Flight Officer Bernard Charles Denomy and Sgt. Sydney Cole, (right) who had a park named after him in Long Branch.
Sydney Reginald Cole was a valiant, fearless and true Etobicoke war hero.
Cole was born in 1923 and grew up in the Lake Promenade area in Long Branch, where decades later his exploits were celebrated by hundreds of residents on his return home from fighting overseas.
He died in 1991 at the age of 68.
Cole enlisted in the war effort and became a Flight Sergeant and Wireless Operator in the 192 Squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II.
Mimico boy David ‘Bud’ Hornell was a recipient of a posthumous Victoria Cross for bravery in the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II.
The pilot of the PBY Canso, Flight
He was awarded a Distinguished Flying Medal for “great devotion to duty and exceptional courage.”
On June 24 1944, Cole was on duty during an attack from a German U-Boat in the North Atlantic in which he and his crew faced intense anti-aircraft fire and engine failure.
Records show the aircraft was being ‘pelted with intense anti-aircraft fire and was repeatedly hit on its starboard engine which had failed and was on fire,’ soon thereafter falling off. Lieutenant David “Bud” Hornell managed to drop two depth charges on the U-boat and was able to land his stricken aircraft in the choppy north Atlantic.
THE CANADIAN government issued a stamp (left) commemorating the exploits of Sydney Reginald Cole and the Squadron.
Cole was wounded by shrapnel and abandoned the aircraft and escaped in a dinghy, where he spent the next 21 hours in freezing waters, assisting others. He was ultimately able to save the Flight Navigator’s life, but the famed pilot, Hornell did not survive.
Hornell, who was from Mimico and attended Mimico High School, was captain of the aircraft and was blinded and weak from exposure and cold when rescued 21 hours later. He died shortly after being picked up.
Hornell was a recipient of a posthumous Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
“Flight Sergeant Cole coolly and courageously continued sending a sighting report until he was wounded by shrapnel and stunned momentarily,” according his memoir, War and Innocence, a Time Remembered, by H.J. Cole, which is available online.
“He collected a tin of water and rations at the time when the petrol tanks were in danger of exploding and even when in the dingy leaving the aircraft had to be restrained from going back to get a dinghy radio,” the book explains.
There were hundreds of area residents who showed up to meet him on his return home in July 1944. He was placed on a fire truck as people waved and shouted and driven home on Lake Promenade Avenue to meet his family.
A local park in 2017 was named ‘Syd Cole Park,’ in honour of the local war hero, near his home at 60 Eastwood park Park Gardens, at the corner of Long Branch Avenue.
The 162 Squadron lost 14 Canadian airmen and three aircraft in that fight with the enemy. Cole was later made a Canadian recipient of the prestigious Distinguished Flying Medal Award.