Shaver, Wilber Joseph

Killed in Flying Accident 1943-08-16

Birth Date: 1922-February-12

Born: Lansing, Michigan

Son of Joseph I. Shaver and Ninah M. Shaver, of Lancing, Michigan.

Home: Lansing, Michigan, USA

Enlistment: Windsor, Ontario

Enlistment Date: 1941-11-22

Service

RCAF

Unit

1622 Flight- Flight

Base

Rank

Flight Sergeant

Position

Flight Sergeant

Service Numbers

R/137419

Home
Google MapLansing, Michigan, USA
First Burial
Google MapAnn's Hill Cemetery, Gosport, Hampshire, Uk
1622 Flight, Gosport. Defiant aircraft DR 896 was operating at 1,000 feet and was approaching the practise target on its sixth run in when it went into some low level aerobatics and crashed at the Eastney A.A. Range, Hampshire, England. One airman, not Canadian, was also killed.

Canadian Virtual War Memorial

Library and Archives Canada Service Files (may not exist)

Defiant DR896

Flight Sergeant Shaver, Wilber Joseph (RCAF)
Pilot
Killed in Flying Accident
1943-August-16
Anns Hill Cemetery, Gosport, Hampshire, UK

Boulton Paul Defiant

(RAF Photo) (Source Harold A Skaarup web page)
Boulton Paul P.82 Defiant, RAF (Serial No. L7026), coded PS*V, c1941.
Boulton-Paul-Defiant--L7026--crisp.png image not found

The Boulton Paul Defiant is a British interceptor aircraft that served with the Royal Air Force (RAF) during World War II. The Defiant was designed and built by Boulton Paul Aircraft as a "turret fighter", without any fixed forward-firing guns, also found in the Blackburn Roc of the Royal Navy.

In combat, the Defiant was found to be reasonably effective at destroying bombers but was vulnerable to the Luftwaffe's more manoeuvrable, single-seat Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters. The lack of forward-firing armament proved to be a great weakness in daylight combat and its potential was realised only when it was converted to a night fighter. It eventually equipped thirteen squadrons in this role, compared to just two squadrons as a day-fighter. In mid-1942 it was replaced by better performing night-fighters, the Bristol Beaufighter and de Havilland Mosquito.

The Defiant continued to find use in gunnery training, target towing, electronic countermeasures and air-sea rescue. Among RAF pilots it had the nickname "Daffy".Wikipedia





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