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RCAF 421 Squadron pilot died 23 June 1944 and buried in the communal cemetery in Ste Gauburge-Ste Colombe.
Son of George and Marion Ida Wallace, of Tilbury, Ontario, Canada.
On June 16 1944 the squadron was along with the other squadrons of 127 Wing the first to be moved to Normandy and flew air superiority missions.
Killed in action flying Spitfire Mk.IX LFIX NH204
Aircraft crashed at La Seaulle a farm close to the village of Saint Gauburge-Saint Colombe.
Reports as to how and the place came down are: shot down by an FW190 following action last seen over Le Merlerault. German machine gunners based on the ground at La Charmeuse in Ste Gauburgerushed to the crash site and the local vicar requested that he take the body for burial.
Translated from actu.fr
"Bob Wallace, a young Canadian pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force, died in Sainte-Gauburge on June 23, 1944, at the age of 21. That day, at the controls of Spitfire n ° 204, he took off at 8:58 p.m. from the Bazenville base (Calvados) with the 421 squadron made up of twelve planes. Their mission: to fly over Caen, Lisieux, L’Aigle, Argentan. Over the Merlerault, an aerial combat engages with the Germans, the plane of Bob Wallace is "badly damaged", as he indicates to the squadron leader. The latter instructed him to move north until he reached the Allied lines. "Instead of heading north, he headed east," said Antoine Le Brethon. "Either his compass was damaged or he himself was injured," he wonders. Still, at Sainte-Gauburge, below the Seaulle farm (near the current water treatment plant), his Spitfire crashed around 9:20 p.m.
Two Valburgeois who are nearby, MM. Lambert and Danion come to his aid and extract him from the cockpit. Immediately, the Germans holding the machine gun post near the cemetery arrived on the scene and seized the aviator. It was then that Father Guibet, parish priest, entered the scene. He negotiates with the enemy in order to retrieve the body of Bob Wallace and ends up winning his case. With Madeleine Le Brethon, Antoine’s grandmother, he organized the funeral of the young aviator. Later, Madeleine will make contact with Bob's parents, thus creating an unfailing bond with his family."
