Chapter Seven

The Comrades

417 Squadron and beyond

No fighter squadron's story belongs to one man alone. This chapter is dedicated to the men who trained with, flew alongside, and served under Johnnie Koplitz — and to the families who have kept their memory alive.

John Riley

John Riley trained with Koplitz in Canada in 1941 and flew with him in 417 Squadron. He took the now-famous portrait photograph of Johnnie during that training — see it in Chapter Two: The Volunteer. Riley was later shot down over Cap Bon, Tunisia, by Messerschmitt Bf 109s and spent time as a prisoner of war — held, the family understands, at Stalag Luft III, the camp of the famous "Great Escape" of March 1944. Of the 76 men who broke out through the tunnel, the Gestapo executed 50 after they were recaptured; Riley was one of the fortunate ones who was not among them. Decades later, on February 28, 2001, Riley wrote to the Koplitz family, enclosing the original negative of that portrait.

John Riley's handwritten letter to the Koplitz family, page 2, February 28, 2001 — John Riley's handwritten letter, February 28, 2001, addressed to "Lee." Riley sketches his own wartime record before turning to Johnnie: RCAF training in Canada, his pilot's wings in early 1941 at age seventeen, arrival in England that September, a posting to the Middle East in early 1942, and a heavy air engagement near Cap Bon, Tunisia, in May 1943 that put him down in Italy — consistent with the family's understanding that Riley was shot down and taken prisoner, held at Stalag Luft III. His closing line on the first page, "I was not one of the 50 who shot," refers to the camp's famous mass breakout in March 1944, the "Great Escape": of the 76 who got out through the tunnel, the Gestapo executed 50 of the recaptured men, and Riley was not among them. He closes the letter by recalling his post-war studies in aeronautical engineering at McGill and USC, and writes: "it was a pleasure and privilege to have known and worked with Johnnie … I was saddened to learn that he died without being able to enjoy his 'golden years.'" A postscript explains he is enclosing the original negative of his portrait of Johnnie, apologizing for the print quality since aircrew were officially discouraged from photographing aircraft at the time. A few words elsewhere in the letter — squadron numbers and a place name or two — are still difficult to make out in the original handwriting. That portrait is now on the site too — see Chapter Two: The Volunteer.

Johnny Smalley

Not a wartime comrade but a postwar one: Johnny Smalley was a student of Koplitz's at the Sarasota A&E School in 1951 (see the photograph, which Smalley himself took and identified on the back of the print, in Chapter Eight). More than sixty years later, on September 17, 2013, Smalley wrote to the Koplitz family out of the blue to share what he remembered.

Johnny Smalley's letter to the Koplitz family, page 2, September 17, 2013

Johnny Smalley's letter to the Koplitz family, page 3, September 17, 2013 — Johnny Smalley's letter, September 17, 2013, addressed to "Mr. & Mrs. Koplitz." Smalley recalls Koplitz's easy warmth as an instructor, and the compassion Koplitz showed when Smalley confided in him about his own father's death in a private plane crash. He describes going to hear Koplitz play piano in a combo at a Sarasota nightclub, possibly the "Tropicana" — and how, without fail, whenever Smalley walked in, Koplitz would start playing "The Wang-Wang Blues," a small gesture Smalley writes was "etched indelibly" in his memory more than sixty years on. The letter closes with how it came to be written at all: his wife, Barbara, found an old snapshot of Koplitz while going through a box of family photos, looked him up, and the couple traced an address in Lakeland, Florida, hoping it would still reach the family. Smalley writes that he hadn't known how extensive Koplitz's wartime service was until he found his story "on line" — likely a reference to an earlier version of the family's own effort to document Koplitz's story on the web, years before this site existed. He closes: "the one person I vividly remember, even though I only knew him for a few weeks, is 'Johnny Koplitz'!"

Guy A. Wood Jr.

A fellow 417 Squadron pilot whose family generously donated a wartime scrapbook to this archive — one of several scrapbooks from 417 Squadron veterans' families that have helped piece this story together.

P/O "Doug" Bruce and P/O "Jack" Evans

Doug Bruce and Jack Evans appear together in photographs from the squadron's time in the desert; Evans is identified as the squadron's Commanding Officer in at least one image in the collection.

F/L Stuart Allan Corbett

For a long time the pilot in the solo Spitfire-nose portrait in Chapter Three was left unnamed, possibly Koplitz himself. A second scan of that same photograph, together with his own RCAF Certificate of Service, has since identified him as Flight Lieutenant Stuart Allan Corbett, service number CAN J.16541 — active service from December 18, 1940 to his honourable release on September 25, 1945, with the 1939-45 Star, the Africa Star and Rosette, and the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal and Clasp among his decorations. See the full certificate alongside the photograph in Chapter Three.

Air Marshal Harold "Gus" Edwards

Photographs in the archive record a visit by Air Marshal Harold "Gus" Edwards to 417 Squadron — a reminder of how closely the squadron's exploits were followed up the RCAF's chain of command.

S/Sgt. Quentin Kaiser

From Koplitz's later USAAF service, Quentin Kaiser was a radio-gunner with the 489th Bombardment Squadron — Koplitz's own squadron — named in the family's account of the Battle of the Brenner in Chapter Five, where his portrait now appears alongside the story.

This chapter will grow as more of the family archive — roughly 1,000 photographs and 300 pages of service records in total — is scanned and identified. If you served with, or are related to someone who served with, 417 Squadron or the 340th Bomb Group's 489th Squadron, the family would welcome hearing from you.

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