Fate is the hunter

[Roar]

Hi all,
Just reading Ernest K. Gann's Fate is the Hunter.
In chapter 12 "Cold" he tells a story of a C-87 being forced to land on a frozen lake in Quebec/Labrador during the war, which he calls Lac O'Conner after the Captain of the plane.
Does anyone know where this lake actually is and what it's modern name is?

[Go Juice]

The Lat. and Long. is roughly N54:20 and W74:30

[Siddley Hawker]

Lac O'Connor is now part of one of the reservoirs of the James Bay Hydro project. It was over NW of Gagnon, QC. The bush airplane that Gann mentions as being the first in there - apart from the DC-3 that got stuck - was a Barkley Grow from Canadian Airways. I forget the name of the pilot, but the engineer on board was Pete Midlege, who was our Chief Engineer at Hollinger Ungava Transport for years before he retired.

[Spandau]

About 122 miles east of YGL. The C-87 got flown out but I wonder if the C-47 got rescued eventually?

['97 Tercel]

Great book

[tractor driver]

Required reading.
I’m fortunate enough to have an original 1st edition in the collection, along with 14 others of his works.
Arguably one of the best aviation books ever written imho.
G

[Michael Johnson]

The C-47 was also flown out. The Barkley Grow pilot was Norman Gladstone Forester (see https://cahf.ca/norman-gladstone-forester/). He was awarded the U.S. Air Medal for the rescue. Forester was R.C.A.F. prior to the war but left for civil aviation.

[Spandau]

The largely unknown but essential second part of Fate is the Hunter is his book “A Hostage to Fortune”. It fills in many of the gaps in the first book.