Malcolm James "Mac" Gordon

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Canadians Down 8 Nazi Planes; Audet Gets 2 Jets

London, Jan. 23, 1945 – (CP) – Canadian fighter pilots in continuous strikes today destroyed at least eight German aircraft in combat, damaged as many others and blew up ground targets with withering cannon and machine-gun fire.
Five of the destroyed planes and six of those damaged were twin jet-propelled Me262s.
They fell to the planes of the Ram and Grizzly Bear Spitfire Squadrons in two separate engagements. This is believed to be a record day’s bag of jet-propelled aircraft.
Two of the jets were shot down by F/L Dick Audet, DFC, of Lethbridge Alta., and the double kill brought his score to 11½. Audet, a Grizzly Bear Squadron pilot, only started scoring a few weeks ago when he destroyed five German planes in one dogfight, in one of the greatest single triumphs of aerial warfare.
The latest victims were about to land at an airfield near the city of Rheine on the Ems River, 65 miles north of Dortmund.
Ram pilots destroyed the three remaining jet craft when they encountered more than 15 of the jets either landing or taking off an airfield near Osnabruck. F/O D.F. Church of Peterborough, Ont., was credited with one.

Attack Near Hamm
Remainder of the planes destroyed were FW190’s. The Red Indian Squadron pounced on several near Hamm, big rail center east of the Ruhr, and shot down two in flames. F/L M.J. Gordon of Edmonton and F/O Fred Evans of 310 Durle St. Toronto shared one of them.
During the day Spitfires of this wing destroyed a locomotive and damaged four others and 15 freight cars. They also destroyed eight motor vehicles.
RCAF squadrons flew almost 400 sorties and among other achievements, 17 cuts were made in German rail lines carrying supplies and reinforcements to the front.
The day-long activities cost the RCAF five planes but one of the pilots is safe.

Audet Is Modest
F/L Dick Audet, the young Canadian who made air-war history in a Spitfire over Germany by destroying five German aircraft in a single dogfight failed to claim a fifth kill at first interrogation, the Maple Leaf reports from Holland.
It wasn’t until he and his squadron mates returned from a subsequent mission and retraced the battle Hun by Hun that the 22-year-old Lethbridge Alberta pilot claimed two Me109s and three FW190s destroyed.
It was all the more remarkable in that it was his first success in the air. He had no luck at all on his first operational tour from English bases.
Audet’s five-to-seven minute dream battle materialized 14,000 feet over Osnabruck where, leading a section of the high-scoring grizzly Bear Squadron, he spotted a mixed gaggle of 12 MEs and FWs

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GORDON, F/L Malcolm James (J7908) - Distinguished Flying Cross - No.421 Squadron
Award effective 29 March 1945 as per London Gazette dated 10 April 1945 and
AFRO 802/45 dated 11 May 1945

Now on his second tour of operational duty, Flight Lieutenant Gordon has participated in many successful engagements with the enemy. He has led sections and flights on fighter patrols, bomber escorts and other sorties from this country and was among the first pilots to operate from bases in Normandy. He has destroyed at least four enemy aircraft and damaged another as well as much enemy transport.

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R.C.A.F. MEN RIP TRAINS, TROOPS ACROSS EUROPE

With A Canadian Fighter Wing in Britain, May 31, 1944 - (CP) - The R.A.F. 2nd Tactical Air Fore, with a Canadian Spitfire group under Wing Cmdr. Lloyd V. Chadburn of Aurora playing a prominent part, ranged across the Netherlands, Belgium and France today in a great softening-up of the enemy's rail transport which might have to bear the brunt of troop-carrying traffic when the invasion begins.
Swift fighters and fighter bombers of the Tactical Air Force and Air Defence of Great Britain, Joined forces for their biggest operation of the war against the Nazis' overloaded and battered transport machine in Western Europe. Complete results of the operation are not yet compiled, but with bombs, cannon and machine guns, the British and Canadian fliers attacked this minimum list of targets with excellent results:
Thirty-five military supply trains, 13 locomotives (five of which were seen to blow up), a large number of military lorries, staff cars, tugs, barges, flak towers and other military installations.

Got Two Jerries
F/L J.B. Kerr of Toronto, member of the City of Edmonton Mosquito Squadron, destroyed an enemy bomber and shared in the destruction at a second with an American Mustang pilot during sweep over the Low Countries.
Kerr downed the bomber of the French Leo 45 twin-engined type near Aalborg in Northern Denmark. The Canadian pilot, flying with an English navigator, fought off attacks by a FW-190 and a Messerschmitt 109 after shooting down the enemy plane.
The Canadians also struck in the area northwest of Paris, accounting for 18 trains as well as an assorted bag of lorries, army buses, staff cars dispatch riders and other enemy personnel.
The airmen flew through vicious all-aircraft fire thrown up by flack cars which the German Command has attached to many trains moving through Europe in a futile effort to husband its dwindling rolling stock.
Besides the far reaching strike against the railroads, 2nd Tactical Air Force planes flew escort missions for light bombers and offensive patrols, damaging 12 barges on one thrust to the Brussels area.

Airfield Plastered
Again the Luftwaffe let the challenge in its skies go unheeded. The only enemy aircraft seen were on an airfield near Bloches and this was plastered with shellfire.
Twenty planes were lost, some of them Canadian, but the pilot of one fighter is known to be safe.
Chadburn did not go up himself but his old City of Oshawa Squadron, led by S/L Freddie Green, DFC, Toronto, was in the forefront of the Canadian attack. Pilots of the squadron attacked 13 trains, six of which were shared by F/L Don Hayworth of Regina and F/O R. Sharun of Toronto.
"The most amazing thing about it all," Green said, "was that you could fly about France and not see any enemy aircraft."
Three trains were damaged by F/Os A.G. Borland of Guelph and A.R. McFadden, Springdale, Alta. and four others were shared by F/L R.D. Forbes-Roberts, Vancouver: D.R. Cuthbertson, Brantford, and W/O Ron McRae, Spencerville.

Shot Up four Trains
The Red Indian Squadron under S/L W.A. Conrad, DFC, Richmond, Ont., shot up four trains. F/O R. Cook of Clinton and P/O Bill Warfield of New York City teamed in a Joint attack on one train. Warfield went for the flak car in the centre of the train and then fired his guns at another in the rear, while Cook stopped the engine with a couple of well-placed bursts of cannon fire.
Another train was attacked by F/L Paul Johnson of San Diego, Cal., who also shared in damaging another two with F/L Johnny Drope of Regina and F/O Gordon Smith of Vancouver and Nelson. Johnson's Spitfire was hit by flak but he returned safely

Personnel Also attacked
A standing train was attacked outside a station by a pair of Wolf Squadron pilots, F/L John Gordon of Edmonton and F/O Harry Boyle of Saskatoon. The engine was left with clouds of steam pouring from it.
Johnston and F/L C.T. Brown of Prescott attacked two truckloads of soldiers, and F/L Peter Logan of Montreal blasted a German staff car.
"An officer Jumped out and lay flat on the ground," said Logan. "I could see my bullets spattering around and through him."
F/L Andy MacKenzie, DFC, of Montreal, who has just been appointed a flight commander in the Wolf Squadron, afterwards set the staff car on fire.

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Victories Include :

4.5 / 0 / 1

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