Commander Don Sheppard
Canadian air ace who was awarded a DSC in the Far East and later watched films with former foes
COMMANDER DON SHEPPARD, who has died aged 94, saw service from the Arctic to the Far East and became an air ace at the age of only 21. On January 4 1945, during the Fleet Air Arm raid on Pangkalanbrandan, an oil terminal in North Sumatra, Sheppard was flying fighter cover over a force of some 100 aircraft from three British carriers, Victorious, Indomitable and Indefatigable.
He recalled seeing enemy fighters “coming straight down at top speed and as I rolled over to attack [one] he attempted to evade me by rolling over on his back and pulling through but I fired a burst at him from short range and he bailed, whether he was hit or because he was merely frightened”.
While regaining height to re-join the escort Sheppard saw a second Japanese Oscar fighter and “was able to quickly dispatch him”.
He was wingman to Lieutenant Colonel Ronnie Hay, RM, who was in overall charge of the attack. Hay wrote that Sheppard had “shown the greatest keenness and determination to get to grips with the enemy; He has trained himself to a high standard of skill in the air and had made every effort to become a first class fighter pilot. He was worked with energy and success improving the standard of armament maintenance in the squadron.” The latter was a reference to Sheppard’s role in ensuring that every gun in his squadron worked and that there were no jams. He was awarded the DSC.
Then, on January 24, while flying combat air patrol during a raid on Japanese-held oil refineries at Palembang, Sheppard was jumped from above by another Oscar. He turned his aircraft and hit the Japanese with his second burst. During another raid five days later “a vigorous dogfight” developed at low level “against a very competent and aggressive opponent”; Sheppard shared two kills with Hay.
By May 1945 the allies were gaining air superiority and the Japanese introduced kamikaze, or suicide air attacks. Sheppard, now a leader of his own flight of three Corsairs, set off to investigate an intermittent radar contact. High above him, just out of the cloud, Sheppard spotted a Japanese dive-bomber, which he shot down at his first pass. He could not avoid a fireball, but nursed his damaged aircraft back to Victorious.
Donald John Sheppard was born in Toronto on January 21 1924, where his father was a lawyer and mother a teacher. He was educated at Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute. He and his two brothers spent their summers on Lake Simcoe, where they learnt to sail. All would join the Royal Navy.
Don, inspired by reading about the Fleet Air Arm’s attack on Taranto in southern Italy, took ship to England, joining No 38 Pilots Course. After basic training he recrossed the Atlantic to learn to fly.
On his first day in 738 Naval Air Squadron, and unused to the higher torque of the high-performance machines with which the FAA was becoming equipped, he made a rare error and crashed on take off, but soon he had clocked up several score hours flying in single-engined warplanes.
In October 1943 Sheppard joined 1835 Naval Air Squadron and learnt to fly the Chance Vought Corsair. With its air of scarcely concealed menace, it inspired almost as much fear in the hearts of those who were going to fly it as in the enemy, but once mastered it could out-fly most aircraft.
Sheppard made his first deck landing on USS Charger on November 22 1943, and in March 1944 he embarked in the British fleet carrier Victorious to prepare for Operation Tungsten, the raid on the German battleship Tirpitz that was hiding in Kaafjord, northern Norway. On April 3 1944, Tirpitz was hit by 16 bombs, which left her useless as a warship. After further raids in northern waters, Victorious deployed to the Far East.
Postwar, Sheppard joined the Royal Canadian Navy and, after six years at Nato Headquarters in Europe, retired in 1974. He never bragged about his war and embraced reconciliation. His son once found him watching old movies with a German who had been in his gunsights.
For several years Sheppard farmed in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia. An avid woodsman, who fed his young family on moose and salmon, gradually his relationship with animals changed and he gave up hunting. He wept openly when his favourite horse was struck by a car. He built a home overlooking Aurora, Ontario, where he enjoyed walking his dogs before the golfers were up. There he was the best of neighbours, up early after snowstorms to clear local driveways.
In 1947 he married Gwen Falls, the sister of a fellow navy pilot, the future Canadian Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Robert Falls. After a brief but extravagant ceremony in Toronto they set off in his old car on the long drive to Nova Scotia, but spent their honeymoon broken down in a blizzard.
Gwen died in 2016 and Don Sheppard is survived by their three daughters and two sons.
Don Sheppard, born January 21 1924, died May 2 2018