Grier, Robert Roy (Flying Officer)

Interned Prisoner 1944-May-08

Flying Officer Robert Roy Grier RCAF

Birth Date: 1920-June-21

Born: Ogema Saskatchewan Canada

Son of Alexander Robert Grier and Barbara Allen (Ellen) Coubrough

Home: Ogema, Saskatchewan Canada

Enlistment:

Enlistment Date: Unknown

Service

RCAF

Unit

178 (B) Sqn- Squadron

Base

Celone Italy

Rank

Flying Officer

Position

Flying Officer

Service Numbers

R/114986
PoW: 13

Home
Google MapOgema, Saskatchewan Canada
Target
Google MapBucharest Romania

Aircraft failed to return to base. Bombs carried 12x550 lbs MC.025

Escape Card. CSDIC CMF / SKP / 3685. 6 / 11 / 9 / 44. Escape-G. Initially Interned in Romania and then sent to Anglo-American Camp Number II and reported safe in the United Kingdom on 10 September 1944.

The crew, except for Grier and Parsons were Killed in Action. All are buried in Bucharest War Cemetery in Romania.

  • Lieutenant Jan Geritt Schuurman, KIA
  • Flight Sergeant Peter Bissett, KIA
  • Flight Sergeant James Alexander Phillips, KIA
  • Sergeant Kenneth William Brown, KIA
  • Flight Sergeant W Parsons, status unknown
  • Lieutenant Dean Patrick McGee, KIA

YouTube Roy Grier War Story

Operatins Record Books 178 Squadron Operations Record Book

www.findagrave.com

Library and Archives Canada Service Files (may not exist)

Liberator serial: BZ932

(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

Wikipedia Wikipedia Liberator bomber

unvetted Source Harold A Skaarup Web Page