Steve Pitt - Day of the Flying Fox. The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox

DAY OF THE FLYING FOX

The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox

Steve Pitt

Copyright Steve Pitt, 2008

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

Editor: Michael Carroll

Design: Erin Mallory

Printer: Marquis

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Pitt, Steve, 1954

Day of the Flying Fox : the true story of World War II pilot Charley Fox / Steve Pitt.

Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-1-55002-808-9

1. Fox, Charley, 1920-. 2. World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, Canadian. 3. World War, 1939-1945--Aerial operations, Canadian. 4. Air pilots--Canada--Biography. 5. Rommel, Erwin, 1891-1944. I. Title.

UG626.2.F685P48 2008 940.548171 C2008-900392-6

1 2 3 4 5 12 11 10 09 08

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and The Association for the Export of Canadian Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program, and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.

J. Kirk Howard, President

Printed and bound in Canada.

Printed on recycled paper.

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This book is dedicated to Paul and Bertha Nallanayagam, my parents-in-law, who have been like a father and mother to me and have always believed in my writing.

Although writing is a solitary occupation, the research is usually a team effort. Many people assisted me in accumulating the material that eventually became this book, and I thank them all for their help and expertise. In particular I would like to thank Kevin Mah and Lucie Ethier of National Defence Imagery Library Centre, the archivists of Library and Archives Canada, Fiona Smith Hale of the Canadian Aviation Museum, and Second World War RCAF pilots Bill Martin and Leonard Levy for technical information.

I would also like to thank Charley Fox for all his patience with my endless questions. Finally, I would like to thank the waitresses at the Fifth Wheel Truck Stop in Milton, Ontario, for keeping the coffee coming while Charley and I hashed out the details from D-Day to VE Day.

In December 1935 a young teenager walked slowly home from school. His name was Charles Charley William Fox. Because he was young and he played on nearly every sports team at school, he normally strode down this road quickly, but today he was dragging his feet. He was reluctant to go home because he had just received his report card and, unfortunately, some of his marks werent good.

Youve got the brains, Charley, his father always told him. You just dont apply yourself enough.

Charley knew what his dad was talking about. Although Charley rarely found school work difficult, he preferred sports to studying. Sometimes he let his marks drop by playing too much baseball, hockey, or basketball, his favourite. He always promised himself he would study harder next week, and after that next week, for sure, but before he knew it the term was over and the marks were in.

Now Charley glanced at his report card and shuddered. His parents wouldnt be pleased. Charley was so worried about his marks that at first he didnt notice an unusual low-toned rumble slowly growing louder.

When he finally did hear the noise, he looked around but couldnt see anything. The roar grew louder and louder until it felt as if the ground under his feet was shaking. Charley turned in time to see three silver biplanes rise majestically over the hill behind him as they followed the road west toward the small city of Guelph.

Aircraft were still a rare sight over rural Ontario, but these planes were especially unusual. Metallic silver, they glowed like shiny spear points in the clear blue sky, and the red, white, and blue roundels of the Royal Air Force were proudly displayed on their sides and wings. Charley didnt know it then, but these planes were British Hawker Furies on a cross-Canada publicity tour.

The Furies were so low that Charley could make out the faces of the pilots in the open cockpits. The airmen wore brown leather helmets and jackets and had big square goggles to protect their eyes from the wind blasting backward from the planes propeller blades. Charley waved to the speeding aircraft as they passed overhead, and one of the pilots waved back.

As the planes receded from sight, Charley wondered what it would be like to fly. Dont suppose Ill ever get a chance to find out, he muttered to himself as he resumed the slow trudge down the long dirt road that led to home. He was only a schoolboy in rural Canada with a bad report card, he reminded himself. The only flying Ill be doing is out to the shed when my folks see my marks.

FASCINATING FACT

New Then Old: The Hawker Fury

In the 1930s most military airplanes still resembled their First World War ancestors, with two layers of wings, fixed landing gear, open cockpits, wood-and-fabric frames, and no radios. The Hawker Fury was a step toward the next generation of fighters because it is streamlined and has an all-metal construction, and its powerful Rolls-Royce 12-cylinder engine can propel it at a maximum speed of 359 kilometres per hour. But by the time the Fury entered service it was already obsolete, since prototypes of monoplanes with closed cockpits and retractable landing gear were already appearing in Germany, Italy, France, Britain, and the United States. Because the new warplanes could fly faster and higher and stay in the air much longer than biplanes, Britains Royal Air Force sent most of its Furies to the far corners of the British Empire where they wouldnt likely encounter a modern enemy fighter. Others were sent on goodwill trips around the empire to build support in case Britain went to war with Germany. Many young boys, like Charley Fox, were influenced to join the Royal Canadian Air Force after seeing these impressive, if obsolete, fighters passing overhead like knights on chargers. A few Furies did see action during the Second World War, serving with South Africas air force against Italys planes in East Africa where they were used mostly for reconnaissance and ground support. Still, they did manage to down two modern Italian bombers!