Second World War flying ace Stocky Edwards went ‘from Prairie boy to legend’

On March 23, 1942, in the midst of the Second World War, Canadian fighter pilot James Francis Edwards took off from a North African airfield to join in an attack on a German air base. Soon enemy fighters rose in challenge and, in the sky full of turmoil that followed, Flight Sergeant Edwards shot down a German Messerschmitt Bf 109.Flight Sgt. Edwards went on to become famous later as Wing Commander Edwards, one of the great Royal Canadian Air Force aces of the war. Wing Cdr.

Stocky Edwards was neither heavyset nor physically big but was, instead, a wiry bantam weight. The odd nickname was meant to convey that he could be exceptionally tough when the chips were down. A short time later he was reassigned to a squadron that was switching from older Hurricane fighters to new American-built Kittyhawks. Although bigger and better armed than its predecessor, it was still an uninspiring stallion, well outclassed by the German Bf 109 .

By the end of the North African campaign, he had shot down 15 enemy aircraft, three times the number that usually makes a pilot an “ace.” However, the fighting was also costly for 260 Squadron, which lost 33 pilots, 10 of them Canadians. On Dec. 19, 1943, he was posted to Sicily and then mainland Italy, flying during the costly Allied attack at Anzio and shooting down three aircraft in one day.

In reality, Squadron Leader Edwards got out of – or was thrown out of – the crashing plane, but he never knew exactly what happened. Unbuckling his safety harness may well have saved his life. In October, 1944, he was awarded a Bar to his Distinguished Flying Cross – in other words, a second DFC. Late in the war came a promotion to wing commander and an assignment to lead 127 Wing made up of four Canadian squadrons. On May 3, 1945, he flew his 373rd and final combat mission, an exceptional record.

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