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Driver, Paul Edward (Pilot Officer)

Killed in Action 1944-April-28

Birth Date: 1924-March-03 (age 20)

Born: Toronto, Toronto Municipality, Ontario, Canada

Son of Thomas H and Mary Frances Driver, of Toronto, Ontario.

Home: Toronto, Ontario

Service
RCAF
Unit
432 (B) Sqn- Squadron
Saeviter Ad Lucem Ferociously toward the light
Base
RAF East Moor
Rank
Pilot Officer
Marshal
Air Chief MarshalA/C/M
Air MarshalA/M
Air Vice MarshalA/V/M
Air CommodoreA/C
Group CaptainG/C
Wing CommanderW/C
Squadron LeaderS/L
Flight LieutenantF/L
Flying OfficerF/O
Pilot OfficerP/O
Warrant Officer 1st ClassWO1
Warrant Officer 2nd ClassWO2
Flight SergeantFS
SergeantSGT
CorporalCPL
Senior AircraftmanSAC
Leading AircraftmanLAC
Aircraftman 1st ClassAC1
Aircraftman 2nd ClassAC2
Position
Air Gunner (Mid-Upper)
Service Numbers
J/85612

Halifax B/A.Mk.III LW592

Bombing Montzen Belgium 1944-April-27 to 1944-April-28

432 (B) Sqn (RCAF) RAF East Moor

144 aircraft- 120 Halifaxes, 16 Lancasters, 8 Mosquitoes-of 4, 6 and 8 Groups. The bombing force, particularly the second of the 2 waves, was intercepted by German fighters and 14 Halifaxes and I Lancaster were shot down. Only one part of the railway yards was hit by the bombing. The only Lancaster lost was that of Squadron Leader E. M. Blenkinsopp, a Canadian pilot of 405 Squadron who was acting as Deputy Master Bomber. Blen-kinsopp managed to team up with a Belgian Resistance group and remained with them until captured by the Germans in December 1944. He was taken to Hamburg to work as a forced labourer and later died in Belsen concentration camp 'of heart failure'. He has no known grave

.

source: The Bomber Command War Diaries, Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt

Halifax BIII aircraft LW 592 QO-A missing during a raid to bomb the rail yards in Montzen, Belgium, shot down by night fighter pilot Oberleutnant Johannes Hager, Staffelkapitan of the 6/NJG 1 based at Saint-Dizier airfield in France. The Halifax crashed at Sur-les-Bois, Saint-Georges-sur-Meuse, province of Liege, Belgium

Flying Officer JW Burrows (RCAF) and Pilot Officer PE Driver (RCAF) were killed in action

Sergeant AC Phillips (RAFVR) survived and was taken as Prisoner of War

Pilot Officer HH Whaley (RCAF), Pilot Officer DC McDonald (RCAF), Pilot Officer DA McCoy (RCAF) and Flight Sergeant KJ Doyle (RCAF) survived and avoided capture as Evaders

There were three 432 Squadron Halifax III aircraft lost on this operation. Please see aircraft serials LK 807 QO-J and MZ 588 QO-W for additional information on these aircraft and crews

General Aviation Safety Network

General Sur-les-Bois-Halifax III LW592 QO-A 432 Squadron-Halifax JD371 KN...

General [Royal Air Force Serial and Image Database]...

Paul Driver was youngest son of Paul and Mary, completing a family that included Jack, Fred, Tom, and sister May. They grew up at 309 Cedarvale Avenue, a working-class neighbourhood in East York, a suburb of Toronto

He went to the local Catholic elementary St. Brigid's (where the grandfather of this writer's wife was custodian), then to East York Collegiate, and Danforth Technical School

Too young when the war started, Paul went to work at the Coleman Lamp Company, waiting until his 18th birthday before enlisting in the Royal Canadian Air Force in November of 1942

Driver started his training at No 1 Manning Depot, Canadian National Exhibition, and would eventually graduate in June from the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan as a gunner, at No 3 Bombing and Gunnery School, Macdonald, Manitoba

He went to England in July, 1943, crewing up and finding his way to No 432 (Leaside) Squadron, at East Moor, in north Yorkshire

Two months before the invasion of Europe in early June, the focus of both RAF and USAAF attacks turned to attacking transportation links and wiping out the Luftwaffe's ability to respond to D Day when it happened

Paul Driver (whose promotion to Pilot Officer came in shortly after his death) was buried at the CWGC cemetery in Heverlee, Brabant, Belgium. After the war the Driver family chose the following inscription for his stone: "Death can never separate those who are bound together by the ties of pure love."

Source: Malcolm Kelly is the author of SPROG: A Novel of Bomber Command, that tells of the kids who joined up to fight the war in the air

Canada Source Canadian Virtual War Memorial

Commonwealth War Graves Commission Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Commonwealth War Graves Commission International Bomber Command Centre

Find-A-Grave.com Finadagrave.com

Canada Primary Source Library and Archives Canada Service Files (may not exist)

Pilot Officer Paul Edward Driver was exhumed and reburied.

Home
Google MapToronto, Ontario
Target
Google MapMontzen Belgium
First Burial
Google MapBrusthem (St Trond) Cemetery, near crash site
Re-Burial
Google MapCWG Cemetery
6 A 5

Halifax LW592

Handley Page Halifax

(RAF Photo, 1942)(Source Harold A Skaarup Web Page)A Royal Air Force Handley Page Halifax Mk. II Series I (Serial No. W7676), coded TL-P, of No. 35 Squadron, RAF, based at Linton-on-Ouse, Yorkshire in the UK, being piloted by Flight Lieutenant Reginald Lane, (later Lieutenant-General, RCAF), over the English countryside. Flt Lt Lane and his crew flew twelve operations in W7676, which failed to return from a raid on Nuremberg on the night of 28/29 August 1942, when it was being flown by Flt Sgt D. John and crew.

The Handley Page Halifax is a British Royal Air Force (RAF) four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It was developed by Handley Page to the same specification as the contemporary twin-engine Avro Manchester.

The Halifax has its origins in the twin-engine HP56 proposal of the late 1930s, produced in response to the British Air Ministry's Specification P.13/36 for a capable medium bomber for "world-wide use." The HP56 was ordered as a backup to the Avro 679, both aircraft being designed to use the underperforming Rolls-Royce Vulture engine. The Handley Page design was altered at the Ministry to a four-engine arrangement powered by the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine; the rival Avro 679 was produced as the twin-engine Avro Manchester which, while regarded as unsuccessful mainly due to the Vulture engine, was a direct predecessor of the famed Avro Lancaster. Both the Lancaster and the Halifax would emerge as capable four-engined strategic bombers, thousands of which would be built and operated by the RAF and several other services during the War.

On 25 October 1939, the Halifax performed its maiden flight, and it entered service with the RAF on 13 November 1940. It quickly became a major component of Bomber Command, performing routine strategic bombing missions against the Axis Powers, many of them at night. Arthur Harris, the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Bomber Command, described the Halifax as inferior to the rival Lancaster (in part due to its smaller payload) though this opinion was not shared by many of the crews that flew it, particularly for the MkIII variant. Nevertheless, production of the Halifax continued until April 1945. During their service with Bomber Command, Halifaxes flew a total of 82,773 operations and dropped 224,207 tons of bombs, while 1,833 aircraft were lost. The Halifax was also flown in large numbers by other Allied and Commonwealth nations, such as the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Free French Air Force and Polish forces. Wikipedia

YouTube Halifax Heavy Bomber WWII

General Harold A Skaarup Web Page

Wkikpedia Wikipedia Halifax Bomber

Museum National Air Force Museum of Canada

last update: 2023-12-08 20:34:11

Halifax B/A.Mk.III LW592

QORAF RoundelA


432 (B) Sqn Saeviter Ad Lucem ("Leaside")

History of the Squadron during World War II (Aircraft: Wellington X, Lancaster II, Halifax III, VII)

The Squadron was the twelfth RCAF bomber squadron to be formed overseas in WWII. It was formed on May 1, 1943 at Skipton-on-Swale, Yorkshire, UK as a unit of No 6 (RCAF) Group of RAF Bomber Command: indeed, it was the first bomber squadron to be formed directly into No 6 Group. Using the squadron identification letters QO it flew Vickers Wellington Mk X medium bombers until it moved to East Moor, Yorkshire on 19th September 1943, when it re-equipped with Avro Lancaster Mk II aircraft. East Moor was part of No 62 (RCAF) Base. The squadron re-equipped with Handley Page Halifax Mk III aircraft in February 1944, and with Halifax Mk VII in July of that year, and continued with them until the squadron was disbanded at East Moor on May 15, 1945.

In the course of operations the squadron flew 246 missions, involving 3130 individual sorties, for the loss of 73 aircraft. 8980 tons of bombs were dropped. Awards to squadron members included 2 DSOs, 119 DFCs,1 Bar to DFC, 1 CGM, 20 DFMs and 1 Croix de Guerre (France). Battle Honours were: English Channel and North Sea 1943, Fortress Europe 1943-44, France and Germany 1944-45, Biscay Ports 1944, Ruhr 1943-45, Berlin 1943-44, German Ports 1943-45, Normandy 1944, Rhine, Biscay 1943.Moyes, Kostenuk and Griffin

Squadron History (Bomber Command Museum PDF)

Maps for Movements of 432 Squadron 1943-45

MAP 1: 432 Squadron Bases 1943-45 (marked in green). Right-click on image to display enlarged in new tab

432 Squadron History Summary 1943-45

History of the Squadron Post-WWII (Aircraft: Canuck)

The squadron was re-formed at Bagotville, Quebec as an All-Weather Fighter unit on 1 October 1954. The squadron flew Avro CF-100 Canuck aircraft on North American Air Defence until it was disbanded on 15 October 1961.

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