Remembering a Hamilton Spitfire pilot’s final heroics
RCAF Spitfire pilot Robert Dunlop Davidson, from Hamilton, who was killed in June 1944 when he was shot down in France near the community of Couterne.
Pierre Vauloup wants to express his gratitude to family members of Robert Dunlop Davidson, an RCAF pilot from Hamilton who he feels saved his life 74 years ago. Davidson’s crashing Spitfire was headed straight for the Vauloup family’s house in Normandy, France, when it suddenly veered off course, exploding a few metres away, killing the pilot.
PIERRE VAULOUP
will never forget that day nearly 75 years ago.
A crashing RCAF Spitfire fighter plane on June 28, 1944, was headed directly toward his family’s home in northern France. But at the last moment, the plane veered, exploding a few metres away on the ground.
Vauloup believes the pilot used his last bit of consciousness to spare the lives of then-seven-year-old Pierre and his family.
The Second World War pilot who perished was 21-year-old Robert Dunlop Davidson of Hamilton, who grew up on Holton Avenue South and graduated from Central Collegiate before joining the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Vauloup, now 81 and in declining health, wants to come to closure with
the horrific memory and make contact with someone from Davidson’s family to thank them.
For years, Vauloup and British military history buff Colin Mowl have been searching without success to find a relative of Davidson.
Now, Vauloup’s last hope is this story in The Spectator today will produce a lead.
Vauloup also wants Davidson to be commemorated in France for his sacrifice with a special plaque explaining the story.
He and Mowl have been collecting details about the pilot’s life, which Mowl will make into a booklet to present to French officials. They feel contact with a family member will greatly add to the presentation.
“My biggest desire, because I’m an old man, is to make it known that Davidson was a hero before I die,” said Vauloup.
SPEAKING
THROUGH a translator, he said he was with his mother and three sisters, staying at his grandparent’s house near Couterne.
His mother prepared some soup for dinner when they started hearing noises in the sky. They watched the events unfold from the doorway of the house.
“We watched the battle overhead of Davidson and a German plane,” he said.
“After, we watched the Canadian plane belonging to Davidson headed perpendicularly toward our house.
“At the last minute, the pilot straightened out the plane, brushed past the gables of the house and crashed just a few metres from the house.”
Vauloup came to know of Mowl, 70, through newspaper accounts of a research project Mowl put together about an RAF pilot named George Boucher who was killed in action and buried in a community cemetery in Normandy in 1944.
Mowl researched a booklet commemorating the pilot’s life that eventually evolved into a memorial plaque.
Mowl is a retired British civil servant who has a holiday home in Normandy, and from there developed an interest in the Second World War history of the area.
Mowl says he finds it compelling that the pilot’s last breath was used to save the Vauloup family. But he acknowledges it’s unclear exactly what happened. “There is no way of knowing whether the last movements of the aircraft were due to the conscious actions of the pilot, but a fervent belief that this is what happened is what is motivating Mr. Vauloup,” he said.
Among the items Mowl has unearthed from public records is a letter sent to Davidson’s family in Hamilton from his commanding officer, I.F. Kennedy.
“Before you receive this letter, you will have received a telegram informing you that your son. F/SGT. Davidson R.D. (CAN R. 152221) has been reported as Missing After Air Operations,” the letter starts.
“The Squadron was out looking for enemy transport when we ran into some German fighters. We mixed it up for awhile and destroyed four of them but during the combat Bob got separated from his No. I and when we reformed we didn’t see him around,” the letter says.
“Although Bob had not been with the squadron very long he was well liked by the rest of his fellow pilots. He was always keen and eager for battle. It is hoped that the next news we hear about him will be good news.” SADLY ,
GOOD NEWS was not forthcoming.
Eventually, the family learned that Robert was found dead in the wreckage and his body was buried at a nearby cemetery.
Shortly after the war ended, The Spectator carried a story about Davidson’s parents, Wiliam and Jessie Davidson, meeting with a French army officer who was visiting Hamilton.
The officer wanted to tell them their son’s grave had become a shrine for the French Resistance. Bereaved wives and mothers came to pray at the grave and it was always buried under a cover of flowers,” said Capt. Michel Garnier.
Garnier was accompanied on the visit to Hamilton by two teenagers who witnessed Davidson’s crash.
“First we saw two German planes crash and we cheered. Then another plane came down and we saw it was one of ours. That made us feel badly,” said Philippe de Sercey, 15.
As for Vauloup, he says the memory “has stayed with me all my life ... I can still see my mother on the doorstep ... I remember her with her arms all around us, like a mother, protecting us, or for us all to die together.”
“Before you receive this letter, you will have received a telegram informing you that your son. F/SGT. Davidson R.D. (CAN R. 152221) has been reported as Missing After Air Operations,”