In the Second World War, Black volunteers to the armed forces were initially refused, but the Canadian Army starting in 1940 agreed to take Black volunteers, and by 1942 were willing to give Blacks officers' commissions. Unlike in World War I, there were no segregated units in the Army and Black Canadians always served in integrated units. The Army was rather more open to Black Canadians rather than the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) and the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), which both refused for some time to accept Black volunteers. By 1942, the RCN had accepted Black Canadians as sailors while the RCAF had accepted blacks as ground crews and even as airmen, which meant giving them an officer's commission as in the RCAF airmen were always officers. In 1942, newspapers gave national coverage when the five Carty brothers of Saint John, New Brunswick all enlisted in the RCAF on the same day with the general subtext being that Canada was more tolerant than the United States in allowing the Black Carty brothers to serve in the RCAF. The youngest of the Carty brothers, Gerald Carty, served as a tail gunner on a Halifax bomber, flying 35 missions to bomb Germany and was wounded in action.