Some of you will have seen this story before, so apololgies for the repetition, but it may be of interest to others, and also demonstrates my family connection with Canada...
May 17th, 1943 is famous for being the night of the Dambuster raids by 617 Squadron, RAF, but another much smaller raid occured on the same night, carried out in Hampden aircraft by 415 "Swordfish" squadron, RCAF which was to have a far more personal effect on my family.
One of the Hampdens, L6055 GX-D, carrying a torpedo was shot down by the ships' anti-aircraft fire. The crew were killed, with only the body of the pilot being found, washed up on shore some considerable time after. That man was my uncle.
The effect on his family was dramatic. My grandfather forever hated Germans. Keith's older sister destroyed all photographs she could find of him. His younger sister (my mother) was 19 at the time and suffered long-term physical effects caused by grief. Even as I was growing up in the 1960s, it took a lot for her to even mention him.
I have a couple of
pages on my site dedicated to his story, including an amazing piece of serendipity which led to a sort of closure for my mother several years ago.