| Flight Sergeant
Alexander Devoy was
serving as Navigator on board Lancaster Mk.II
DS840 coded OW-C
during an operation to Nuremberg on March 30/31, 1944. The
aircraft left Linton-on-Ouse at 2158hrs, joining a 68 mile
long bomber stream of which 96 aircraft would fail to
return.
On
reaching the target area the Lancaster was shot down by a
night-fighter. It fell at Ermreuth, 4km WSW of Grafenberg,
the entire crew was lost.
The crew consisted of:
|
Name |
Service |
Trade |
Hometown |
Age |
|
F/L Walter Cracknell |
RCAF |
Pilot |
Fort William, Ontario |
- |
|
Sgt Harold Wride |
RAFVR |
Flight Engineer |
Hull |
24 |
|
F/Sgt Alexander Devoy |
RCAF |
Navigator |
Cumberland,B.C. |
23 |
|
Sgt Hubert Orr |
RCAF |
Bomb Aimer |
- |
30 |
|
W/O2 Milton Moosman |
RNZAF |
W/Op/AG |
Wellington, New Zealand |
23 |
|
F/O Leroy Robinson |
RCAF |
Air Gunner |
Golden, B.C. |
27 |
|
F/Sgt Roy Hancock |
RCAF |
Air Gunner |
Ingersoll,Ontario |
25 |
ALEXANDER GORDON DEVOY was born in
Cumberland, British Columbia, Canada April 12, 1920, the
third child of five born to William Devoy and Mary Jane
Kennedy. His father was born in Ireland and his mother in
Scotland. They immigrated to Canada and were married in
Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada 1910. Gordon’s older siblings
were William (Bill) and Marguerite (Rita). Agnes and
Elizabeth (Betty) were younger. When his mother died in 1929
Gordon was only 9 years old. His father hired a housekeeper
to help with the children. He was educated in Cumberland and
upon graduation he became a printer’s apprentice. He was
known by his middle name of Gordon by family and friends.
Gordon
had a keen interest in photography and was an avid reader.
He joined a Book of the Month Club. Some of the books he
acquired were ‘I Married Adventure’ by Osa Johnson, ‘Complete
Poems’ of Keats and Shelley, ‘Northwest Passage’ by
Kenneth Roberts, ‘The Sun Never Sets’ by Malcolm
Muggeridge and ‘Trelawny’ by Margaret Armstrong.
Another
interest was first aid, later, becoming a first aid man in a
logging camp at Franklin River, B.C. where he and his
brother worked. When he enlisted in the R.C.A.F. in May of
1941, he joined the Medical Corps and was stationed at
Uplands, Ontario. In 1942 he re-mustered to Aircrew,
graduating as a navigator from No. 1 A.O.S. in May 1943 when
he was sent overseas.
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Impressive
Shadow Box of Alexander Devoy's Career |
Gordon had strong
family values and wrote to his elder sister often, filling
her in on his activities. On a leave, he was able to meet
his Grandmother Devoy for the first time and forwarded
presents, from her, to his family in Canada.
He was buried at Fürth
and was later relocated to Durnbach War Cemetery, Germany,
grave 11-A-9.
In memory of Canadian
Armed Forces Second World War veterans from the Upper Fraser
Valley who were killed in action, P/O Alexander Gordon Devoy,
had a mountain named after him. Mount Devoy is just east of
Laidlaw, British Columbia, Canada on the east side of the
Fraser River, between Chilliwack and Hope, Yale Division, Yale
Land District.
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