September 22, 1919 - November 4, 2015
Fred was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. In the 30's Sproule graduated from high school and took a job at the local Bank of Canada. In 1940 tried to join the RCAF, but lacked the necessary university education, so joined the artillery instead. Later restrictions on joining the air force were lifted, and Sproule transferred in early 1941. Upon joining the air force, Sproule was sent to manning pool in Toronto; Initial Training School again in Toronto; Elementary Flying School in St. Catherine's, Ontario; and Service Flying School in Trenton, Ontario. Sproule describes each stage of his training in detail, including: daily routines, food, living conditions, types of aircraft, first solo flight, testing, etc. Upon graduating, Sproule served for one year as an instructor in Canada, before being sent overseas to Britain. In Britain, Sproule served a short tour of duty as a fighter-bomber pilot, but was quickly transferred to the Far East where he remained until the end of the war. In the Far East, Sproule again served as a fighter-bomber pilot in the Imphal Valley, Burma. In depth discussion on typical bombing missions and techniques, Japanese advance into Burma and India, aircraft, training, and command structure; also one particularly entertaining anecdote in which Sproule provided noise distraction for bridge construction by dropping empty glass bottles over enemy positions. http://contentdm.library.uvic.ca/cdm/ref/collection/collection13/id/1686
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