'War Among the Clouds': Book spotlights unsung New Brunswick heroes of First World War

New Brunnswick airman Alvah Good, centre, stands with fellow airmen. (Source: New Brunswick Provincial Archives)

After months of shooting down enemy planes, Albert Desbrisay Carter found himself plummeting to the ground. He survived the crash in his aircraft, but he was now stuck in hostile territory. He soon wound up in a German prisoner of war camp, where he would spend much of 1918 before he was repatriated.

For him, the First World War was over, but by then he had accomplished more than most pilots from Canada, particularly those from his home province of New Brunswick.

“His record of achievement was far beyond anything else New Brunswickers achieved,” said historian and author Brent Wilson. “He had 28 victories.”

Carter, who died in 1919 in a tragic flying accident, ranked as the 11th greatest Canadian pilot ace in the First World War, and the highest-ranking one from New Brunswick (the top-ranking overall ace, Billy Bishop, shot down 72 planes).

Wilson, who worked at the Centre for Conflict Studies and the Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society at the University of New Brunswick, said he started researching Carter when he volunteered to do a presentation on the pilot for Parks Canada a few years ago. As the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force approached in 2024, a friend encouraged Wilson to write a book about Carter and the other New Brunswick pilots.

“It became a labour of love,” Wilson said. “Because Canada didn’t have an operational air force in the First World War, Canadians worked with the British air force. The records are there but it meant trolling through these records for months on end trying to track down individuals. I think it paid off in the end.”

The book, “War Among the Clouds,” details the lives and experiences of more than 250 New Brunswickers who took to the skies as part of the war effort from 1914 to 1918.

“Part of the story comes to the fact New Brunswick and the Maritimes in general … their contributions have been overshadowed by other parts of the country,” Wilson said. “The Maritimes was underrepresented statistically.

“When you look at who the airmen were, they tended to come from urban centres, they tended to be well-educated. New Brunswick was still a largely rural province and our cities were quite small, comparatively speaking.”

Wilson said the New Brunswick pilots came from major cities and obscure villages across the province.

“One thing I discovered was, while most New Brunswick airmen came from larger urban centres like Saint John and Fredericton, there were still large numbers who came from small communities, some of which no longer exist,” he said. “Most people wouldn’t be able to find them on a map.”

The popular image of the First World War is one of soldiers locked in pitched trench battles, fighting and dying in droves over miles or even inches of muddy, devastated land across Europe. Wilson’s book explores how the theatre of war expanded to the air and around the globe, oftentimes with New Brunswickers pitching in with the struggle.

“New Brunswickers served in the Mediterranean, Egypt, Palestine, Macedonia, northern Greece,” Wilson said. “They became involved in the war in Russia, especially after Russia signed a peace treaty with the Germans.

“One airman from Milltown was involved in operations in Macedonia and south Russia and flew against the Bolsheviks under the command of Raymond Collishaw. He didn’t get home until early 1920.”

Wilson’s book is the 31st entry in the “New Brunswick Military Heritage” series through Goose Lane Editions. Wilson previously wrote “Hurricane Pilot,” which focused on Fredericton pilot Harry L. Gill in the Second World War, and “A Family of Brothers,” which explored the 26th Battalion from New Brunswick in the First World War, for the series.

“I had relatives who served both in the first and second world wars,” he said. “My father was a combat veteran of the Second World War. I grew up with an interest in military history and I focused on it as my major. I was lucky enough to find a career studying it.”

Wilson hopes books like “War Among the Clouds” will help Canadians understand their country’s significant contribution to the wider war effort.

“With the distance of time, there’s a chance we lose our knowledge, our awareness of the contribution New Bruswickers made to the First World War,” he said. “New Brunswick’s story tends to get lost in the wider national narrative so we wanted to make sure that story was told.”

“War Among the Clouds” is available through Goose Lane Editions.

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