Alexander Foch "Sandy" Halcrow

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Two Toronto Fliers Get Hun Each

London, March 15, 1944 - (CP) - Spitfire pilots of a Canadian squadron escorting two-engined American bombers on an attack on Northern France today destroyed four German aircraft and damaged a fifth.
Four enemy fighters were shot out of the air and a bomber was attacked on the runway of an airfield near Cambrai.
The victors were F/Ls Alec Foch Halcrow, 26, of Penticton, B.C.; Henry Kemp Hamilton, 21, of 1 Clarendon Ave., Toronto; Jack Sheppard, 23, of Dollarton, B.C. and F/O David Douglas Ashley, 24, of 1097 St. Clarens Ave., Toronto.
Their victims were four Focke-Wulf 190's, shot down over an airfield where a Messerschmitt 410 was damaged on the runway by F/O Robert Kitchener Hayward, 27, of St. Charles, Nfld.

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Ships Everywhere
Smoke Over Invasion Area Just Like Autumn Leaf Fires to Spitfire Pilot

A 25-gear-old Spitfire pilot from Penticton, who got a "probable" over the Allied beachhead in France, describes what a pilot sees when he looks down on the English Channel and French coast on the second day of the invasion.

By F/L A. HALCROW, an R.C.A.F. Airfield in Britain, June 7, 1944 (CP) — What does a battlefield look like? That's hard to say.
It looks quiet until you take a good look at things. About the only thing that lives up to Hollywood's idea of war is the smoke rising from the flaming centre of Caen.
But if you take only a casual glance from the air it looks just like autumn back home when people are burning leaves, Here's a picture as I saw it today.
Thousands of Ships
Half-way across the Channel you come across the lane of shipping. There are transports, tank landing craft, destroyers, escort ships, corvettes going in either direction all the time. Then when you get over the beachhead there are thousands of ships from the big battlewagons down to smaller stuff.
There's a lot of shelling. The beach area is littered with barges. Looking at the boats from the air, it is just as if you picked up handfuls of ships and scattered them all over the place — they're just everywhere.
Sprayed With Craters
The magnitude of it all is almost too great to comprehend. You've got to be in the air to appreciate it.
Bomb craters? There are all kinds of them in concentrated areas along the eastern end of the beachhead. A couple of areas about 500 by 800 yards are literally sprayed with craters.
The fields are green and the cows are grazing contentedly, while our troops move inland in single file along roads, walking beside Bren gun carriers and other transport.
Tanks and Horses
In inland fields there are no bomb craters. But I saw what must have been mortar bombs looping from one side of the field to the other.
I was struck particularly by the bunch of horses — about 20 — grazing in one field, with a long line of tanks thundering beside them.
Coastal batteries really have been knocked about, but the average small hamlet inland looks intact. Jerry must have retreated pretty fast if he had anything in there at all.
The roads appear to be little damaged, as transport is just rolling down them to beat hell. In the air you just can't move for aircraft — ours!
Glider Concentrations
I saw two concentrations of gliders on the ground.
There were parachutes of various colors scattered all over the place in one area.
After I watched the horses grazing, I was chasing along after my JU88 — which turned out to be a probable destroyed — when at a height of about 800 feet I saw an old couple waving frantically at us.
Still, with all that, it doesn't look like Hollywood's way of conducting a war.

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RCAF Shoots Down 26 Enemy Planes
in Normandy Between Dawn and Dusk

By P/O H. R. McDONALD, A Canadian Airfield in France, June 29, 1944 - (CP) - Canadian fighter planes, in one of the most brilliant achievements in the history of the R.C.A.F., shot down 26 out of a total of 34 enemy aircraft destroyed over the Normandy front between dawn and dusk yesterday.
In addition, R.C.A.F. pilots chalked up a number of enemy planes probab1y shot down and a number bf others which were damaged.
Four pilots scored double kills. They were Wing Cmdr. J. E. (Johnny) Johnson, English–born commander of a Canadian fighter wing operating from an R.C.A.F. base in Normandy, and F/Ls. H. C. Trainor, Charlottetown; W. T. Klersy, 14 Harcroft Rd., Toronto, and R. K. Hayward, St. John's, Nfld.
Destroys Two, Damages Third
Hayward destroyed two FW-190's and damaged a third, which gave him the highest R.C.A.F. individual score of the day.
Earlier reports indicated the Canadian airmen had downed 18 enemy planes in yesterday's daylight operations.
The complete figures were reached by intelligence officers today after a period of aerial operations which exceeded in intensity anything since the Allied Normandy beachhead was opened June 6.
Besides the toll of enemy planes, which included all fighter types, R.C.A.F. pilots also strafed transport on the roads.
Final claims on two aircraft are being sifted
Among the R.C.A.F. Spitfire pilots contributing to the total with one Hun each were: F/Ls. Irving Kennedy, Cumberland, Ont.; G. R. Patterson, Kelowna, B.C.; J. McElroy, Kamloops, B.C.; Henry Zary, New York; R. M. Stayner, Saskatoon; A. F. Halcrow, Penticton, B.C.; G. W. Johnson, 102 Beechwood Ave., Hamilton, Ont.; D. E. Noonan, 146 Willingdon Ave., Kingston, Ont.; J. P. Rainville, Montreal; and Flying Officers W. J. Banks, Leaside, Ont. and G. H. Farquharson, Corbyville, Ont.
Wing Cmdr. Johnson's score of two brought his total of enemy planes downed to 32, equaling the mark set by Group Capt. A. G. (Sailor) Malan, a South African, now on ground duty.
Among the R.C.A.F. fliers scoring probables were F/O A. C. Brandon, Timmins, Ont.; F/O J. B. O'Sullivan, Vancouver and P/O J. M. Flood, Hearst, Ont.
Nine Others Damaged
At least nine others wire damaged by fliers of the R.C.A.F.
Of the wings comprising Group Capt, W. (Bill) MacBrien's R.C.A.F. sector, the one led by 22-year-old Wing Cmdr, George Keefer, D.F.C. and Bar, Charlottetown, was high scorer of the day with 13 confirmed victories. Johnson's wing was second with seven, in a close race with a unit led by Wing Cmdr. R. A. Buckham, Vancouver.
The margin for Keefer's wing was established in two dusk operations in which seven enemy planes were destroyed and two damaged. In the first action Hayward sighted more than 25 Nazi fighters and led his formation in pursuit. He damaged one.
Later the same Spitfires became embroiled with a dozen FW-190's, and Hayward got two of them. The first fell out of control, and the second burst into flames and crashed after Hayward had followed it down to tree-top height.
"The Huns were like bees,” said WO. Murray Havers, 1 Lloyd St., Hamilton. Ont. "They seemed confused and acted as though they did not know what they were doing."
The Canadian airmen said the Germans did not put up much of a fight despite their numerical advantage.
Other Canadians credited with kills during the day were F/O G. R. Stephen, Montreal; F/O Larry Robillard, Ottawa; F/O W. A. Gilbert, Dartmouth, N.S.; F/O Don Goodwin, Maynooth, Ont. and F/O Tommy Wheler, 10 Beauford Rd., Toronto.
F/O Klersy took a prominent part in athletics at St. Michael's College, playing hockey and rugby. He also rowed for his college, and was goalie for Ostrander's mercantile hockey team. Enlisting in June 1941, he took aircrew training in Toronto, Oshawa and Dunnville and after nearly a year with a fighter squadron at Bagotville, F/O Klersy went overseas in May 1942.
The 21-year-year old airman is the son of Mr. and Mrs. W. P. Klersy, 14 Harcroft Rd.

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HALCROW, F/L Alexander Foch (J6795) - Distinguished Flying Cross - No.411 Sq.
Award effective 8 December 1944 as per London Gazette of that date and
AFRO 293/45 dated 16 February 1945.

Flight Lieutenant Halcrow is a keen and resolute fighter. He has led his flight and, on occasions the squadron, in many successful attacks on a variety of targets. He has displayed praiseworthy skill and determination throughout. In air fighting, Flight Lieutenant Halcrow has destroyed four enemy aircraft.

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Victories Include :

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--- Canadian Aces ---

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