Page 8 - RCAF Centenary

RCAF and other services losses during the war had wide ranging impacts on families and friends. Take for instance the not-uncommon larger families like the Dubroy’s in Ottawa and Gatineau region.
F/Sgt. Joseph William Dubroy, Flight Lieutenant Thomas Edmond Dubroy, Pilot Officer William Edmond Dubroy and Signalman Joseph Leonard Dubroy
First to enlist and then to fall was RCAF Flight Sargent Joseph William Dubroy, a wireless air gunner assigned the RAF unit operating out of Dishfort, England. On the evening of 14/15 October 1942 he was bound for Cologne in a Halifax
B Mk.II #W1058, just one of 262 aircraft in the bomber stream when just 60 km north of the target, the aircraft was hit, likely by flak and plummeted to the ground near Duisburg. Five crew members including RCAF P/O J. W. Murphy managed to exit the aircraft and became POWs, but Dubroy and two others died. Joseph was just 21 years old. He is interred in the Commonwealth War Cemetery in Rheinberg, Germany.
Next to fall was Joseph’s brother Thomas
Edmond Dubroy. On January 29, 1944 F/L
Dubroy set out from the RCAF #418 ‘City
of Edmonton’ Squadron on a low-level
night mission to attack the German night
fighter airbase codenamed ‘Schwebebahn’ in Vechta. His twin engine DH-98 Mosquito #HJ722 along with a Mosquito #HX811 were ambushed by the enemy fighters they were
to attack, and both crashed near Wetscher Weisen. Thomas and his navigator F. W. Haynes, and the two-man crew in the second DH-98 all died in
the attack. Thomas was 26 and is buried in the Limmer British
cemetery in Hannover. Joseph and Thomas were the sons of
William and Mary Ann Dubroy of Ottawa.
Just shy of 2 weeks after Thomas was killed in action over
Germany, the Dubroy legacy shifts to one of the many air bases
in England. Friday February 11, 1944 was normal in all respects
at RAF Tholthorpe. RCAF #425 ‘Alouette’ Squadron had relocated there from a 5-month operation in Tunesia. In preparations for RAF Bomber Command missions over Germany, the 7-man crew of Halifax III #LW395 was tasked to conduct an evening “Bulls
Eye Training Exercise” over the English Midlands. On that crew was Wireless Operator/Air Gunner Sgt. William Edmond Dubroy accompanied by his brother, Signalman Joseph Leonard Dubroy who was on leave from his army unit and had been given permission to be onboard this training flight. Taking off at 18:47, the Halifax commenced its prescribed exercise. Then just over 2 hours into the flight it appears that the port outer engine failed and RCAF Pilot Officer Joseph Aubin was unable to maintain control and the Halifax crashed violently into Carters Hill, killing all onboard. William was 27 and Joseph was 21, two of 8 sons and 6 daughters of
Louis and Mary Bridget Dubroy of Ottawa. Their remains were interred at the Pershore Cemetery, Yorkshire. Three other family sons donned the uniform of the Canadian Forces and survived the war. All were first cousins of RCAF airmen Thomas and Joseph.
In his article Death Came Knocking for Vintage Wings, Dave O’Malley, a gifted and passionate writer, expanded on a total of 472 Canadian servicemen from Ottawa who perished during the war. To read this article visit the following website - https://www.vintagewings.ca/stories/death-came-knocking