A story about an ordinary Canadian youth who, along with thousands of other lads, served his Country in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War Two, and in spite of their own personal reasons for ‘joining up’, including the dreams of emulating the great air aces of the First World War, or simply to avoid the Draft, they accomplished extraordinary feats of valour without realizing that they had.

During the War, the folks at home desperately searched for news of their loved ones who were fighting on many fronts during that bitter conflict. Many families had husbands, sons and brothers engaged in the air war over Europe and in other far flung theatres around the world so they pored over newspaper reports and watched newsreels at local movie houses in an effort to learn more about the war and the progress toward peace.

The general public never knew until after the War that it was not the special air raids carried out by those highly visible ‘heroes’ that the newsreels and print media extolled so vividly that accomplished the very significant role that the allied bombing campaign played in bringing about an end to the conflict in Europe and Asia. Rather, it was the dogged determination of youngsters like Chet Popplewell and his crew, who barely out of their teens, had to overcome their fears night after night, and ‘press on’ so as to not ‘let down the side’, and carried out their duty in the face of almost certain death, injury or capture.

Indeed, at the height of the allied bombing campaign over Europe, RAF and RCAF crews could literally expect to be shot down well before they completed the mandatory 30 trips over enemy territory that they must carry out before they were granted a ‘rest’ from operations.

This then, is an attempt to present a brief biography about, and a memorial to, an ordinary Canadian airman who lost his life while meeting an extraordinary challenge.