Arnett, Rex John

Arnett, Rex John

An oral history interview with Rex Arnett (b. 1924, 212651 Royal Canadian Air Force). He flew operations as a wireless operator with 223 Squadron from RAF Oulton. His crew was shot down 20/21 February 1945.

Rex grew up in Toronto, Canada, and details his experience in 223 Squadron.  He shares his life before training, including the tale of how he met his wife by asking her for a pen.  Rex joined the Canadian Air Force in 1942 at age 18 and began training as a wireless operator on the Mosquitos.  During training, he undertook a commando course and attended the bombing and gunnery school.  He tells of his experience training in the Bahamas on the Liberator Aircraft and his subsequent training in the UK on the Mitchell Bomber.  Rex recalls his journey to England and how he was initially unable to join his Squadron, due to eating chocolate bars, and his most memorable flying operations, including his first in July 1944.  Following the conclusion of the War, Rex describes his journey home on Christmas Day 1945 and his life after the war.  In 1947 he married his wife and worked for an electrical company.

The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff with additional contribution by Cara Walmsley.

Additional information on his crew is available via the IBCC Losses Database.

2023-11-09

IBCC Digital Archive

This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.

Arnett, RJ