Coott, William Arnold
Killed in Flying Accident 1945-02-06
Birth Date: 1921-February-10
Born:
Henry & Eva Coot, South Porcupine, Ontario.
Home: Toronto, Ontario
Enlistment:
Enlistment Date: Unknown
Service
RCAF
Unit
45 (RAF)
Base
RAF Stn.Dorval, Quebec
Rank
Flying Officer
Position
Flying Officer
Service Numbers
J/42692
Home
Toronto, Ontario
First Burial
Royal Naval Cemetery, Ireland Island, Bermuda
45 Delivery Group, RAF Transport Command, Dorval, Quebec.
Liberator Mk VI KL-386, on-route to the Middle East, made a refueling stop in Bermuda. The aircraft crashed and burned in shallow water one mile west of the aerodrome while taking off from Kindley Field, Bermuda on the next leg of the delivery flight. The crew were all killed
Killed:Flying Officer W A Coott RCAF, Can, Nav.Flight Sergeant A C A Grace, RAF, Brit, FEHugh Murray Martin Can. civilian PilotEdward Craig Talbot Can. civ. Rad.Op Jean-Paul Lagadec Can.civ. 2-pil
Ocean Bridge The History of RAF Ferry Command, Appendix B page 326 and The Liberator in Royal Air Force and Commonwealth Service by James D Oughton
Canadian Virtual War Memorial
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
www.findagrave.comConsolidated Liberator B-24 / F-7
Consolidated Liberator G.R. Mk. VIII, RCAF (Serial No. 11130) ex-USAAF Consolidated (Vultee) B-24L Liberator USAAF (44-50154)
ex-RAF (Serial No. 5009), ex-Indian Air Force (Serial No. HE773).
Currently preserved in the Canada Aviation and Space Museum Ottawa Ontario.
The Consolidated B-24 Liberator was an American heavy bomber flown by the RCAF during the Second Word War. It was designed with a shoulder-mounted, high aspect ratio Davis wing which gave the Liberator a high cruise speed, long range and the ability to carry a heavy bomb load. Early RAF Liberators were the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic Ocean as a matter of routine. In comparison with its contemporaries the B-24 was relatively difficult to fly and had poor low speed performance; it also had a lower ceiling compared with the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. Of the roughly 18,500 B-24s built in the USA during the war, 148 were flown by the RCAF on long range anti-submarine patrols, with the B-24 serving an instrumental role in closing the Mid-Atlantic gap in the Battle of the Atlantic. The RCAF also flew a few B-24s post war as transports.
Roughly half of all (RAF) Liberator crews in the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theatre were Canadian by the end of the war. John Muir of Vancouver flew the longest mission of the war: 24hrs, 10mins from Ceylon to Burma and back. (Kyle Hood) Harold Skaarup web page
Liberator bomber
Wikipedia Liberator bomber 
Harold A Skaarup Web Page