Russell Alfred Davis

Russell Davis, born July 12, 1920, was one of eight children (seven boys and one girl) born to Frederick Charles Davis and Elizabeth Mary Fowler. Both of Russell's parents were born in Toronto, Fred in 1889, the son of a travelling salesman and Elizabeth in 1891, the daughter of a hatter. They married in Toronto in 1909. Even though he was a father of four, Fred enlisted in the First World War in 1916, but after arriving in England, he never left it. He returned to Toronto in 1918 and worked as a telegraph operator at Arthur E. Moysey and Company. The family lived in the west end and when Russell was born they were living at Davenport and Avenue Roads and ultimately became the first owners of 25 Firstbrook Road in 1925. (The “e” wasn't added to Firstbrook until the early 1960s.) The family joined St. John's Norway church.

Russell went to Norway from 1925 to 1935. He excelled in sports and played on two championship hockey teams for the school. After graduating from Norway, he attended Malvern Collegiate from 1935 to 1937, but transferred to Danforth Tech. It was there in 1937 that he won a silver cup for running. He had a part time job at Houghton's Drug Store at 454 Kingston Road, near the corner of Brookside Drive and in 1939 he graduated from Danforth's Industrial course.

Left to right: Russell's brother, Harold, Russell, his mother Elizabeth Davis and Ken Tutton, in front of the Davis home, 25 Firstbrook Road, 1941. From The Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

Russell tried to enlist in November 1939 but was asked to wait. In the meantime he worked as a bench press operator. After that, he worked as a riveter at an aircraft factory in Malton. He finally enlisted in February 1941, at the same time as Kenneth Tutton, another Norway graduate who lived several doors down Firstbrook from the Davises. They trained as pilots together at Eglinton Initial Training School in Toronto, then in Windsor and finally were awarded their wings in Hagersville in December 1941. One of Russell's flying instructors said of him that he had a “cocky attitude, but works hard and likes flying.”

The Toronto Star, December 12, 1941. Russell is in the front row, left side. Ken Tutton is in the back row, right.

In January 1942 Russell and Ken sailed from Halifax and arrived in England at the Personnel Reception Centre in Bournemouth to await their assignments. This is where the friends' careers parted. Russell left on February 10 to train at 1511 Beam Approach Training Flight and later with No. 17 Operational Training Unit, at RAF Upwood, 15 kilometres south of Peterborough, which trained pilots on the Bristol Blenheim, a light bomber that carried a crew of three.

Bristol Blenheim. Canadian Forces photo.

In June 1942 Russell was assigned to No. 18 Squadron which flew Blenheims at RAF Wattisham, 10 kilometres northwest of Ipswich. He had some sort of injury or sickness for a week the next month. Russell spent most of the summer training with the unit and the squadron's summary of events noted on August 17: “Night flying tests for operations. Two aircraft took part in Searchlight co-operational exercises 'Bullseye.' Sgt. Davis did dual circuits and landings with P/O Dunn and one solo landing.” At the end of August, the squadron moved to an airfield 50 kilometres north and all the crews were given leave. The squadron was not operational in September, in anticipation of a move to North Africa. As Russell was never an operational pilot with the squadron, in October he was assigned to 1482 Bombing and Gunnery Flight where he flew Martinet airplanes, pulling drogues, which were targets for gunnery practice. Paint was usually used instead of live ammunition.

Miles Martinet. Photo: John Horne collection.

Russell was promoted to Pilot Officer on February 27, 1943. He would have had word that Ken Tutton had been killed when his Wellington was shot down over the Netherlands on February 14. On June 1, 1943 Russell joined Course 45 at No. 22 Operational Training Unit in Wellesbourne Mountford to train on Wellington bombers. In August he was assigned to a new RCAF Squadron – No. 432 and on the 23rd he had his first operational flight as second pilot . He flew a mission weekly. On September 22 he piloted his only operational flight as Captain over Hanover, Germany. The 432 Squadron was being re-equipped with the new Lancaster night bombers and the Squadron moved to East Moor airfield in North Yorkshire in late September. Russell began his Lancaster training on October 16, 1943.

Lancaster bomber. Photo: Key collection.

By November 6, Russell had four hours on Lancasters, but had flown a total of 366 hours during his service. For over two hours that day, the squadron had been practising takeoffs and landings. In the late afternoon, which in November in England would have been at dusk, Russell took off again in Lancaster DS649 from East Moor airfield to train doing circuits and landings. The weather was good. On board were Russell; his Scottish flight engineer Sergeant Robert Mitchell; the bomb aimer, Warrant Officer 2nd class Alexander MacDonald who was 28 from Bridgeport, Nova Scotia; the 20 year old English wireless operator/air gunner Sergeant Frederick Hunt and the air gunners Sergeant Leonard Lehman, a 20 year old from Toronto and Sergeant Roy Green, aged 19 from Brant, Alberta. About five minutes into the flight, at 1700 hrs, the Lancaster's nose and starboard wing struck a tree, which damaged the plane and the propellers. The Lancaster crashed in a small field about 10 miles from the airport. It burst into flames and five of the crew were killed instantly. Air Gunner Green was taken to hospital where he died soon after.

Russell and most of the crew were buried in Harrowgate (Stonefall) Cemetery, Yorkshire, England.

Russell's grave, Harrowgate (Stonefall) Cemetery. From www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk.

Russell is also commemorated on the Bomber Command Memorial Wall in Nanton, Alberta.

Danforth Tech has a letter from Mrs. Davis to the principal informing him that her son had been killed. The students of Danforth Tech had been sending CARE packages to their alumni who were serving overseas.

Fred died in 1960. Elizabeth remained at 25 Firstbrook until 1963 and passed away in 1971.