Born in August 1922 in Westmount, Quebec, Frank Kenwood established himself early as a formidable athlete. While he excelled at football, boxing and diving, it was for his expertise on the rings that he would be best known. Kenwood demonstrated his abilities at public exhibitions all around the Montreal area.

Lieutenant John Lisle of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) was captured by Germans when his plane was shot down in the spring of 1943. One of his crew drowned, but Lisle and his gunner, Slowey, were made prisoners of war. Lisle spent two long years near Sagan in Poland at Stammlager Luft 3, or Permanent Camp for Airmen #3, until his release in May 1945. While he was kept captive, Lisle wrote letters to his mother, his father, and his sister, Doreen. A total of fifty of Lisle’s letters have survived.

On 23 November 1943, during Grove’s third mission over Berlin in five nights, a German fighter suddenly opened fire on his Lancaster, killing the rear gunner and mid-upper gunner. Then the enemy plane hit the bombs the Lancaster was carrying and Grove’s aircraft became a torch in the night sky. He forced the aircraft into a dive to try and blow out the flames, but his efforts were unsuccessful.