That night he was flying as second pilot in a Whitley Mk III, no. K8950 (code letters DY-M); the pilot and aircraft commander was Squadron Leader Stephen S. Murray.[27][28] Several hours into the trip, Thompson’s aircraft developed engine trouble and was unable to maintain altitude.[29][30] Because the pilots were not able to make a forced landing (given that the earth’s surface could not be clearly seen in the night’s darkness), all five crewmen safely parachuted to the ground near Kassel, Germany. (Both at the time and over the subsequent years, there have been various contradictory narratives of why the aircraft went down, but Thompson himself maintained that engine trouble was the reason.) The crewmen were all soon captured. Thompson was the first Canadian to be taken as a prisoner of war (PoW) in World War II.[31][32] At the time of his capture, Britain had been at war for six days; Canada would not enter the war until the following day.

Captured RAF aircrewmen were somewhat of a novelty at this early point in the war. This led to Thompson being taken for a brief meeting with Hermann Göring, commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe (i.e. the German air force). Göring was surprised to learn that Thompson was a Canadian; they then conversed about Canadian ice hockey of which Göring was a fan.[33][34][35] Propaganda photos and film were taken of Thompson. He was subsequently, over time, held at various PoW camps, ultimately ending up at Stalag Luft III near Sagan, Germany (today Żagań, Poland). Interestingly, Thompson was not the first in his family line to be a PoW: his great-grandfather William Thompson, a captain in the Canadian Militia and a veteran of the legendary Battle of Queenston Heights, was captured by American forces during the Anglo-American War of 1812 (as was one of William’s brothers too) and sent to a PoW camp in Massachusetts.[36]

The Canadian Red Cross Society, to ameliorate the hardships of life in a PoW camp, almost immediately began dispatching parcels to Thompson. Within roughly two months of his capture, the Red Cross had sent him a parcel of clothing and "other necessities."[37] By February 1942, the Red Cross was sending him eight parcels of food each month to supplement his prison camp diet.[38]

On August 2, 1942, when Thompson had been a PoW for almost three years, his father, aged 80, died in Penetanguishene after a short illness. It was reported that Thompson’s being a PoW had been causing his father “increasing anxiety” over those years.[39]

During his time as a PoW, Thompson’s air force status periodically changed. He was promoted to flying officer on September 21, 1939, and to flight lieutenant on December 21, 1940.[40] Also on that latter date (Dec. 21, 1949), which marked the expiration of four years from the effective date of his short service commission, Thompson was “transferred to the Reserve and retained on the Active List.”[41] On November 24, 1944, he was in effect transferred from the RAF to the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) – that is, he “relinquished” his RAF commission upon appointment to the RCAF as a flight lieutenant.[42][43]

At Stalag Luft III, Thompson one of the participants in the Great Escape. When the escape occurred on the night of March 24–25, 1944, he was one of the men who got out through tunnel "Harry," but (like most of the escapers) was recaptured soon after. The Gestapo murdered 50 of the 73 recaptured escapers, but Thompson survived. He remained a POW until the end of the war, having spent almost every day of the war in captivity. He was held longer as a POW than any other Canadian ever.

Thompson was honourably released from active service in the RCAF on November 16, 1945.[44] He was awarded three medals to recognize his war service: the 1939-45 Star, the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal with overseas clasp, and the War Medal 1939-45.[45][46]