Spitfire AR439 Mk Vb - Sweep - 1942-08-19 to 1942-08-19
Squadron: 403 (F) Sqn (RCAF)
Start Date: 1942-08-19
Completion Date: 1942-08-19
Mission: Sweep
Operation: Operation Jubilee
Target City:
Target Specific:
Base: RAF Manston
Take Off Time:
Squadron Code: KH-
Radio Code:
Return Base:
Return Time:
Crash City: France
Crash Specifics:
Crash Latitude: 0.00000000
Crash Longitude: 0.00000000
Crash Reason: midair
Flak Battery:
Enemy Claim: unspecified
War Diary Unavailable
6 Group Unavailable

403 Wolf Squadron (Stalk And Strike) RAF Manston. The pilots of two 403 Squadron Spitfire aircraft were covering the Dieppe landings when they collided in mid-air. Both aircraft crashed five miles southeast of Dieppe at St Aubin-le-Cauf, France

Pilot Officer John Edwin Gardiner (RCAF), flying Spitfire Vb AR 439 and Pilot Officer Norman Monchier (RCAF) flying Spitfire Vb aircraft AR 334 were both killed in action

Even though both pilots were buried in the same cemetery and there were no other RCAF personnel buried there it was one year before the parents, the Honourable James Garfield Gardiner MP and Mrs. Christie Violet (nee McEwen) Gardiner, were notified of the death of their son. Cenotaph at Lemberg & District Cemetery, Lemberg, Melville Census Division, Saskatchewan, Canada

The Greatest Air Battle, Dieppe, 19th August 1942 by Norman Franks, pages 67, 235

Unvetted Source Royal Air Force Serial and Image Database

Unvetted Source Search for France-Crashes 39-45

Unvetted Source 19.08.1942 No 403 Squadron Spirfire Vb AR 439 P/O Gardiner

Unvetted Source Two RCAF Dieppe Raid Veterans Remembered - MoosejawToday.com

Unvetted Source 76 - Saint -Aubin-le-Cauf - Ils venaient

Unvetted Source Spitfire pilots and aircraft database - Spitfire AR439

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