A few years ago, as part of my F/L CAMPBELL TRIBUTE  and  LANCASTER KB897 MEMORIAL our VICTORY section  featured a 1945 letter and enclosed Globe and Mail clipping from a close family friend who was  raised in Minnedosa, MB.  Now, 55 years later the Globe pays tribute to the passing of this friend - Wolfe Nottelman.

MAILSTROM
October 17, 2000
This morning, just to see what would happen, I did a search of the name Nottelman on the internet & came up with your web site.  Much to my surprise. My name is Sharon Morrison (formerly Nottelmann) and I now live in Edmonton Alberta.  I read the letter from my Uncle to Louise; with much surprise. The "kid brother Hans" that my Uncle mentions near the end of the letter was my father, he died of a heart attack in 1980.  I wasn't sure if you knew or not but my Uncle died, in a nursing home in Vancouver, on September 30/00, he was 82.  There was quite a large obituary in the Globe & Mail, along with a reprint of the front page of the Globe from 1945 containing the picture.  If you go to the Globe & Mail web site & search Nottelman you will find the obituary that was printed on October 6/00.  (The reprint of the 1945 front page does not show up on the net) I would be interested in hearing from you if you would like to contact me.
Sincerely, Sharon Morrison
October 18, 2000
Any more information you might come up with about our previous family history would be appreciated.  My sister Jeannie & I really enjoy hearing about that kind of stuff.  My Dad & my Uncle were not very close so we didn't see him as much as we would have like to.  Some of my fondest memories as a child, though; are when Uncle Wolfe would drop in with his plane and visit us and take us for a ride or give us a treat.  We really loved him a lot.
Thanks, Sharon & Jeannie

My dad, Wolfe Nottelman,  had been very ill for many years during which time my mother and I looked after him.  I only became close to him over the past 8 years, during which time he was primarily unable to respond in any coherent manner.  He suffered from many illnesses which left him in poor shape, unable to properly communicate.He has been in hospital for the past 4 years with full time care having suffered a series of strokes, alzheimers, dementia and various other problems. It's not a happy story or happy ending. He was a very proud man, a very hard worker and a very honest guy. He tried to make the best of things and always worked hard to give me what I needed. He made a few bad choices in his life, and unfortunately it left him an overstressed old man. It's sad to write these things, but they are reality. I'm sure my mother could give you many of the happy stories that were part of his life prior to my arrival in 1970. He worked at many things and accomplished many interesting achievements.  I was so glad to have the Globe write that story for me, as I felt terrible that I could not do more for this once great man. It was very sad for me to see him go after all the time I had spent with him in the past few years. But I was so glad that he will no longer suffer such a terrible existence. No one should go through that type of life. Thanks, Thomas Nottelman

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Wesley George Agnew at Brandon Regional Health Centre at the age of 78. He was born on October 18, 1921 in Hartney, Manitoba. He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force on January 6, 1942 in Edmonton, Alberta. He was trained in eastern Canada and was later stationed at #23 EFTS as a flying instructor in Davidson, Saskatchewan. He met Joyce Burrill and later married her on December 26, 1944 in Langbank, Saskatchewan. Wes was posted to Vulcan, Alberta for six months and then to Yorkton, SK until 1945 at war's end. After his discharge he returned to Hartney to farm. In addition to farming, Wes was self-employed at aerial spraying and hunting. Wes enjoyed the outdoors with a love for hunting and fishing. He belonged to the BPO Elks and was a 50-year member of Royal Canadian Legion Branch #26 in Hartney.

His passion and interest in World War II aircraft started him on his long journey and dream of starting an aircraft museum to honour the memory of the airmen who lost their lives during the war. Along with his wife, Joyce, many, many hours were spent on the road across Canada in search of WWII aircraft. After 33 years of farming, Wes and Joyce moved into Brandon in 1982 and became Founding Members of the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum, Inc. Aircraft from the Agnew collection became the first exhibits when the museum occupied Hangar No. 1 at the former No. 12 Service Flying School in Brandon. He held the position of CATPM Curator for five years and continued to volunteer at various tasks around the museum until his passing.  In 1990, Wes was awarded the RCAFA Distinguished Service Award. His funeral service was held on Thursday, March 9, 2000 at the First Presbyterian Church in Brandon. Internment was at the Rosewood Memorial Gardens near Brandon where pilot Howard Pahl executed a flyby in the CATPM Harvard as arranged by President Reg Forbes. 

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In Flanders Fields  In Flanders fields the poppies blow  Between the crosses, row on row  That mark our place; and in the sky  The larks, still bravely singing, fly  Scarce heard amid the guns below.  We are the Dead. Short days ago  We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,  Loved and were loved, and now we lie  In Flanders fields.  Take up our quarrel with the foe:  To you from failing hands we throw  The torch; be yours to hold it high.  If ye break faith with us who die  We shall not sleep, though poppies grow  In Flanders fields.   - John McCrae

Reply to Flanders Fields   Oh! sleep in peace where poppies grow;  The torch your falling hands let go  Was caught by us, again held high,  A beacon light in Flanders sky  That dims the stars to those below.  You are our dead, you held the foe,  And ere the poppies cease to blow,  We'll prove our faith in you who lie  In Flanders Fields.  Oh! rest in peace, we quickly go  To you who bravely died, and know  In other fields was heard the cry,  For freedom's cause, of you who lie,  So still asleep where poppies grow,  In Flanders Fields.  As in rumbling sound, to and fro,  The lightning flashes, sky aglow,  The mighty hosts appear, and high  Above the din of battle cry,  Scarce heard amidst the guns below,  Are fearless hearts who fight the foe,  And guard the place where poppies grow.  Oh! sleep in peace, all you who lie  In Flanders Fields.  And still the poppies gently blow,  Between the crosses, row on row.  The larks, still bravely soaring high,  Are singing now their lullaby  To you who sleep where poppies grow  In Flanders Fields.  - John Mitchell

IN FLANDERS FIELDS: The Story

Excerpt from "Welcome to Flanders Fields - The Great Canadian Battle of the Great War : Ypres, 1915", by Daniel G. Dancocks, McClelland and Stewart (Toronto, Canada), 1988

Although he had been a doctor for years and had served in the South African War, it was impossible to get used to the suffering, the screams, and the blood here, and Major John McCrae had seen and heard enough in his dressing station to last him a lifetime. As a surgeon attached to the 1st Field Artillery Brigade, Major McCrae, who had joined the McGill faculty in 1900 after graduating from the University of Toronto, had spent seventeen days treating injured men -- Canadians, British, Indians, French, and Germans -- in the Ypres salient.

It had been an ordeal that he had hardly thought possible. McCrae later wrote of it:

     "I wish I could embody on paper some of the varied sensations of that seventeen days... Seventeen days of Hades! At the end of the first day if anyone had told us we had to spend seventeen days there, we would have folded our hands and said it could not have been done."

One death particularly affected McCrae. A young friend and former student, Lieut. Alexis Helmer of Ottawa, had been killed by a shell burst on 2 May. Lieutenant Helmer was buried later that day in the little cemetery outside McCrae's dressing station, and McCrae had performed the funeral ceremony in the absence of the chaplain.

The next day, sitting on the back of an ambulance parked near the dressing station beside the Canal de l'Yser, just a few hundred yards north of Ypres, McCrae vented his anguish by composing a poem. The major was no stranger to writing, having authored several medical texts besides dabbling in poetry. In the nearby cemetery, McCrae could see the wild poppies that sprang up in the ditches in that part of Europe, and he spent twenty minutes of precious rest time scribbling fifteen lines of verse in a notebook.

A young soldier watched him write it. Cyril Allinson, a twenty-two year old sergeant-major, was delivering mail that day when he spotted McCrae. The major looked up as Allinson approached, then went on writing while the sergeant-major stood there quietly. "His face was very tired but calm as we wrote," Allinson recalled. "He looked around from time to time, his eyes straying to Helmer's grave." When McCrae finished five minutes later, he took his mail from Allinson and, without saying a word, handed his pad to the young NCO. Allinson was moved by what he read:

     "The poem was exactly an exact description of the scene in front of us both. The word blow was not used in the first line though it was used later when the poem later appeared in Punch. But it was used in the second last line. He used the word blow in that line because the poppies actually were being blown that morning by a gentle east wind. It never occurred to me at that time that it would ever be published. It seemed to me just an exact description of the scene."

In fact, it was very nearly not published. Dissatisfied with it, McCrae tossed the poem away, but a fellow officer -- either Lt.-Col. Edward Morrison, the former Ottawa newspaper editor who commanded the 1st Brigade of artillery (4), or Lt.-Col. J.M. Elder (5), depending on which source is consulted -- retrieved it and sent it to newspapers in England. "The Spectator," in London, rejected it, but "Punch" published it on 8 December 1915.

McCrae's "In Flanders Fields" remains to this day one of the most memorable war poems ever written. It is a lasting legacy of the terrible battle in the Ypres salient in the spring of 1915.

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Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada

William Avery Bishop was born on February 8th, 1894, in Owen Sound, Ontario. While serving with the Royal Flying core, Billy Bishop became the highest scoring Canadian Ace of WWI with 72 confirmed victories. The Billy Bishop Museum is dedicated not only to the memory of Billy Bishop, but also to the contribution of everyone who served to protect the freedom of all Canadians. Read the fully illustrated Billy Bishop Story

STERLING, Va. (AP) - A row of shovels bit into hard Virginia clay on Wednesday, ancient technology symbolically breaking ground for the Smithsonian Institution's massive new air and space center, celebrating the technology that transformed travel in the 20th century. Able to display just one-tenth of its aviation treasures at the National Air and Space Museum in downtown Washington, the Smithsonian is building a new annex at Dulles International Airport. The $238 million project is scheduled to open in December, 2003, the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first flight. The ceremony opened with the roar of four Marine Corps FA-18 fighters passing overhead in diamond formation. Sleek jetliners taking off from the nearby airport rumbled by regularly. Truth be told, the groundbreaking by a dozen or so dignitaries was purely ceremonial, as massive machines have already begun to transform the 176-acre site in preparation for the new museum. The connection was kept to the current Air and Space Museum - the second most-visited museum in the world - by using the same shovel that broke ground for that building in 1972. The original Air and Space Museum will remain open.

 

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