Joseph Jean Paul Sabourin

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Air Force Casualty list

Ottawa, Sept. 26, 1942 - (CP) - The Royal Canadian Air Force in its 380th casualty list of the war today reported six men killed on active service overseas, eight missing after overseas air operations, and two killed on active service in Canada. The overseas section of the list also contained the names of one man who is a prisoner of war, three previously reported missing, who now are for official purposes presumed dead, one dangerously injured on active service, one dangerously ill and one seriously ill.
Following is the latest list of casualties with next of kin:
SABOURIN, Joseph Jean Paul (J3519), Flight Lieutenant, killed on active service overseas. L. X. Sabourin (father), St. Isidore de Prescott, Ont.

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SABOURIN, F/L Joseph Jean Paul (J3519) - Distinguished Flying Cross - No.145 Sq.
Award effective 28 September 1942 as per London Gazette dated 6 October 1942 and
AFRO 1653/42 dated 16 October 1942.

This officer has performed much excellent work. He has destroyed four enemy aircraft and assisted in the destruction of another.

NOTE: Public Records Office Air 2/9265 has recommendation communicated from RAF Headquarters, Middle East to Air Ministry, 25 August 1942:

This pilot has been a Flight Commander in this squadron for the last six weeks and has done excellent work both in the air and on the ground. He has now been taken off flying for medical reasons; before this he was working under a great handicap, medically, for the last fortnight he was flying; he has shot down four enemy aircraft and shared in the destruction of another besides damaging another two.

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D.F.C. Awarded to Four For Gallantry in Raids

Ottawa, Oct. 5, 1942 - (CP) - Award of four Distinguished Flying Crosses and one Distinguished Flying Medal to members of the Royal Canadian Air Force overseas was announced officially today by R.C.A.F. headquarters. Award of a Bar to the Distinguished Flying Cross to Squadron Leader Robert Clare Bissett of Edmonton, a member of the Royal Air Force, and now reported a casualty, was also announced.
The decorated R.C.A.F. personnel included Acting Flight Lieutenant J. P. Sabourin of St. Isidore de Prescott, Ont.; Flying Officer Allan Ivan Watt of Calgary; Flight Lieutenant F. E. Jones of Cloverdale, B.C.; and Flight. Lieutenant H. W. McGee of Regina, who won the Distinguished Flying Cross, and Flight Sergeant Bruce Campbell McNab of Milton, Ont., awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal.
Squadron Leader Bissett's citation covering the award of the Bar to his Distinguished Flying Cross, effective from Nov. 23, 1941, read: "This officer now has completed his second tour of operations and has helped to form a new squadron. He has led his flight in an exemplary manner, participating in most difficult and lengthy sorties. He has outstanding qualities of leadership and has set a fine example by his skill and courage. He has participated in many raids on German industrial targets." Squadron Leader Bissett was officially reported as presumed dead on Nov. 30, 1941.

Cited for "Excellent Work"
Flight Lieutenant Sabourin was cited for his "excellent work" and credited with destruction of four enemy aircraft and one assist. His Distinguished Flying Cross award is effective from Sept. 28, 1942. Flight Lieutenant Sabourin was officially listed last Sept. 26 as killed on active service.

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LOST AIR ACE GIVEN AWARD

Posthumous Honor For Squadron Leader Bissett
London, Oct. 6 (CP)—Announcement of the posthumous award of a bar to the Distinguished Flying Cross to Squadron Leader R. Clare Bissett of Edmonton, with effect from Nov. 23, 1941, was made tonight in the London Gazette.
Bissett was leader of the first all-American squadron in the R.A.F. from June, 1941, until Jan. 28, 1942, when he was reported missing on an operational flight over enemy territory.
He had been awarded the D.F.C. for gallantry and devotion to duty on Oct. 21, 1940.
Bissett, 26 years old when the war started, was one of the first R.A.F. pilots to fly over Germany. He took part in the earliest pamphlet raids and later bombed German territory.
The announcement of the posthumous award said Bissett participated in "most difficult and lengthy sorties," including two raids on Turin, and praised his "outstanding qualities of leadership."
The Air Ministry also announced D.F.C. awards to Flight Lieutenant J. J. P. Sabourin of St. isidore, Ont., and Flying Officer A. I. Watts of Calgary and Edmonton. The Distinguished Flying Medal was awarded to Flight Sergeant Bruce MacNab, a native of Ontario whose home town was unavailable here.
The citation said Sabourin destroyed four enemy planes and helped shoot down another. Watts, a bomber pilot, attacked targets in Greece, Crete, Cyrenaica and Dodecanese and on one occasion machine-gunned an enemy motor transport from fifty feet.
MacNab has fought in the air over Germany, the Western Desert, Greece, Crete and Sicily. Since May, 1942, he has been signals leader of his squadron

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SABOURIN, JOSEPH JEAN PAUL F/L (P) J3519, D.F.C. From St. Isidore de Prescott, Ontario. Killed In Action September 16, 1942 age 27. #145 Squadron (Diu Noctuque Pugnamus). F/L. Sabourin was killed when his Spitfire aircraft was lost to enemy action, shortly after shooting down his last victim. He had himself been shot down on November 22, 1941 but managed to bail out successfully. Flight Lieutenant Pilot Sabourin is buried in the El Alamein War Cemetery, El Alamein, North Africa.

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The book Canada's Air Forces by Brereton Greenhous and
Hugh Halliday has three photographs relating to his career.

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--- Canadian Aces ---

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