The plane crash of 1946 will go down as one of the most significant, and most tragic, moments in Estevan’s history.
Twenty pilots from the Royal Canadian Air Force and one ground crew member were killed on Sept. 15, 1946, when their Dakota transport plane crashed in the northwest corner of the landing field at the Estevan Airport.
Now local resident Lester Hinzman and sculptor Darren Jones are paying tribute to the victims of that tragedy.
Hinzman was part of the committee responsible for the Estevan Soldier’s Tree monument, which stands next to the cenotaph in downtown Estevan.
Jones is the chainsaw sculptor who carved the Soldier’s Tree out of a century-old cottonwood tree south of Estevan. Since the monument was unveiled, they have remained in close contact, and they came up with the idea for this new tribute.
“We talked about this memorial, and this was our brainwave,” said Jones. “It’s one of those things of being able to give back, to let them know you are remembered, and we remember what you did, and that you are our heroes.”
Jones is currently working on the sculpture for the 1946 plane crash.
“Whenever I heard the story of the plane crash, that’s what piqued my interest,” said Jones. “These poor souls, they made it through the war.”
Jones is using his chainsaw to carve the faces of the 21 victims into wood. He currently has the images of 17 of the individuals; a search is on for the other four photos.
He hopes he is providing closure for the descendants of the 21 victims.
“I think that this has been lost to history, and I think we should remember our fallen. All of them,” said Jones.
Jones admits he didn’t know about the plane crash before he started to work on the Soldier’s Tree. Hinzman brought it to Jones’ attention.
“That’s why it surprised me so much. It’s really surprising that not a lot of people know about it.”
He started by working on Lawrence Victor Kirsch, who was 28 years of age at the time of the tragedy. James Pyle Jessee, 26, was the second face he worked on. Henry Hugh Cowan, 31, was next. All three received the Distinguished Flying Cross.
“As I start carving faces, it gets faster because of the routine and what I’m looking for in the characteristics,” said Jones.
It’s not just an Estevan monument, either, he said. The people depicted in the tribute were from across the Canadian. Jones believes these airmen reflected Canadian solidarity, without borders or conflicts.
Jones’ wife died from cancer last September, and so he says he has empathy for those who have lost a loved one too soon. His experiences also drive the emotions behind the project.
He hopes the faces will be completed by the middle of next week. He has a carpenter working with him who is putting the base together.
This monument uses a 500-year-old fir for the base, which Jones said will help with longevity. The faces will be carved into four upright cedar logs, and a Lancaster bomber made of fir will sit atop the tribute.
It will stand 12 feet in the front and 10 feet in the back, and measure 10 to 15 feet wide.
Jones hopes the monument can be delivered to Estevan by Sept. 10. It creates a hectic schedule for him, but it’s one that he is ready to take on since coming up with the idea for the memorial.
A method of delivery hasn’t been finalized as of yet, but Jones said he will do anything he can to get it to the Energy City.
“We’re going to build it, and it’ll get down there. One way or another. I’ll hook up a trailer and bring it down, because this is southern Saskatchewan’s monument.”
He also wants to bring a table to southeast Saskatchewan to be raffled off.
Hinzman hopes this particular sculpture can be located next to the cenotaph and the Soldier’s Tree.
“It’s the centre of Estevan, and then people can see it,” said Hinzman.
A lot of people do carry a lot of respect for those who fought for their country in previous combats, Hinzman said, but this is a last-ditch effort to remember the people killed in the plane crash.
Hinzman’s father, William Hinzman, fought in the Second World War with the Regina Rifles, and was part of the Normandy invasion. Lester Hinzman remembers that when he was a child, he sat at the feet of his father and other veterans who fought in the wars, and they shared stories about their experiences and their nightmares.
“They were my heroes as a child growing up, and when I found out about these guys (who died in the plane crash), and that nobody cared, it just broke my heart that they were forgotten about,” said Hinzman.
After reading an article online, written by Doug Gent, Hinzman thought it was terrible that the veterans of the 1946 plane crash had been forgotten about. He hopes this new monument will create more awareness about the accident.
“We need to know where we came from, so that we can protect what we have,” said Hinzman. “We have one of the best countries in the world.
“It’s like I said to a young guy the other day: in our country, nobody’s going to come in here and take your life, nobody’s come here and make you join the army and make you fight somebody.”
Hinzman said he and Jones are financing this latest project. They are accepting donations, but they also wanted to keep this at a smaller level.
It was Hinzman who approached Jones about some kind of a tribute, but Hinzman added it was Jones’ idea to carve the 21 faces.
“Darren says everyone deserves the recognition, because a lot of them were decorated by the King of England himself. Most of them were very well decorated.”
Major Victor Tyerman, a Wing Augment Support Officer, with 15 Wing of the Canadian Forces base in Moose Jaw, is heading up the effort to find the remaining four faces of people who died in the plane crash. He needs the faces of Clifford Somerville Coppin, Leonard Edgar Turtle, William Jacob Louis Weicker and Vitantos Luke Kirko.
Anyone with information can contact Tyerman at Victor.Tyerman@forces.gc.ca.
