Canada’s Chief of the Air Staff, 1962-1964
Born Jan 1st 1908 - Died Oct 20th 2003 in Victoria
Clarence
Rupert Dunlap was born in Sydney Mines, N.S., on Jan 1st 1908, roughly a year
before an event of major significance occurred at nearby Baddeck Bay. There, on
Feb 23rd 1909, the Silver Dart, with J.A.D. McCurdy at the controls took off from
the ice and made the first successful flight in the British Empire, of a “heavier
than air” craft. Some years later young Dunlap, aged 11, met Alexander Graham
Bell, one of the co-sponsors of this flight – so impressed was he with Bell’s
aviation achievements that it was to lead him, in future years, in the direction
of a flying career in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Meanwhile he attended Acadia
and Dalhousie Universities graduating in 1928 with a BSc degree in electrical
engineering. Joining the RCAF he earned his pilot’s wings at Camp Borden,
Ont. With a little more than 100 hours in his log book one of Dunlap’s first
assignments was to ferry a Vickers Vedette aircraft from Ottawa to Cormorant Lake
in northern Manitoba, to a RCAF unit commanded by the redoubtable Flight Lieutenant
Frederick J. Mawdsley. Together with his crewman, AC2 Ordidge, they departed Rockcliffe (Ottawa) on July 13th 1929 for what proved to be more than an eventful flight. At an average cruising speed of 60 knots, minus an average headwind of 30 knots, their progress was slow. Moreover they needed to stop nine times en route to refuel. A further complication arose on the last leg of the journey when an oil line broke and a dead-stick landing became necessary on Cedar Lake near The Pas, Man. Safely down, Dunlap and Ordidge realized that they were alone on the lake some miles from the shore with no visible help in sight. Eventually a canoe came alongside, the occupants of which agreed to render assistance. While Ordidge departed with the canoe party to find some suitable oil for the aircraft a larger boat towed the Vedette and Dunlap to safety on shore where he managed to fashion a fix for the broken oil line. After a two-day delay Ordidge returned with the replenishment oil and they were able to continue their journey.
In 1930 Dunlap was posted to a photographic survey detachment at Eastern Passage near Dartmouth, N.S., and there began an extensive period of cross-Canada mapping and survey operations, utilizing Fairchild aircraft and cameras. Dunlap was detached on several occasions on searches for lost persons and aircraft. Many of these searches were carried out in very difficult conditions in the most inhospitable weather season. As an example, throughout the month of November 1930 he was assigned to search for Pat Renehan in the Hecate Strait, Alaskan Panhandle area in the most violent weather imaginable. Some months later the wheels and other fragments of the missing aircraft were found on the Alaskan coast.
In the early 1930s hydrographic surveys of the Department of the Interior named an island, near Tofino on Vancouver Island, after Flying Officer Dunlap in recognition of the extensive and effective support he had provided to that department. Between his photo survey and search and rescue operations, Dunlap experienced five years of busy and productive flying. This changed in 1935 when he was assigned to specialist training in armament systems in both the United Kingdom and Canada. At the outbreak of WW II he was the director of armament at RCAF Headquarters Ottawa. Promoted to group captain in 1942, he commanded the air armament school at RCAF Station Mountain View, Ont in the Bay of Quinte region. Later that year he served at several United Kingdom Bomber Command bases in an understudy capacity.
On January 1st 1943 he was appointed to command RCAF Station Leeming, Yorkshire and to supervise the heavy bomber units operating from that base. In May 1943 he was dispatched to North Africa in command of 331 Wing ( 420, 424, 425 Squadrons, RCAF) for night bomber operations against targets in Sicily and mainland Italy. His wing was the last one to arrive during the build-up phase of the forces. Every conceivable base had already been commandeered but, with the help and encouragement of the overall strategic force commander, American General Jimmy Doolittle, two airfields were built in time for operations in support of the forthcoming landings. Under Dunlap’s stewardship the wing met with great success in the fulfillment of many difficult missions. 331 Wing returned to England after the fall of Sicily and the completion of its mandate in Italy. He was appointed a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for his part in the Italian campaign.
Returning to the U.K., Group Captain Dunlap was selected to command an RAF day bomber B-25 Mitchell wing (98,180,and 320 Squadrons) of the 2nd Tactical Air Force at RAF Station Dunsfold, Surrey, and to lead that wing in the build-up to D-Day and the eventual landings in Europe. This was a challenging assignment since operations were rising in intensity and a very high priority had been placed on locating and interdicting the V-1 “buzz bomb” and V-2 rocket launch sites. To meet this priority the numbers of squadrons and aircraft employed was expanded to enable daylight formations of as many as 96 B-25s and A-20s against a single target.
During this period Dunlap flew with his crews continuously despite higher commands concern about potential losses of experienced senior command personnel. On one such operation he took part in a raid on a V-2 construction site adjacent to Cherbourg on which three of the six aircraft in the box in which he was flying were simultaneously shot down over the target. Despite such losses he continued to actively participate in operations and the record shows he completed more than 35 operations by the time hostilities ended. He was awarded the American Silver Star and the French Croix de Guerre for his service in the European theatre of operations.
On returning to Canada in 1945 he became deputy member for air staff in which position he was the Canadian air force representative at the Bikini Atoll atomic tests in 1946. In 1947 he attended the National War College in Washington, D.C. from where he returned to Ottawa to become air member for air plans at RCAF Headquarters. Successive assignments as the commander of North West Air Command at Edmonton, Air Defence Command at St. Hubert, Que, and the National Defence College at Kingston, Ont, followed before appointment to the position of vice chief of the air staff in 1954. In that assignment he played a critical role in the build–up of the RCAF from a force of 14,000 to more than 55,000 as Canada responded to the NATO challenge in Europe.
In 1958 he was posted to Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in the position of deputy chief of staff (operations) from which he returned to Canada in 1962 to become, what turned out to be, the last chief of the air staff of the Royal Canadian Air Force. In 1964 Air Marshal Dunlap was appointed deputy commander of the North American Air Defense Command (D CinC NORAD) at Colorado Springs, Colorado, a position from which he retired in 1967 after 39 years of military service to his country in the uniform of the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Following retirement he participated, for 12 years on a voluntary basis, in the development and funding of the military aspects of Phase One of Canada’s National Aviation Museum at Rockcliffe - one of the three finest such institutions in the world. Finally in 1979 after 52 years of dedicated and distinguished service to Canada in which he made substantial and lasting contributions to aviation, the Dunlaps retired and returned to British Columbia, the site of much of his early RCAF flying days. He lived in Victoria, playing golf, weather permitting, three days a week until failing health intervened.
During his most productive life Air Marshal Dunlap was a member of many organizations, the dominant and most interesting to him were the United States/Canada Permanent Joint Board on Defence (PJBD), and the Board of Acadia University his original “alma mater.” He was a member of the Union Club of Victoria, and the Victoria Golf Club.
Air Marhal Dunlap is survived by his wife Hester and a son, Dr. David Dunlap, both of Victoria.