James Francis Edwards - World War II

World War II

Flight Sergeant Edwards was posted to 94 Squadron RAF of 223 Wing in January 1942 flying the P-40 "Kittyhawk". On March 23, he flew his first operational trip, during which he shot down his first enemy aircraft, a Bf-109. In May, he was posted to 260 Squadron, and saw intensive action for the rest of 1942. By September, he had 6 "kills" and was commissioned. A Distinguished Flying Medal and Distinguished Flying Cross were awarded by the start of 1943, by which time Edwards was a Flight Commander. His tour finished in May 1943, total claims made being 17 aircraft shot down and several ground kills. In fact German records show Edwards underclaimed - 22 victories had been confirmed by German records. One of Edward's victims during the North African campaign was famous Luftwaffe experten Otto Schulz (51 victories), who was shot down by the Canadian ace on June 17, 1942. On 3 September 1942 Edwards likely damaged Hans-Joachim Marseille's Bf 109 in combat. Marseille was the highest scoring pilot in North Africa and shot down more Western Allied aircraft then any other German pilot.

In November 1943, he was posted to No. 417 Squadron RCAF, then No. 92 Squadron RAF, flying the Supermarine Spitfire VIII; while serving on the Italian front with 92 Squadron, he added 3 FW-190 and a Bf 109 to his score, all shot down over the Anzio beachhead, three of them on a single day. At the beginning of March 1944, he was posted to the UK, flying operations over Europe with 274 Squadron, a fighter unit equipped, at the end of Edward's tour, with the Hawker Tempest.

After leave in Canada, Edwards returned to the Western Front, flying Spitfire XVIs as 127 RCAF Wing CO in 1945. On May 3, he shared in the destruction of a Ju-88, just a few days before VE. He finished the war with a total of 373 operational sorties without being shot down by the enemy.

According to Shores and Williams's Aces High, his final wartime score was 15 + 3 shared destroyed, with 9 more destroyed on the ground. Brown and Lavigne's Canadian Wing Commander credits him with 19 victories, 2 shared, 6.5 probable, 17 damaged and 12 destroyed on the ground. During an interview, Edwards himself specified that he had 19 confirmed victories during the war. Many who flew with him have said that he only reported those "kills" he was certain of and that his real number of aerial victories was probably much higher than officially reported. 18 of Edwards's 19 victories, according to Brown and Lavigne, were enemy fighters (14 Bf-109s, 3 FW-190s and one Macchi 202).