That picture caught my attention when I saw it in an obituary in the Washington Post. The handsome fellow is the Canadian 'Stocky' Edwards who just died out on Vancouver Island in the Comox area. He would have been 101 on June 5. Here is a bit from the long obit:
With the rank of wing commander, Mr. Edwards shot down a confirmed 19 Luftwaffe fighter planes and scored many more “probables,” the aircraft he put out of action but did not see hit the ground. He also destroyed at least 12 more enemy warplanes at their desert bases before they could take to the air…..
In all, he flew 373 combat missions during World War II, mostly over North Africa but also to provide air support for the Allied landings in Italy in 1943 and 1944 and in Normandy on D-Day — June 6, 1944 — a rare “triple” among Allied pilots….
In addition to the Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded by the United Kingdom during the war, Mr. Edwards was named to the Order of Canada, one of that nation’s highest awards, in 2004. He was inducted into Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame in 2013 and the following year was appointed to France’s Legion of Honor by President François Hollande for his services to France during the war.
More death notices are found in a number of Canadian newspapers in mid-May of this year and there is a good Wikipedia entry for him, so I need not go on. I just thought it worth noting the passing of this real, Canadian "Top Gun" since the newspapers are also full of stories about the new summer "blockbuster" at the movies, Top Gun: Maverick, which is about an unreal American one.
Apart from the sources I will provide below, there are two books about 'Stocky'. One is a memoir authored by Michel Lavigne and Edwards. Here is a summary of, Kittyhawk Pilot: Wing Commander J.F. (Stocky) Edwards:
"This is the true inspirational story of James “Stocky” Edwards, Canada’s top living fighter pilot. The story begins in Battleford, Saskatchewan where Stocky grew up. During his childhood, shooting partridge, and working hard, Stocky learned the lessons that would serve him well during the Desert War. The story progresses through Stocky's training and then his posting over seas to the Desert War where he flew the P-40 Kittyhawk. This is the incredible story of a young Canadian who goes to war and becomes a superior pilot and leader of men."
The second book is: Kittyhawks over the Sands: the Canadians and RCAF Americans, also by Lavigne and Edwards. I will provide portions of a review below.
The books are not readily available, so it is good that "Stocky" has finally gained some recognition. A copy of Kittyhawk Pilot, which came out in 1983, is found in the Western Libraries, but not in many other Ontario universities. A few of them have purchased the more recent Kittyhawks Over the Sands..., but Western does not have a copy. Neither book is available in the London Public Library System. Limited copies of both books are found on used books sites, but they are very expensive.
Sources:
The Washington Post article: " "Stocky Edwards, Canadian Flying Ace in World War II, Dies at 100: He Was Heralded His Nation's "Top Gun" Over the North American Desert in 1942 and 1943," Phil Davison, May 21, 2022.
The London Free Press contains an obituary on May 20 which originated in the Comox Valley Record, a newspaper that provides other good material about Edwards. See: "World War II Flying Ace Stocky Edwards Laid to Rest," Mike Chouinard, May 20, 2022; "Comox War Hero Dies at Age 100," Scott Stanfield, May 16, 2022 and "Comox Centenarian Stocky Edwards Reflects on Years," Erin Haluschak, June 4, 2021.
For a good biographical profile see the website of Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame: "James Francis Edwards."
For a review of Kittyhawks Over the Sands... see this one by Rob Tate: Air & Space Power Journal, Vol. 17, No.4, Winter, 2003. A portion follows:
Canadian author Michel Lavigne has again teamed with the exceptional Canadian ace James "Stocky" Edwards, a retired wing commander, to produce their second book. (In 1983 they joined forces to write Kittyhawk Pilot, Edwards's biography.) Lavigne's latest work, the fourth book he has coauthored, gives historians a superb account of this fascinating subject. Readers should note, however, that Kittyhawks over the Sands is by no means an easy read and not the type of book that lends itself to casual reading; rather, the sheer volume of material makes it a reference work...
"Unlike Fighter's over the Desert, which steps through the North African campaign in a day-by-day format, Kittyhawks over the Sands focuses on Canadian pilots who flew for the Royal Air Force (RAF), Canadian and American pilots who flew for the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), and squadrons that flew the American-built P-40. Thus, the book deals with the 94, 260, 112, and 250 Squadrons of the RAF and 450 Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF)-specifically, their battles with the Italians and the German Luftwaffe in North Africa. Lavigne and Edwards present a staggering amount of information about each squadron, including unit histories, casualties, and claims. For example, the data on casualties includes the date, type of aircraft flown, pilot's name and fate, source of shootdown, and location of the battle. For claims, they include date, time, name and nationality of the victorious pilot, type of aircraft shot down, and battle location. Throughout the book, readers will find pilot profiles, anecdotes, and 350 black-and-white photographs as well as 16 color pages of aircraft and pilots. In addition to historical information about the squadrons, the book offers appendices covering the combat records of P-40 units, P-40 aces, Canadian and American RCAF casualties, and claims made by Canadian and American RCAF pilots....
Perhaps what I like the most about Kittyhawks over the Sands are the pilot accounts and stories of aerial combat, ground attack, and pilot losses from both sides. Lavigne and Edwards intriguingly piece together air combats, including photographs of men who shot each other down and of aircraft destroyed later in the campaign. I also admire their brutally honest treatment concerning instances of over claiming by the RAF, RCAF, RAAF, and Luftwaffe. For example, on the one hand, although RAF 112 Squadron claimed 211 aircraft destroyed between June 1940 and May 1943, the authors' research corroborates only 100 to 110. On the other hand, the claim of 65.5 victories by 260 Squadron (Edwards's unit) from June 1941 to May 1943 is almost completely verifiable, demonstrating the book's historical objectivity and desire to present the most accurate and unbiased information possible."
The Bonus:
In another review of Kittyhawks.... one learns this:
"War writer Michel Lavigne of Victoriaville, Que., in his 2002 book Kittyhawks over the Sands - The Canadians and the RCAF Americans, makes a valiant effort to have these men and their desert air war remembered....
They flew Kittyhawk fighters and decorated the noses with painted-on sharks teeth.
They were the first to do that, but the American Flying Tigers of the Pacific war are best remembered for airplane teeth, thanks to the American style of focusing on heroes.
Factoid: Of the 367 Medal of Honor winners buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, nine are Canadians. The award was struck during the American Civil War and since then some 3,475 have been awarded - 61 of them to Canadians." (rev. by Dan Brown in the Ottawa Citizen, Sep. 12, 2011.)
For local readers it should be noted that 'Stocky' was stationed for a bit at RCAF Station Centralia which closed in 1967. I attended a party not long after it closed that was hosted by a member of the military whose family was housed at the former base.
Also, those interested in the subject of aviation history will find in the Archives and Special Collections up at Western the, Beatrice Hitchins Memorial Collection of Aviation History. I could not find much information about it, but some background is likely found in: Catalogue of The Beatrice Hitchins Memorial Collection of Aviation History: Presented by the Family of Fred H. Hitchins. The Catalogue, was created by Marvin Hopkinson, whose position I assumed in the Western Libraries.
I did find this useful information at Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame, under the entry for Fred Harvey Hitchins.
"Fred Harvey Hitchins, CD.**, B.A., M.A., Ph.D, was born on July 10, 1904 in London, Ontario. He attended the University of Western Ontario, London, earning his BA in 1923 and MA in 1925. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1928 with a Ph.D in history. He then joined the faculty of New York University in 1928 where he taught European history. His deep interest in aeronautical history, particularly the Canadian operations of World War I, led him to publish articles on the subject as early as 1931....
He died in London, Ontario on November 3, 1972. The importance of his work has not diminished: his papers and books were donated by his family to the University of Western Ontario as the Beatrice Hitchins Memorial Collection of Aviation History, available for generations of aviation historians to follow."
For another post related to air warfare (in Vietnam) see the one about Senator John McCain which includes a review of a book about pilots who flew from aircraft carriers during the war in Vietnam.
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