Pages 143-144: Corley, Donald G.

September 21, 1944 D. CORLEY SERVING WITH THE FAMOUS GOOSE SQUADRON
Royal Family Honors Squadron With Visit
Many Get Rewards
SQUADRON WINS TOTAL OF SIXTY DECORATIONS
  With an RCAF Bomber Group Overseas, September 21, (Special) - Among the few boys from Lindsay who have the honor of being a member of an army or air force unit visited and decorated by the Royal Family is Sgt. Don Corley, son of Mr. and Mrs. G. M. Corley, Regent St. He is a member of the famous Goose Squadron about which this incident is written.

  The Goose Squadron, oldest in point of service in the group, celebrated its third anniversary recently when the Royal family visited the Beaver base. Goose squadron airmen were among those receiving awards from The King. As birthday parties go it was unique.
  History of the squadron, which has been adopted by the town of Kingsville, Ont., goes back to the night of August 11, 1941, when five Hampden bombers set out on the first operational trip. Rotterdam was the target and Sergeants Bradley, pilot; McMilland, navigator; Clark and Mercer, wireless air gunners, had the honor of being the first crew airborne.
  It's a far cry from those days three years ago to the present great fleet of Lancasters and Halifaxes that take off from the station to France. Three years ago the initial sortie meant 10,000 pounds of bombs, four 500-pounders in each aircraft. Now the heavies tote a much larger load.
  They didn't have present day equipment then and the squadron log book tells of two bombers bringing back their load because of cloud conditions over the target. Now cloud is something to be brushed aside and the bombs find their mark with scientific precision.
  Thousands of pounds of bombs have been dropped by Goose aircraft in its three years of service. Every major target in Germany has been visited. One of its veteran crews recently had the honor of flying the squadron's 3000th sortie, an all-time high for the Canadian Bomber Group.
  Honor of piloting "N-Nan", the Lancaster that made the 3000th sortie fell to Flying Officer Bob Clotheir of Vancouver, B.C. (1979 Waterloo Rd.) and the navigator was Flying Officer S. J. "Sandy" DeZorzi of Toronto, Ont. (60 Taunton Rd.). Both have done all their operational flying with the Goose . . . [end of record].