Last Canadian Battle of Britain Pilot- John Hart

Discussion in 'The War In The Air' started by 17thDYRCH, Jun 21, 2019.

  1. 17thDYRCH

    17thDYRCH Senior Member

    With regret, I am advised by my brother in law, that his father in law has passed away at the age of 103.
    A background video is here.

    R.I.P John Hart

    Lest we forget.
     
    Lindele, alieneyes and canuck like this.
  2. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    Thanks for letting us know. RIP John Hart.
     
  3. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    "You can get into a lot of trouble in an hour"
     
  4. alieneyes

    alieneyes Senior Member

    From Hugh Halliday's Honours and Awards database:

    HART, S/L John Stewart (41696) - Distinguished Flying Cross - No.112 Squadron - Awarded as per London Gazette dated 22 June 1945. Born in Sackville, New Brunswick, 1916. Learned to fly at Halifax Flying Club while attending Mount Allison University, 1936-1938. Appointed Acting Pilot Officer on Probation, 4 March 1939. Originally flew Lysanders on anti-invasion patrols. Flew in Battle of Britain with No.602 Squadron (see cards for victories) and then to No.91 Squadron. To India, August 1942. See Wings Abroad 14 July 1943. Air Ministry Bulletin 19055/AL.1043 refers.

    This officer has participated in a large number of varied sorties, including many attacks on heavily defended targets such as road and rail bridges, gun positions, strong points and mechanical transport. Throughout he has displayed skilful leadership, great determination and devotion to duty. In April 1945, Squadron Leader Hart took part in an armed reconnaissance during which eleven locomotives were successfully attacked. Some days later Squadron Leader Hart participated in another sortie during which a number of locomotives and trucks were most effectively attacked. This officer has invariably displayed the greatest keenness and has set a fine example to all.

    RCAF Press Release 1954 dated 17 July 1943, written by F/L K.G.B. Wright, reads as follows:

    New Delhi (RCAF News Service) - John S. Hart, 26-year old veteran of the Battle of Britain, who is a native of Sackville, New Brunswick, has been appointed to command a Royal Air Force fighter squadron on the India-Burma front. He is the only Canadian commanding a RAF squadron in India, if not the only Canadian to ever hold such a post.

    Squadron Leader Hart has not only had wide experience against the Germans as a Spitfire pilot but many times has come in contact with the Japanese in his present Hurricane squadron. His adventures include a crash landing from which he walked away, but he has only been injured once in his fighter career. That was recently when he sprained his ankle jumping off an aircraft.

    Born in Sackville, Squadron Leader Hart went to school there and to Mount Allison where he took up engineering for two years. He got an idea he’d like fly, so in the summer of 1938 he gathered up his spare cash and travelled to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Here he laid down the money for 25 hours flying time at the old Halifax Flying Club, “so I’d be sure of finishing the course.” For living expenses he got himself a job running the yacht of Senator .H. Denis, Halifax newspaper publisher.

    After training on Gypsy Moths and Fleets he got his “A” license as a pilot, and decided that was the life for him. In the fall he made his way to England and joined the Royal Air Force with a short service commission in December. One of his classmates during his RAF training was a young pilot named Mowatt, now commanding the wing in which Hart heads a squadron. “We never thought we’d both end up on the same station in India five years later,” Hart remarked.

    Hart finished his preliminary training in August 1939, and was sent to an Army cooperation school until October when he joined an army cooperation squadron.

    Here he put in long hours patrolling Britain’s shores and the Channel. The squadron he was with had aircraft in the air from an hour before sunrise until an hour after dark watching for signs of a German invasion, mapping and doing the various jobs which fall to the lot of airmen who cooperate with the army. This flying was done in the old and slow Lysanders, too.

    Then, the young |Canadian took a conversion course on Spitfires, and in August 1940 joined one of Britain’s most famous fighter units, the City of Glasgow Squadron. Operating from the south coast, the squadron was part of Churchill’s famous “so few”, operating against fearful odds. It was not unusual, Hart remembers, for the squadron to tear into as many as 60 enemy aircraft.

    In October of the following year, operating with another squadron now, the young airman got his first score, an Me.109, over Maidstone, and on one or two other occasions shared in the destruction of Ju.88s. It was while engaging twelve Ju.88s over Portsmouth that Hart was shot up and forced to crash-land, doing so without damage to himself.

    Besides taking part in many clashes with enemy aircraft in this period, he flew against German shipping along the French coast, shooting it up, and against such German-occupied cities as Boulogne and Dieppe.

    Off North Foreland in December 1941, Hart while on patrol had the unique experience of locating the same British pilot, forced down in the sea, twice in ten days. To this day he doesn’t know the pilot’s name. “We just spotted him, and the Air-Sea Rescue people picked them up, and they told us I had found the same fellow on two occasions within ten days,” he said.

    In July 1941, Hart was promoted to command a flight, and in October had finished his tour of duty, and was sent for a rest as an instructor at an operational training unit, where he also commanded a flight.

    Hart was posted to India in August 1942, and went into action against the Japanese. He has “pumped a few bullets in the general direction” of Japanese aircraft, but claims no “scores” yet. He has had Jap bullets in his aircraft several times, but has always come home safely. Besides dogfights his squadron has been engaged in beating up Akyab and other Japanese-occupied centres in Burma, including the Japanese area headquarters.

    In May of this year, Hart was posted to command his present squadron, mostly composed of United Kingdom and New Zealand pilots, with both of whom he is extremely popular.

    [​IMG]
     
  5. 17thDYRCH

    17thDYRCH Senior Member

    A superb recap of John Hart's military career. Thank you
     
  6. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    :poppy: RIP John Hart :poppy: :salut:

    TD
     

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