CANAIRDIV A95 to CANAIRHED

March 13, 1953. A message from Air Vice Marshal Hugh Lester Campell, the Commanding Officer of the RCAF’s Air Division in Europe, to RCAF headquarters in Ottawa. It provides insight into the immediate aftermath of the downing of the American aircraft, and the implications for the forces under NATO command.

Campell reported that US General Lauris Norstad, then the Commanding General of the Allied Air Forces in Central Europe, wanted Canadian troops to fly “with hot guns,” and said that Norstad Canadian F-86s might be needed in the future. (Campell discarded this as a “passing comment.”) Up until this point, Campell wrote, Canadian planes had been flying without national or NATO instructions, and so he asked the Canadian government for guidance. This document points to the new and evolving relationship between the Canadian forces and NATO command structure.

Campell reported that there was “no indication” the shooting down of the F-84 was more than an isolated incident.