First Nations and Métis Veterans Series | Part Nine | November 9, 2026

By James Turtle, First Nations Correspondent

In June 1943, a German fighter attacked a bomber over Cologne. Willard John Bolduc, an Ojibwe air gunner from Chapleau, Ontario, fired back. His shots damaged the fighter and it broke off the attack. On another raid, over Nuremberg, a German fighter came at his aircraft during its bombing run. Bolduc opened fire, and the attacking plane fell in flames. Both encounters were recorded in the citation for his Distinguished Flying Cross.

Bolduc’s father had served in the First World War. In June 1941, his son enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force at North Bay. He served with squadrons flying anti-submarine patrols from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and trained as an air gunner in Mont-Joli, Quebec. Overseas, he joined No. 15 Squadron of Britain’s Royal Air Force, flying with Bomber Command.

In July 1944, King George VI pinned the medal on Bolduc at RAF Station Bourn. In a letter home to his mother, Bolduc described walking out alone in front of the parade. His knees were knocking so badly he could hardly speak. He also told her, with some delight, that he’d had a Scotch with the King before dinner. He returned to Canada that November.

Bolduc is among the letter writers featured in Dear Canada – Letters from the Second World War, a Remembrance Day radio play built from real wartime correspondence. His medal citation records what he did when his crew depended on him. His letter home preserves the details he wanted his mother to hear, right down to how nervous he was when the King shook his hand.

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