The Washington Post - USA (2022-05-29)

C10 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, MAY 29 , 2022

obituaries

BY PHIL DAVISON

James “Stocky” Edwards, a Ca-
nadian fighter pilot and ace dur-
ing World War II who was herald-
ed as his nation’s “top gun” over
the North African desert in 1942
and 1943, died May 14 in Comox,
British Columbia. He was 100.
Announcing the death on Face-
book, Comox Mayor Russ Arnott,
citing the pilot’s family, gave no
cause, although Mr. Edwards had
had heart problems in recent
years.
With the rank of wing com-
mander, Mr. Edwards shot down
a confirmed 19 Luftwaffe fighter
planes and scored many more
“probables,” the aircraft he put
out of action but did not see hit
the ground. He also destroyed at
least 12 more enemy warplanes at
their desert bases before they
could take to the air.
Hitler’s Afrika Korps, com-
manded by Field Marshal Erwin
Rommel, had been locked in bat-
tle with the Allies in North Africa
until pilots like Mr. Edwards, a
member of the Royal Canadian
Air Force assigned to Britain’s
Royal Air Force (RAF), engaged in
aerial dogfights with the Luft-
waffe and strafed and bombed the
Germans on the ground to hasten

their defeat.

In those exchanges over North

Africa, Mr. Edwards flew

U.S.-built P-40 Kittyhawk fight-

ers, far heavier and slower than

the German Messerschmitt Bf

109, which made his achieve-

ments all the more remarkable.

Over Italy and France later in the

war, including on D-Day, he

would switch to the more nimble

British Spitfire fighters.

Physically, Mr. Edwards was

anything but “stocky.” He was

skinny as a young man, and the

Toronto Globe and Mail once

quoted some of his fellow fliers as

saying he was “more like a wiry

bantam weight.” Known as Eddie

during the war, he only later got

the nickname “Stocky” in honor

of his fortitude.

In all, he flew 373 combat mis-

sions during World War II, mostly

over North Africa but also to

provide air support for the Allied

landings in Italy in 1943 and 1944

and in Normandy on D-Day —

June 6, 1944 — a rare “triple”

among Allied pilots.

Mr. Edwards was a 20-year-old

flight-lieutenant when he took off

from a North African desert air

base for his first combat mission

on March 23, 1942, as part of an

RAF squadron. While escorting

Allied light bombers, he and oth-

er fliers strafed a German ground

base and, when engaged in an

aerial dogfight with the Luft-

waffe, he shot down a Messer-

schmitt Bf 109, his first “kill.”

The Toronto Globe and Mail

quoted his son Jim Edwards as

saying his father was a modest

and humble man who was “slack

in recording his victories” unless

he was sure but had almost cer-

tainly shot down more than he

had claimed, probably at least 22.

On June 17, 1942, for example,

over Tobruk, Libya, Mr. Edwards,

in his Kittyhawk, shot down a

German Bf 109 but recorded it

only as a “probable” rather than a

kill since he did not see it hit the

ground. Many years later, Ger-

man records showed that the

downed pilot was Otto Schulz,

one of the Luftwaffe’s greatest

fighter pilots, who died in the

crash.

Mr. Edwards’s wingman that

day was Australian pilot Ron

Cundy, who witnessed the dog-

fight. “As I watched the 109 close

in, Eddie applied a lot of right

rudder and skidded out of the

way,” Cundy told the Globe and

Mail years later. “The 109 was

coming in too fast to make the

necessary adjustment and as he

overshot, Eddie swung back to

the left, opened fire and shot him

down. It was the coolest piece of

aerial combat that I had ever

seen.”

Jim Edwards told the Toronto

paper that his father had 20/20

eyesight and had been a crack

marksman as a youth when he

used to shoot duck and other

wildfowl on the prairies of Sas-

katchewan. While shooting at

wildfowl, Mr. Edwards’s father

had taught him to “lead” his

target rather than shoot at it,

according to Jim Edwards, who

added that his father used the

same technique as a fighter pilot.

Although Mr. Edwards scored

most of his “kills” over North

Africa, he went on to serve over

Italy and France. In support of the

Allied beach landings at Anzio,

Italy, in February 1944, he shot

down at least three German fight-

er planes.

In June that year, he flew a

now-legendary British Spitfire to

escort bombers as the Allies went

ashore on the beaches of Norman-

dy on D-Day. With Allied intelli-

gence deceiving Nazi forces into

thinking the landings would take

place elsewhere, Mr. Edwards

met no Luftwaffe resistance, and

the bombers did their job.

In addition to the Distin-

guished Flying Cross, awarded by

the United Kingdom during the

war, Mr. Edwards was named to

the Order of Canada, one of that

nation’s highest awards, in 2004.

He was inducted into Canada’s

Aviation Hall of Fame in 2013 and

the following year was appointed

to France’s Legion of Honor by

President François Hollande for

his services to France during the

war.

James Francis Edwards was

born in Nokomis, Saskatchewan,

on June 5, 1921, one of six chil-

dren. His parents lost their home

in the Depression and moved to

the small Saskatchewan town of

Battleford in a region called the

Canadian Prairies, where his fa-

ther sought work.

At St. Thomas College in North

Battleford, Mr. Edwards’s first

love was ice hockey, and he was

once scouted by the Chicago

Black Hawks. “But I was small,”

he told the Comox Valley Record

on his 100th birthday. After grad-

uating from high school, he vol-

unteered for the Royal Canadian

Air Force, although he had never

flown before.

In 1946, he married Norma

Hatcher, a nurse, and they had

two children, Dorothy and

Jeanne. Norma soon contracted

polio and died. In 1951, he mar-

ried Alice “Toni” Antonio, also a

nurse, and they had two children,

Angel and Jim. Mr. Edwards’s

daughter Jeanne predeceased

him. Survivors include his wife

and three children as well as

several grandchildren, great-

grandchildren and great-great-

grandchildren.

Back in Canada after the war,

Mr. Edwards remained in the

Royal Canadian Air Force, serv-

ing as a flying instructor, search

and rescue pilot and commander

of the first Canadian squadron to

fly the Sabre jet fighter. He also

held other assignments until his

retirement in 1972 to Vancouver

Island, where his passion was

wetlands preservation.

Along with writer Michel Lavi-

gne, Mr. Edwards wrote the mem-

oir “Kittyhawk Pilot” in 1983 and

the nonfiction work “Kittyhawks

Over the Sands: The Canadians &

the RCAF Americans” in 2002.

“I’m proud in my quiet little

way,” he told the Comox Valley

Record when he turned 100. “I did

373 combat missions. You get sort

of ... you don’t know anything

else. The day the war was over, it

was a feeling of, ‘What do I do

now?’ ”

JAMES “STOCKY” EDWARDS, 100

Flying ace strafed, bombed his way to renown in WWII

HEATH MOFFATT

James “Stocky” Edwards shot down a confirmed 19 German Luftwaffe fighter planes and scored many
more “probables,” the aircraft he put out of action but did not see hit the ground.

ELINOR FLORENCE

In 1951, Edwards married Alice “Toni” Antonio, above, and the couple had two children. Edwards also

had two children with his first wife, who died after contracting polio.

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