BROWN, FS (now WO1) Wilfred David (R86267) - American Purple Heart - No.112 Squadron (deceased) - effective 27 July 1943 as per Canada Gazette dated 4 May 1946 and AFRO 473/46 dated 10 May 1946. Born 13 October 1919 in Hamiota, Manitoba. Home in Brandon, Manitoba; enlisted Winnipeg 2 January 1941 and posted to No.2 Manning Depot. To No.7 AOS (guard), 27 January 1941. To No.2 ITS, 5 March 1941; graduated and promoted LAC, 8 April 1941 when posted to No.18 EFTS; may have graduated 9 June 1941 but not posted to No.10 SFTS until 21 June 1941; graduated and promoted Sergeant, 1 September 1941. Posted overseas 2 September 1941; on strength of RAF overseas, 22 October 1941. Attended No.52 OTU. Posted to No.72 Squadron, but after five weeks he was sent to Middle East. Promoted Flight Sergeant, 1 March 1942; WO2, 1 September 1942; joined No.112 Squadron in October 1942; promoted WO1, 1 March 1943. Killed in action 19 September 1943 while serving with No.112 Squadron (Kittyhawk FR860, GL-D, shot down by flak). Christopher Shores, Those Other Eagles, provides the following list of claims, all with No.112 Squadron: 31 October 1942, two Junkers 87s destroyed near El Daba (Kittyhawk FR211); 4 November 1942, one Bf.109 damaged, Fuka area (Kittyhawk FR266; Messerschmitt believed to have been a Bf.109G-2 of 8/JG77 flown by Lieutenant Heinz Ludeman, wounded but regained base. Bf.109 later captured by advancing Eighth Army and shipped to England where it has, in recent years, been restored to flying condition); 11 December 1942, one Bf.109 probably destroyed and one Bf.109 damaged, Marble Arch area (Kittyhawk FR255). Public Records Office Air 2/9599 has letter dated 23 May 1943 with details. // This officer requests that consideration be given on the recommendation of Flight Sergeant Wilfred D. Brown, R86267 (Canadian), 112 Squadron (RAF), the award of the Purple Heart, as a result of being wounded by enemy fire in his tour of operational duty in the Western Desert on the 11th of December. // Incident: Bottom cover to two Tack-R [sic] Hurricanes with the 66th Fighter Squadron as top cover over Marble Arch area, and ensuing air battle with defending ME.109s between the hours of 15.:10 and 17:10, 11th December 1942. // Flight Sergeant Brown piloting one of twelve P-40s on a Tack-R mission noticed four ME.109s following the flight while crossing the Agheila line and continued their way out to sea. It was soon observed that his formation was being attacked from the rear. Although he could have avoided combat, he immediately did a turn-about and found he was looking into the cannon of an ME.109 which was firing directly at him. Due to his courage and airmanship he shot down one of the attackers. Thinking he had completely run [out] of ammunition, he sighted another aircraft of his squadron, but while overtaking it he ran into two ME.109s. The enemy aircraft chased him toward the shore and while doing so the enemy anti-aircraft fire opened to [sic] him causing him to turn away, whereupon the two ME.109s attacked him from above and below. The explosive shell hit him on the head and a piece of his aircraft was blown into his shoulder. After the attack was broken off, Flight Sergeant Brown noticed his petrol was low, and in spite of the injuries he had received he landed the airplane at Nagrum and had the shrapnel and piece of aircraft removed from his head and shoulder. // RCAF Press Release dated 1 February 1943 from F/L MacGillivray reads: // AT AN AERODROME BEYOND TRIPOLI: -- After quick recoveries from almost identical wounds received in similar circumstances on different days during the Eighth Army’s great push, two RCAF Kittyhawk pilots are back with their RAF desert squadron, taking part in daily straffing and dive-bombing attacks behind Rommel’s lines. // So weak from loss of blood that he had to use oxygen to retain consciousness on the way home, Flight Sergeant Wilfred Brown of Virden, Manitoba, struggled back to base with cannon-splinters in his back and shoulder; while in the other case, Sergeant Dick DeBourke of 36 Floral Street, Newton Highlands, Boston, Massachusetts, shot down two Stukas and probably destroyed another before he was wounded in the shoulder by an Me.109 – the same type of German machine which had put Brown out of action. // Brown, who has a score of two Stukas destroyed and an Me.109 probable to his credit, had just chalked up the “probable” when another 109 jumped him and riddled his cockpit, and shrapnel and bits of his own aircraft lodged in the 23-year-old Manitoba lad’s shoulder and scalp. “I’m telling you, I was really scared,” Brown recalls. “It was a weird and frightening experience to feel blood trickling down my back and see it rapidly staining my neckerchief, and yet not know how badly I was hurt. I just high-tailed it for home, with the Hun after me, and once, I flew so low that an Italian ground battery opened up on me, adding to my worries. I could feel my strength ebbing, and dizziness was creeping over me, so I turned on the oxygen, and managed to make base. The MO gave me the bits of metal he dug out of me, and I’ll never part with them. I figure I was just plain lucky.” // Brown, who like DeBourke got both his Stukas within a few minutes on the same day, has 50 hours of operational flying to his credit in the Middle East. DeBourke, a veteran of 110 hours of ops in the desert, was just about to put the finishing touches to his third Stuka in four minutes, when an escorting 109 came in fast on his tail and put splinters in his shoulder. The wounds, however, did not prevent him making base safely. On that day, the squadron got six enemy aircraft, and lost none. // Another American graduate of the RCAF who is flying Kittyhawks in the Middle East is Sergeant Dick Blake of Corpus Christi, Texas.BROWN, FS (now WO1) Wilfred David (R86267) - American Purple Heart - No.112 Squadron (deceased) - effective 27 July 1943 as per Canada Gazette dated 4 May 1946 and AFRO 473/46 dated 10 May 1946. Born 13 October 1919 in Hamiota, Manitoba. Home in Brandon, Manitoba; enlisted Winnipeg 2 January 1941 and posted to No.2 Manning Depot. To No.7 AOS (guard), 27 January 1941. To No.2 ITS, 5 March 1941; graduated and promoted LAC, 8 April 1941 when posted to No.18 EFTS; may have graduated 9 June 1941 but not posted to No.10 SFTS until 21 June 1941; graduated and promoted Sergeant, 1 September 1941. Posted overseas 2 September 1941; on strength of RAF overseas, 22 October 1941. Attended No.52 OTU. Posted to No.72 Squadron, but after five weeks he was sent to Middle East. Promoted Flight Sergeant, 1 March 1942; WO2, 1 September 1942; joined No.112 Squadron in October 1942; promoted WO1, 1 March 1943. Killed in action 19 September 1943 while serving with No.112 Squadron (Kittyhawk FR860, GL-D, shot down by flak). Christopher Shores, Those Other Eagles, provides the following list of claims, all with No.112 Squadron: 31 October 1942, two Junkers 87s destroyed near El Daba (Kittyhawk FR211); 4 November 1942, one Bf.109 damaged, Fuka area (Kittyhawk FR266; Messerschmitt believed to have been a Bf.109G-2 of 8/JG77 flown by Lieutenant Heinz Ludeman, wounded but regained base. Bf.109 later captured by advancing Eighth Army and shipped to England where it has, in recent years, been restored to flying condition); 11 December 1942, one Bf.109 probably destroyed and one Bf.109 damaged, Marble Arch area (Kittyhawk FR255). Public Records Office Air 2/9599 has letter dated 23 May 1943 with details. // This officer requests that consideration be given on the recommendation of Flight Sergeant Wilfred D. Brown, R86267 (Canadian), 112 Squadron (RAF), the award of the Purple Heart, as a result of being wounded by enemy fire in his tour of operational duty in the Western Desert on the 11th of December. // Incident: Bottom cover to two Tack-R [sic] Hurricanes with the 66th Fighter Squadron as top cover over Marble Arch area, and ensuing air battle with defending ME.109s between the hours of 15.:10 and 17:10, 11th December 1942. // Flight Sergeant Brown piloting one of twelve P-40s on a Tack-R mission noticed four ME.109s following the flight while crossing the Agheila line and continued their way out to sea. It was soon observed that his formation was being attacked from the rear. Although he could have avoided combat, he immediately did a turn-about and found he was looking into the cannon of an ME.109 which was firing directly at him. Due to his courage and airmanship he shot down one of the attackers. Thinking he had completely run [out] of ammunition, he sighted another aircraft of his squadron, but while overtaking it he ran into two ME.109s. The enemy aircraft chased him toward the shore and while doing so the enemy anti-aircraft fire opened to [sic] him causing him to turn away, whereupon the two ME.109s attacked him from above and below. The explosive shell hit him on the head and a piece of his aircraft was blown into his shoulder. After the attack was broken off, Flight Sergeant Brown noticed his petrol was low, and in spite of the injuries he had received he landed the airplane at Nagrum and had the shrapnel and piece of aircraft removed from his head and shoulder. // RCAF Press Release dated 1 February 1943 from F/L MacGillivray reads: // AT AN AERODROME BEYOND TRIPOLI: -- After quick recoveries from almost identical wounds received in similar circumstances on different days during the Eighth Army’s great push, two RCAF Kittyhawk pilots are back with their RAF desert squadron, taking part in daily straffing and dive-bombing attacks behind Rommel’s lines. // So weak from loss of blood that he had to use oxygen to retain consciousness on the way home, Flight Sergeant Wilfred Brown of Virden, Manitoba, struggled back to base with cannon-splinters in his back and shoulder; while in the other case, Sergeant Dick DeBourke of 36 Floral Street, Newton Highlands, Boston, Massachusetts, shot down two Stukas and probably destroyed another before he was wounded in the shoulder by an Me.109 – the same type of German machine which had put Brown out of action. // Brown, who has a score of two Stukas destroyed and an Me.109 probable to his credit, had just chalked up the “probable” when another 109 jumped him and riddled his cockpit, and shrapnel and bits of his own aircraft lodged in the 23-year-old Manitoba lad’s shoulder and scalp. “I’m telling you, I was really scared,” Brown recalls. “It was a weird and frightening experience to feel blood trickling down my back and see it rapidly staining my neckerchief, and yet not know how badly I was hurt. I just high-tailed it for home, with the Hun after me, and once, I flew so low that an Italian ground battery opened up on me, adding to my worries. I could feel my strength ebbing, and dizziness was creeping over me, so I turned on the oxygen, and managed to make base. The MO gave me the bits of metal he dug out of me, and I’ll never part with them. I figure I was just plain lucky.” // Brown, who like DeBourke got both his Stukas within a few minutes on the same day, has 50 hours of operational flying to his credit in the Middle East. DeBourke, a veteran of 110 hours of ops in the desert, was just about to put the finishing touches to his third Stuka in four minutes, when an escorting 109 came in fast on his tail and put splinters in his shoulder. The wounds, however, did not prevent him making base safely. On that day, the squadron got six enemy aircraft, and lost none. // Another American graduate of the RCAF who is flying Kittyhawks in the Middle East is Sergeant Dick Blake of Corpus Christi, Texas.