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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday November 8, 2008 - 3 The stories behind the names on a cenotaph OT students research into deaths of alumni documented by History Television By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF I t began as a school project about the Second World War and ended with two Oakville students journeying to a secret airbase in England and the site of a Canadian massacre in France. Ian Egglestone and Karl Tombak, both 16, were the undisputed stars recently at Oakville Trafalgar High School (OTHS) during the unveiling of a very special documentary that outlined their search to determine how two soldiers on the school cenotaph met their deaths. The instigator of all this is Grade10 history teacher Pam Calvert who engaged her class by having them research each of the 34 names on the school's Second World War memorial so the students could better understand the story behind each person. Calvert took this project one step further in March by calling the documentary series Ancestors in the Attic when students ran into some dead ends while researching some of their Second World War counterparts. "I maybe kickstarted it," said Calvert. "I told the students that if they didn't tell these stories, who would?" Instead of just giving advice, the TV series chose to make the students' search for answers into a one-hour episode that will air on History Television on Nov. 15, at 8 p.m. The episode, entitled Cenotaph, focuses on the mystery behind the deaths of Pilot Officer Peter Barnicke of the Royal Canadian Air Force and Major Robert Gordon Slater of the Royal Highland Regiment of Canada. War records supplied to Egglestone by Ancestors in the Attic noted that Barnicke's plane simply disappeared during an unknown special mission in 1944. Slater's records, which were given to Tombak, noted only that he was taken prisoner during the Battle of the Scheldt in 1944 and died in captivity. "The image that came to mind was him either doing hard labour or him being tortured," said Tombak, in the documentary. "He was such a high-ranking officer, he must have had some information they wanted." Tombak was not alone in wondering what happened to Slater. Around 100 people turned out at the unveiling of the documentary. While most were OTHS students and their families, a few were Second World War veterans and a few were family members of the soldiers on the school cenotaph. Pilot Officer Peter Barnicke Major Robert Gordon Slater David Fleury attended for his half brother Tempsford had served as a secret air base for Norm Slater, who is the son of Robert the Special Operations Executive, which Gordon Slater. dropped supplies to resistance groups Fleury noted that this documentary is throughout Europe. important to both his brother and mother Through declassified documents, because, until now, neither really under- Egglestone also learned that Barnicke had stood what happened to their loved one. been flying to Norway on the night his plane "What we had was sketchy and there was disappeared to make one such delivery. no closure at all," said Fleury. "We have bad weather as a clue, but still "He was wounded. He disappeared. The no definite answers," said Egglestone. war diary said he was supBack in France, posed to attend a meeting "He was wounded. He Tombak learned, through the next day, but he didn't disappeared. The war Slater's war diaries, that show. Nobody knew what diary said he was supposed Slater had witnessed the to attend a meeting the happened." ill-fated Canadian attack To find out this infor- next day, but he didn't on Verrieres Ridge that mation, Tombak and show. Nobody knew what ended with nearly all 325 Egglestone travelled to happened." Canadian `Black Watch' Europe with Ancestors in soldiers being killed or David Fleury speaking about the Attic, an experience wounded. the disappearance of Egglestone described as The carnage, which Major Robert Gordon Slater `absolutely awesome.' would go down in history Egglestone headed to as Canada's second worst what was left of an old airfield in England, single engagement in all of the Second World known as Tempsford, which was mentioned War, had a life-altering affect on Slater, who in Barnicke's wartime documents as the base requested to be sent to the frontlines. he flew out of. Slater would be at the front during the Tombak went to the former battlefields of Netherlands campaign when he was captured. Normandy and finally the Netherlands Meanwhile in England, Egglestone's where Slater was taken prisoner. quest to find out what happened to Barnicke "It's really hard to connect with just the reached its end as he and Ancestors in the land that it happened on," said Tombak, Attic managed to find Harold Watson, one of looking out on the now silent and green only three men left alive who flew out of fields of Europe. Tempsford air base during the Second "You know the events, but you really World War. don't know what the experience was like for More amazingly, Watson remembered them." the night Barnicke disappeared as he was With the aid of the crew from Ancestors also flying a mission to Norway. in the Attic and some veterans and local resWatson said on that night, his plane sudidents who survived the war, both students denly found itself surrounded by storm began to zero in on what each soldier had clouds and was struck by lightning. been doing when their lives came to an end. Watson's plane went into a nosedive and Egglestone learned that during the war, was only able to pull up in time because he had been flying at a higher altitude than normal. Barnicke wasn't so lucky, believes Watson. Now in the Netherlands, Tombak retraced the final steps of Slater during the Battle of the Scheldt. Commanding a company, Slater and his men were able to advance despite murderous German resistance, but in the Town of Hoogerheide the company was forced to retreat and it was here that Slater disappeared. German records unearthed by Tombak and Ancestors in the Attic confirmed that the Germans captured Slater and that he died just nine days after being taken prisoner. The certificate also listed shrapnel wounds as his cause of death. From here Tombak travelled to the Dutch Town of Seppe, listed on the certificate as Slater's place of burial. Although Slater's body was moved to a Canadian cemetery long ago, Tombak found that the grave is still maintained by Nol Krijnen. Krijnen was a teenager during the German occupation and in gratitude has looked after Slater's grave as Slater was the only Allied soldier buried in the town. Krijnen also found out all he could about this special soldier and filled in the final piece of the puzzle telling Tombak, through an interpreter, that during the withdrawal Slater was wounded by a mortar shell and then taken by the Germans to a field hospital in Seppe. Slater was treated by hospital staff, but finally died from his wounds. While grim, the news is greatly welcomed by Slater's family and in particular by his son Norm who feared his father may have spent his last moments on earth suffering at the hands of German interrogators. "These guys have found out everything my brother needed to know about his dad, who he never knew," said Fleury. "My brother's done genealogical research, but he's never had his dad, nothing tangible, so this is important to him for closure." For Egglestone and Tombak, the experience of finding out what happened to these former students of OTHS has had a profound effect, which they share in the documentary. "I thought of wars and battles as this group moved here and this group moved here, but now when I think of them, I think of the individuals and the path they left," said Tombak. For Egglestone, the enormity of war came home when he saw a memorial to 40,000 airmen who have no known graves. "That's 40,000 stories. What happened to each one?" he said.