Dallas Wilbur Schmidt

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SCHMIDT, F/O Dallas Wilber (J7336) - Distinguished Flying Cross - No.227 Squadron
Award effective 5 October 1942 as per London Gazette dated 16 October 1942 and
AFRO 1731/42 dated 30 October 1942.

This officer has displayed fine fighting qualities. On his first sortie he shot down an Italian aircraft. In September, 1942, he obtained a hit with a heavy bomb on an enemy merchant vessel which subsequently sank. A few days later he attacked a destroyer, in a convoy, with gunfire. In spite of intense opposition he pressed home his attack causing an explosion behind part of the ship's gun positions, which probably indicated hits on a magazine. This officer has set a praiseworthy example.

In No.227 Squadron he completed 43 sorties (163 hours five minutes); at end of war he claimed 60 hours on Mosquitos, 235 on Beaufighters, 46 hours 45 minutes on Blenheims, five on Hurricanes, 760 on Harvards, 137 hours five minutes on miscellaneous types. He was also a member of the Caterpillar Club. Apart from aerial victories he claimed to have participated in the sinking of four ships. See Chris Shores, Aces High and Fighters Over Tunisia and H.A. Halliday-Larry Milberry, RCAF at War, 1939-1945 (Canav Books, Toronto). DFC and Bar presented 14 June 1947.

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SCHMIDT, F/L Dallas Wilber (J7336) - Bar to DFC - No.227 Squadron
Award effective 26 December 1942 as per London Gazette dated 29 Dec. 1942 and
AFRO 185/43 dated 5 February 1943.

Since being awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, this officer has completed many sorties. In an engagement in November 1942, he destroyed two Junkers 52 and assisted in the destruction of a Dornier 24. His aircraft was hit in some thirty places by return fire and the port engine was set alight, but he succeeded in extinguishing the flames and flew the damaged aircraft to base, landing it safely in difficult circumstances. Some days later he shot down a Junkers 52 and shortly afterwards he destroyed a Fiat CR.42 in attacks on enemy shipping. Flight Lieutenant Schmidt has achieved notable success. He has at all times displayed outstanding skill and gallantry.

NOTE: In 1993 Mr. Paul Ferguson provided to the Directorate of History copies of notes he had prepared on Canadians in Malta. They included the following (sources unknown):

Shot down on five occasions, D.W. Schmidt managed to crash-land on Malta four times and baled out once. On one occasion he saved the life of Pilot Officer J.F. Briffet, an observer whose Beaufighter was forced to ditch in the sea. The aircraft sank with the loss of the pilot, 4 October 1942, but D.W. Schmidt threw down to P/O Briffet his dingy tied to his Mae West. He scored 10½ victories and on 17 September 1942 sank the tanker Carbonia with a 500-pound bomb dropped directly amidships.

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Canadian Aces

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