http://rcafuplands.blogspot.ca Great story here from July 28th, 2014. How the family of Thomas Kirby-Green, one of the Fifty from Stalag Luft 3, received the RAF tunic he had sold the day before he escaped.
Squadron Leader Thomas G. Kirby-Green Born: 28th February 1918 Nationality: British Unit: 40 Squadron, RAF Service No: 39103 POW No.: 652 Recaptured: near Zlfn Died: 29th March 1944 He died along with Canadian F/O Gordon Kidder http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nbpennfi/penn8b2Kidder_GA.htm
What a superb website highlighting flying training in Canada....quality training,a prerequisite for working towards victory. Interesting to note the instructors assessment of John Magee on graduation.
During the early years of WW2, it was mostly in Canada that the war found its victims: Over 1,000 airmen had already lost their lives on Canadian bases before the raid on Dieppe was launched in August 1942. From the beginning of 1942 to the end of 1944, 831 fatal air accidents took place in Canada – an average of 23 per month, or five every week. Each week, at least a dozen airmen died in Canada, an enormous number... During the first years of the war, Canada was the most dangerous place a pilot could be...
