Charley Fox
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February 16, 1920
Charley Fox | |
|---|---|
| Nickname | "Charley" |
| Born | Charles William Fox February 16, 1920 Guelph, Ontario, Canada |
| Died | October 18, 2008 (aged 88) Tillsonburg, Ontario, Canada |
| Cause of death | Car accident |
| Allegiance |  Canada |
| Branch |  Royal Canadian Air Force |
| Service years | 1939-1945 |
| Rank | Flight Lieutenant |
| Unit | |
| Wars | Second World War |
| Awards | Distinguished Flying Cross Canadian Forces' Decoration |
| Memorials | Charley Fox Memorial Overpass[1] |
| Alma mater | Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute |
| Spouse |
Helen Jean Doughty
(m. 1942; died 1993) |
| Children | |
Charles William Fox, DFC and Bar, CD (February 26, 1920 – October 18, 2008)[2] was a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II. He attended Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute.
Fox, the son of an Irish immigrant, joined the RCAF in 1939 at the beginning of the war (his brother Ted joined the Royal Canadian Artillery). He graduated near the top of his class in 1941 and was offered a job as a flight instructor in Dunnville, Ontario. He remained in this position until 1943 when he began combat training in Bagotville, Quebec. He flew Spitfires over Europe, destroying or damaging 153 enemy vehicles (mostly trains), and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (with bar).
In 1944, he began his tour of duty with the Canadian 412 Squadron. On D-Day he flew three patrols off the coast of France. On July 17, 1944, he flew from the Allied air base at Beny-sur-Mer in Normandy and strafed an unknown black car; he later learned that one of the passengers was German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, who was seriously injured in the attack. This is disputed as a South African and RAF (Chris Le Roux of 602 Squadron) pilot,[3] and a French and RAF (Jacques Remlinger of 602 Squadron) pilot[4][5] also claimed to have been responsible for the attack. Australian Fred Cowpe of 453 Squadron also claimed responsibility for the strafing attack, asserting that his guns' camera verified the assertion. He recorded this action in his aircraft log book. As Rommel was soon afterwards implicated in the assassination plot against Adolf Hitler, he was allowed to commit suicide and his death was announced as a result of injuries from the air attack. In 2004 Fox was officially credited with injuring Rommel, although he expressed regret about the attack, as Rommel was supposedly planning to secretly negotiate an earlier end to the war with the Allies.
Fox ended his tour of duty in January 1945, and served in the 420 Reserve after the war. He retired in 1956 and began to work at a shoe factory, from which he retired in 1998. On April 30, 2004, he was named honorary colonel of 412 Squadron in Ottawa, ultimately belonging to 8 Wing/CFB Trenton. For his long service in the RCAF, he was awarded the Canadian Forces' Decoration.
He died in a car accident near Tillsonburg, Ontario, on October 18, 2008.[6]
