Captain Wilfred Reid (Wop) May

"The story of Captain Wilfred Reid (Wop) May is a parallel to the history of aviation in Canada", pronounced the Calgary Albertan Newspaper shortly after May's death in 1953. The story is on of gallantry, courage, perseverance and good fortune, which captured the imagination of all Canadians of his time.
In April of 1918, Wilfred Reid May (who became affectionately know as "Wop" because a young cousin pronounced Wilfred as "Woppie") at 18 years of age, while flying his first combat mission into enemy territory found himself at the mercy of the Huns most feared aviator, baron Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron. The air cooled guns of May's fighter plane frozen, the young aviator was caught in a life and death struggle with von Richthofen on his tail, confident of making May his 88th allied casualty. Only by the young pilot's flying agility and good fortune, was he able to stay out of the German's markman's range for a period long enough to lure him into allied territory at which time, just before the Red Baron was readying himself to level his guns at Captain May, his legendary string of victories was ended at the hand of Captain Roy Brown, May's squadron leader, who burst into the fray above von Richthofen and without hesitation sprayed the Red Baron and his plane full of gun fire throwing the famous aviator into a death spiral.

May, who also downed his first enemy fighter in combat that day, was instantly recognized as a Canadian war time hero. By the time World War I ended, he had shot down 13 planes and won the Distinguished Flying Cross.

His exploits as a civilian pilot were in many ways as harrowing and as courageous as his war time involvement. In 1928 when diphtheria broke out in the community of Little Red River, 80 kilometres from Fort Vermilion in Northern Alberta, Wop May answered the call of 150 residents in Little Red River and 550 in Fort Vermilion by flying in 20 pounds of serum required to vaccinate the residents against diphtheria in an open cockpit bi-plane at 100 miles an hour in minus 40 degree temperatures. When May arrived with the life saving serum, his grateful hosts found his fingers frozen to the controls of the aircraft..
Later in 1932, while a resident of Fort McMurray, Alberta, May was credited with assisting the Royal Canadian Mounted Police with tracking down the notorious Mad Trapper, a man know as Albert Johnson who had killed on RCMP Officer and wounded another. May's courage and flying skills were also credited with saving the life of another RCMP Officer who had been wounded by Albert Johnson immediately prior to his own death when he flew in treacherous, blizzard like conditions with little to no visibility over the Richardson Mountains in the Northwest Territories.

Numerous stories of incredible perseverance and courage have been attributed to the exploits of Captain Wop May, truly a Northern Alberta hero both in war time and in peace.

Other sites to visit:

Alberta Aviation Museum