‘Marching with time’: RCAF vet celebrates 100th birthday

An Air Force veteran from the Second World War celebrated his 100th birthday on Friday. Daniel Halmarson reports.

A Royal Canadian Air Force veteran celebrated his 100th birthday on Friday surrounded by family and friends in Winnipeg.

“We’re tickled we’re able to celebrate this occasion,” Clare Cove’s daughter Donna Cram told CTV News. “Of course, my dad would tell you that it’s like every other birthday.”

But one could argue Cove’s 20th birthday on March 21, 1945, was, in fact, a little different. He marked the milestone while fighting in the Second World War.

“I was probably in England,” Cove told CTV News. “By that time, I’d be stationed in Yorkshire.”

In 1941, Cove enlisted in the army and trained out of Kingston, Ont. before he was stationed at CFB Shilo. About a year and a half later, he transferred to the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). Cove said it was the quickest way to get overseas.

“He really looked at it as an adventure,” Donna Cram said. “He was country boy looking to get out of town and get over there.”

Cove served as an air gunner during his time with the Royal Canadian Air Force.

“You were in a turret that rotated, and you had four guns pointing in basically every direction from the middle [of the aircraft],” Cove explained. “The purpose was actually to observe any enemy aircraft that were coming near you.”

He remembers flying over the North Sea with a bomb bay full of tinsel – which was used as a diversion tactic against German fighter planes.

“We got up there, opened the bomb bay doors and all this tinsel fell,” Cove recalled. “The idea was that the German electronics would pick up the tinsel [on their radars]. It would indicate to them that [Allied] bombers were coming in and hopefully they’d send their fighters out in that direction.”

Of course, it was all just a ruse.

“They burned up most of their fuel by the time they realized there were no bombers in that area,” Cove said.

Cove said while the German planes returned to base to refuel, the actual bombers would fly in from the south.

“We did that twice as I recall – and nobody got injured.”

“I think he was one of the lucky ones,” Cram said. “He came home and his crew were all able to come home.”

Cram said her father didn’t talk a lot about the Second World War when she was younger but said he’s has opened up about his time overseas as years go by.

“He’s got some interesting stories. Sometimes it was coming back to the barracks and discovering another crew didn’t make it home,” she said. “There were certainly some tough, tough times over, but in general, I think he enjoyed the experience.”

Cove was playing baseball one afternoon about seven weeks after his 20th birthday when he learned Germany had surrendered. His crew volunteered to head to the Pacific, but never stepped foot in that conflict.

Following the war, Cove returned to Manitoba and started a long career in insurance. He was married for 71 years to his wife Peggy, before she passed away in 2019. They raised two daughters – Donna and Lois – primarily in the city’s Silver Heights neighbourhood, and later welcomed grandchildren and great-grandchildren into the fray.

On Friday, the family gathered at Cove’s condominium to celebrate his centennial. Photographs of family and from his time in the RCAF were displayed on two tables along with birthday greetings from King Charles and Queen Camilla, Governor General Mary Simon, and National Defense Minister Bill Blair.

“It’s a bit surreal, but certainly something I know he’ll treasure. He’ll keep these things and I’m sure he’s got many more birthday to come.” Cram said. “He lives life like one day a time. Each day is a gift, and each day is the same as the next.”

When asked about his secret to longevity, Clare Cove said several cliches come to mind, but landed on “marching with time.” And when he looks back on a century of adventure, his greatest accomplishment is a no-brainer.

“Getting married, having two girls, and growing with them. That would be the most important thing,” Cove said. “The rest is just fun and games.”