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Canada. An RCAF Memorial Group, Crashed in the Fraser River 1943

Item: C3798

Canada. An RCAF Memorial Group, Crashed in the Fraser River 1943

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Canada. An RCAF Memorial Group, Crashed in the Fraser River 1943

Canadian Volunteer Service Medal; War Medal 1939-1945; and Memorial Cross, GVIR (F.S. D.J. CASSELMANN R-53552). Naming is engraved on the MC, the war medals are un-named. Court-mounted, original ribbons on the war medals, light contact, near extremely fine. Footnote: R53552 Flight Sergeant Donald John Casselman was the son of Lorne Casselman and Lucy Casselman of Morrisburg, Ontario and the husband of Winnifred Casselman of Montreal, Quebec. He was an Aero Engine Mechanic with No. 8 (RCAF) Squadron, stationed at RCAF Station Sea Island in Vancouver, British Columbia. The squadron was mobilized on the September 10, 1939 as No. 8 (GR) Squadron at Sydney, Nova Scotia, then re-designated Bomber Reconnaissance (BR) at the end of October 1939. Equipped with Northrop Deltas and Bristol Bolingbrokes, the squadron was tasked with anti-submarine duty while serving with RCAF Eastern Air Command. In December 1941, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the squadron was moved to RCAF Station Sea Island on the west coast of Canada as part of RCAF Western Air Command. In June 1942, in response to the Japanese attack on the Aleutians, it was moved to Alaska flying the Bristol Bolingbroke V as part of RCAF X Wing, operating from Elmendorf Army Airfield (Anchorage), with small detachments stationed at Naval Air Station Kodiak and Marks Air Force Base (Nome). The squadron returned to RCAF Station Sea Island in March 1943. Flight Sergeant Casselman was aboard a Bollingbroke aircraft, number 9072, on April 24, 1943, when it crashed in the Fraser River, one mile west of Mission, British Columbia, killing him, at the age of 34. His body was returned to his native Morrisburg, where he was buried in Morrisburg (Fairview) Cemetery, Grave Reference: Lot 35. Plot 23D. He is commemorated on page 144 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance.