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Flight Lieutenant Charles H. 'Smokey' Stover of No. 414 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force with a dog mascot "Blackie" and his Mark 1 Mustang at Dunsfold, Surrey, 15 January 1944.
Charles was born in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada in September 1915 and gained his nickname from the titular fireman character in the comic strip by Bill Holman, titled 'Smokey Stover - The Foolish Foo Fighter', first published in 1935. The WW2-era term 'Foo Fighter' denoting a UFO likely also has its origins in Holman's publication.
Stover enlisted in Ontario in mid-March 1941, graduating from No.3 ITS in July before being commissioned in November that year. Stover's son Ron has written:
'He received his wings on November 21 , 1941, arrived in England in January 1942 and was posted to Squadron 414 on March 3, 1942 as a Pilot Officer.
At that time 414 was flying Tomahawks. The first familiarization flight in a Mustang was on June 14, 1942 at which time the Squadron was changing to Mustangs. His first mission was Dieppe and the task seemed to be survival as noted by the pictures.
December 1942, he was promoted to F/O . On November 5, 1943 S/L Peters, was listed as missing on a mission and my father was appointed as Squadron Leader for 414.
The Squadron was very active in the time period from January to June flying missions into France to photograph various enemy positions and airfields in preparation for D-Day. This was a key part of the D-Day preparation. May 19, 1944, he received the DFC.
June 6, 1944, the squadron was responsible for directing naval bombardment. Dad was directing the fire of the 15" guns of the U.S.S. NEVADA . His logbook reads on June 6, 1944
"Did shoot with U.S.S. Nevada. Unable to contact second ship so did a cooks tour of Allied landings - Very thrilling sight."
The following two weeks was spent doing a lot of reconnaissance in the Caen area. In excess of 25 hours flight time from June 6. On the 23rd June, he and F/L Norm Rettie were jumped by 7-8 FW190's east of Caen. F/L Rettie (currently lives in British Columbia) was shot up but landed safely at a forward air base.
My father was not as lucky and had to bail out. His logbook entry reads:
"F/L Rettie as #2- bounced by 7-8 FW190's East of Caen - Norm was shot up - landed safely - I was shot down, bailing out at Birville at approx 500-750' landing 500 feet inside British lines injuring back. Air evacuated from France to England."
According to Ron Stover, the 'aircraft was recovered in an archeological dig near Caens in 2003, 6 months after my Dad passed on.' (If anyone has further information on this, I'd welcome hearing in the comments below!)
After this mission of 23 June 1944, Stover returned to Canada with his injuries and continued to serve until May 1945 before moving to the RCAF Reserve, flying Mustang P-51Ds and Harvards until 1956.
In his civilian life, Stover joined Shell Oil and worked with them for almost three decades until his retirement in 1977. He lived a full life, and died in 2003 at the age of 87.