This is a true story of the 9,000 American boys who came up to Canada in the early years of World War II. They wore the RCAF blue uniform and became part of the 250,000 members of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) when America was still a neutral country.
These airmen went unheralded in Canada until a researcher at the Canadian War Museum looked through the list of 16,000 RCAF airmen who died in WWII. The researcher found that a total of 800 Americans gave their lives fighting shoulder to shoulder with the Canadians.
They trained to fly on one of the 200 newly-built airfields located from coast to coast. After they earned their wings most of them were sent to England, others to North Africa.
Many served in one of RCAF‘s 49 overseas fighter squadrons and flew Spitfires and Hurricanes. Others served in Bomber Command and flew the Lancaster or Halifax four-engine heavy bombers.
BOMBER COMMAND
A typical bomber squadron flew nightly missions, where hundreds of bombers from various bases would take off in the moonlight on runways lit by rows of lights temporarily switched on.
The bombers would rendezvous at a predetermined site, circled to wait until they all assembled, then proceeded en masse to the designated target.
The bombers were headed by a Pathfinder aircraft that dropped flares to light up and pinpoint the target.
When the bombers reached the target enemy searchlights would sweep the sky to find them, then focus in on one aircraft. The enemy’s flak guns would then fire at the bomber trapped in the converging searchlights.
The bo pilot would take violent evasive action diving and swerving to escape, but many were shot down. The bomber crews had only a 40 percent chance of completing their required 30 missions.
Bomber Command was responsible for destroying the invasion barges that Hitler planned to use to carry his invasion troops to Britain.
FIGHTER COMMAND
By their own admission, the first major battle the Nazis lost in WW2 was the Battle of Britain and it was the turning point of the war. The battle only lasted from July to the end of October 1940.
England was all alone against the still invincible Nazis who swept through Europe.
England would be the pinnacle of Hitler’s successes, but first he had to destroy British airpower.
The commander of the Luftwaffe, Herman Goring, told Hitler, “I’ll destroy Britain’s aircraft in three days.”
The Nazis were unaware that the British developed radar stations along the coast and could see the armadas of Nazi aircraft approaching. Goring underestimated the capability of the RAF and RCAF fighter squadrons.
The Battle of Britain turned into a turkey shoot for the Spitfires and Hurricane fighter aircraft against the slower bombers. The dogfights against the Nazi fighters was another story and took a toll, but the Luftwaffe lost 2500 aircraft, most bombers.
When the battle was over Winston Churchill made one of his most famous speeches of the war saying, “Never was so much owed by so many to so few,” referring to the fighter pilots.
THE CASUALTIES
That heavy casualty rate accounted for 374 of the 10,000 RCAF airmen killed in action in Bomber Command and the more than 400 of the 6,000 RCAF airmen who lost their lives in Fighter Command.
The following is the story of three Americans killed while serving in the blue uniform of the RCAF I have chosen these three as they are an example of the high quality of Yanks who came up to Canada to help out in desperate times. They led a privileged life but rejected it for a higher cause.
The following is the story of the last days of three brave Americans who gave their life for our freedom,
CHARLES “CHUCK” LESENSE
Charles Lesense was born in Charlotte, N.C., went to the University of South Carolina, then worked as a writer for the Charlotte Observer.
He was 30 when he joined the RCAF and was considered an “old man” by his younger airmen.
After getting his “wings,” he was a flying instructor for two years and kept pressing for overseas duty.
He was finally posted to England piloting a Halifax bomber in RCAF’s No. 431 “Allouette” Squadron.
It was on his 19th mission when his aircraft was hit by flak and attacked by two ME262 jet fighters.
He was seriously wounded but flew the plane until most of the crew bailed out, then he and his navigator also bailed out. They were both picked in enemy territory and taken to a police station, where F/O Charles Lesense died in the arms of his navigator.
Bomber Command Museum of Canada at RCAF base Trenton, Ontario, has F/L Charles Lesense inscribed on a memorial along with 379 Americans who lost their lives.
RICHARD FULLER PATTERSON
“Fuller,” as they called him, was a member of the well-known Patterson family of Richmond, Va., and heir to the Lucky Strike Tobacco fortune. He graduated from both Princeton University and Harvard Law School. In 1940 he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, RCAF, and became a Spitfire fighter pilot.
Fuller was shot down by a famous Luftwaffe ace while participating in a raid on the supply port in Belgium. He died on Dec. 7, 1941, the day Pearl Harbor was bombed and America entered WWII. His body was removed from the aircraft and buried in a nearby cemetery by a Belgian farmer.
A memorial service was recently held honoring the 16 Virginians who lost their lives while serving overseas in the RCAF. Aluminum from an RCAF Halifax bomber shot down in Europe was retrieved and cast into a plaque. It had both the insignia of the State of Virginia and the crest of the RCAF adorning the memorial structure.
JOHN GILLESPIE MAGEE
John was the son of a wealthy Pittsburgh family. His father married an English woman and John was educated at the exclusive Rugby school. The family moved back to the USA, where John was accepted at Yale. He chose to join the RCAF, where he passed basic flying training, then advanced flying at Ottawa’s Uplands Air Base where he earned his wings and was promoted to pilot officer. He was then posted to RCAF’s 412 Spitfire Fighter Squadron in England, where his first flight took him to 30,000 feet. It was that flight in a Spitfire that inspired him to write the world-famous poem “High Flight.”
He participated in a dogfight accompanied by three other Spitfires from 412 RCAF Squadron. They engaged a whole Luftwaffe squadron of Me 109’s. His was the only Spitfire to return. John Gillespie Magee was killed on Dec. 11, 1941. As he was diving out of a cloud he hit another aircraft in a mid-air freak accident. He bailed out but hit the ground before his parachute deployed. “High Flight” is now a requirement for students at the Air Force Academy to memorize and recite. It is the official poem of the RCAF and RAF and often quoted.
President Reagan recited the poem at the memorial for the victims of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. It was recited and dedicated to the memory of the Challenger crew, including teacher Christina McCauliffe, who also perished in the disaster.

The poem “High Flight,” written by F/O John Gillespie Magee (public domain as of 1970)
“Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, – and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed or-wheeled and soared and swung
high in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there.
I’ve chased the shouting wind along and flung
my eager craft through footless halls of air….
Up, up, the long delirious blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never Lark or eager Eagle flew
– Put out my hand and touched the face of God.”
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John Gillespie Magee Jr. is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Scowick, Lincolnshire, England. His poem is inscribed on his memorial. He was only 19 years old.
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There are many more stories of American heroes who came to Canada early in the war from 1939-1941. A movie “Captains of the Clouds," made in 1941, tells a Hollywood version of the Yanks who came to help the RCAF carry the fight to the enemy.
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