Page 24 - Nov_2018

Pilot Officer R.D. Davidson 401 Upon learning of my inclusion in the 60th anniversary
On June 27, 1944, 126
Wing of the Second
Tactical Air Force was at
Beny-sur-Mer where we
landed a week earlier. It
was the base for three
squadrons of Spitfires in
Normandy.
On that date I learned that Bob Davidson, a friend
from my hometown of Hamilton, had been posted
to 401 Squadron on our airfield. I hadn't known
Bob intimately, as we grew up in opposite areas of
Hamilton, though I got to know him briefly after
my family had moved to the eastern area of that
city. Regardless, he was the kind of person you
liked instinctively and I hustled over to 401 to
extend greetings. My recollection is we spent a
most enjoyable period discussing things back home
and I left him with the assurance of spending more
time as soon as possible.
It was not to be . . . for the following day Bob
Davidson was shot down and killed in the Argentan This memorial to Canadian pilot Bob Davidson is located
area of Normandy not far from our home base. It
came as a great shock, yet by the very nature of
our involvement, it also was a frequent experience. enormous amount of historical data before finally
In 1994, some 50 years later, a request for anyone
knowing of Bob Davidson, posted in our Canadian
Fighter Pilots bulletin to contact a Norbert Hureau
in Argentan, Normandy. Canadian Veterans were
to visit that area of France in 1994 for the 50th
anniversary of the D-Day landings. Mr. Hureau had
a ring belonging to Bob Davidson that he would like
returned to the Davidson family.
I communicated immediately with Hureau who
turned out to be not only historian but was also
part of the French underground in World War Two
who had recovered Bob Davidson's body and
undertaken a proper internment during the war.
What a day, despite my arrival back in Deauville at
8 p.m. I can reflect that it was a very special for me
to salute my colleague and friend Bob Davidson
ceremonies in 2004, I undertook to contact Hureau
advising my impending arrival in Normandy. Much to my
surprise I received a phone call several weeks later and
discussed (through a translator) possibilities for meeting
at our scheduled visit to the Canadian Cemetery at
Bretteville, Normandy, on June 8, 2004. At long last I
would be able to pay my respect at the grave site of my
long lost friend from 401 Squadron. It turned out to be a
most exhausting undertaking.
As arranged, Mr. Hureau awaited my arrival at Cintheau
Cemetery and after opening ceremonies, we departed
from Bretteville. Unfortunately, without a translator, our
driving around Argentan to visit the remote areas where
the underground was involved became quite arduous.
in the very spot where he crashed in June 1944.
We ended up at Mr. Hureau's home twice to examine an
arriving at a school site to meet several other people.
Finally, we arrived at the exact location where Bob
Davidson was shot down in a hamlet named Courteres.
Following a brief ceremony we progressed to his burial
site in the cemetery of a small church in Lignou. It was a
momentous experience for me regardless of how
enduring it turned out to be.
There was however a final obligation unbeknown to me.
We arrived back at the school we had started from,
where a class of youngsters had been waiting over two
hours to meet a friend of the Canadian pilot buried in
their cemetery.
In reflection it now seems like an appropriate Air Force
gesture for which the erks (infantrymen) would be most
appreciative and to say goodbye.
Killed December 11, 1941