Barrie Legion 147 Logo

Pilot Officer Jim Beierl

WW2 veteran Jim Beierl’s picture appeared in the Barrie Examiner last year (2015) following our Remembrance Day ceremony at the Cenotaph. He also came to our Legion Hall following the ceremony. In the month following, on Dec. 21, Jim died at Victoria Village with his family by his side.

Jim, pictured here in a photo taken during the war, was born in York Township in what would today be known as part of Toronto. He spent a good portion of his life living in Toronto and Markham.

In 1942 at the age of 18, he joined the RCAF and trained to be a pilot through the British Commonwealth Air Training Program. When he earned his wings, he was posted to Ferry Command to fly bombers to Britain and Africa.

As Jim described in a Year 2000 article, “Although only a few of us fell victim to enemy guns, we constantly faced danger. The aircraft were new, hastily built under wartime pressures and not properly tested so we experienced many mechanical failures. . . The aircraft barely had the range to reach our destination. The weather on the North Atlantic in the winter was terrible with a constant danger of icing. . . (Weather) Forecasting was very unreliable . . . Get a little past halfway and there wasn’t enough fuel to go back.”

That same article described two very close calls for Jim. One was between Greenland and Iceland when he was flying a Mitchell. The plane iced up and became too heavy to fly. When they broke cloud, the sun was out and melted the ice before they flew into the ocean. Another flight saw one engine fail on a B-25 Bomber just past Iceland. With the plane just 50 feet above the ocean, they were able to shed a 500-gallon auxiliary gas tank and make it back to Iceland.

Jim’s daughter, Judith Dyck donated four boxes of Jim’s books to the Barrie Legion – the majority about the British and Canadian airforce during WWII. These books are all quality, non-fiction books that will be treasured reading for our Legion Members. His family also contributed $300 to the Legion as a gift for Legion involvement with his funeral.

© Barrie Legion 147 | Website by mediasuite.ca