As I continue researching for my next book on Canadian fighter pilots, I am always delighted by the thrill of discovering new things, or piecing together bits that perhaps have never been been put together before or (more likely) have been forgotten for many decades. Let me share a few recent discoveries about Canadian fighter pilots.
Pilot Officer A. L. Dudley St. Aubin (RCAF) 261 Squadron
Reviewing the various databases compiled by an army of researchers, I noted that St. Aubin was killed while flying in a Hurricane in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) on May 15, 1942. Because I want to know the circumstances of his death, I kept digging.
St. Aubin, and two other pilots were engaged in practicing formation and attacks. Each would take turns attacking the others. At 1630 hours, he launched an attack against Sgt. James Bubb and collided with him. His main wing cut off the tail of Bubb’s aircraft and plummeted to the ground from 6,000 feet. Bubb parachuted out but St. Aubin did not. records indicated that the collision was on the 9th of May – 6 days earlier.
So, he likely died in hospita,l of injuries, was my explanation.
But reviewing his personnel file, the report of the accident with 261 Squadron confirms the date fo the collision as the 9th, and said he was killed on that date. So where does the 15 May come from as found in many official documents and on his burial records? Inquiring minds want to know.
Rooting through the Squadron’s contemporaneous records, I located the report of the Squadron Intelligence officer who hacked his way through the jungle to locate the remains of the aircraft and Dudley St. Aubin. Having located the crash site on the 13th, he returned on the 15th and cremated the remains he found there, returning the ashes to their base at Trincomalee. This is, in fact, the only event that happens on May 15.
Dudley St. Aubin was raised in Stoney Point, Ontario, near to Windsor. He had gone through three years of an aeronautical engineering programme at Detroit Institute of technology when he signed up with the RCAF. After flight training, St. Aubin arrived overseas 3 Aug 1941 and was posted to fly Spitfires with 603 Squadron. In January 1942, he joined 261 Squadron at Haifa (in present-day Israel). The Squadron was being sent to Singapore aboard HMS Indomitable when the fall of that colony rerouted them to China Bay in Ceylon, just in time to defend against the Japanese raids on that island.
