John Barclay Hurlburt

Killed in Action 1944-August-08

Flying Officer John Barclay Hurlburt RCAF

Birth Date: 1923

Born:

Son of Heman Stanley Hurlburt and Helena Barclay Hurlburt, of Vegreville, Alberta, Canada.

Home: Vegreville, Alberta

Enlistment:

Enlistment Date: Unknown

Service

RCAF

Unit

178 Sqn- Squadron (RAF)
Irae Emissarii Emissaries of wrath

Base

Rank

Flying Officer

Position

Pilot

Service Numbers

J/27631

Home

Vegreville, Alberta

Final Burial

War Cemetery
III A 5

178 Squadron (Irae Ernissarii). Liberator aircraft KG 887 was in a mid-air collision and both aircraft crashed near Szombathely on the Austro/Hurigary border during night operations against the aerodrome at Nadombathy, Hungary. Flying Officer Hurlburt maintained control of the aircraft long enough for his crew to bail out. Two RAF members of the crew safe, and four of the crew, not Canadians, missing believed killed.

Canadian Virtual War Memorial

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

www.findagrave.com

Library and Archives Canada Service Files (may not exist)

Liberator serial: KG887

(DND Photos via James Craik) (Source Harold A Skaarup Web Page)
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

YouTube Liberator bomber