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Contact Info
Home Town Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada; Lincoln, California
Last Address Muroc AAF (later Edwards AFB), California
Date of Passing Jun 05, 1948
Location of Interment Lincoln Cemetery - Lincoln, California
He was born in Canada but moved to Lincoln, CA when he was 13 and he maintained dual citizenship for the rest of his life.
He was an A-20 Havoc pilot in the Mediterranean Theater in WWII and a test pilot after the war.
He and 4 others were killed in the crash of the Northrop YB-49 Flying Wing bomber.
Edwards AFB (formerly Muroc AAF), CA is named for him.
WWII - European Theater of Operations/Sicily Campaign (1943)
From Month/Year
July / 1943
To Month/Year
August / 1943
Description (Sicily Campaign 9 July to 17 August 1943) In preparation for the invasion of Sicily the Allies captured the islands in the Sicilian strait, with aerial bombardment forcing the capitulation of Pantelleria on 11 June 1943. By that time Allied air power had begun the attack on Sicily by bombing defenses and airfields. The invasion itself got under way on the night of 9/10 July with airborne landings that were followed the next day by an amphibious assault. The enemy offered strong resistance, but the Allies had superiority in the air and soon had planes operating from Sicilian bases to support Montgomery’s Eighth Army and Patton’s Seventh.
Interdictory operations against communications in Italy and between Italy and Sicily convinced the enemy that it would be impossible to move strong reinforcements. By 17 August 1943 the Allies were in possession of the island, but they had not been able to prevent a German evacuation across the Strait of Messina.
