This one is really sad, as Charley used to do the commentry for the Hamilton airshow as well as the Russell Group airshow just this past year. He was very sharp and you'd never guess his age, his recollection for detail was incredible.
Charley Fox, shown in 2005, founded Torch Bearers, which educates young people on Canadian military exploits.
Keeping war stories alive was his 'purpose in life'
Oct 21, 2008 04:30 AM
Kathy Rumleski The Canadian Press
TILLSONBURG, Ont.Canadian war veteran Charley Fox who escaped death many times during his military career has left family and friends reeling and wondering who will take on the role he filled as an educator of youth and spokesperson for veterans.
Fox, 88, a World War II Spitfire pilot, was killed in a car crash Saturday near Tillsonburg in southwestern Ontario after attending a Canadian Harvard Aircraft Association meeting.
He was credited with injuring German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, also known as the "Desert Fox," during a July 1944 strafing run over France. Fox also fought in the battle immortalized in A Bridge Too Far, a film about the Allies' unsuccessful push into the Netherlands.
Fox attacked enemy trains and vehicles 153 times during the war, earning him the Distinguished Flying Cross honour. Fourteen of his planes were rendered no longer usable after being hit by enemy fire.
With Remembrance Day less than a month away, the veteran's schedule was packed with activities.
"He'd want us to continue to remember our veterans. Somebody else (must) pick the torch up and continue those things he started because it was so important to him," said Sue Beckett, Fox's daughter.
Family members said Fox, a resident of London, Ont., put 70,000 kilometres on his vehicle each year because of all his activities and that he travelled to Ottawa at least once a month for veterans' business.
Fox founded Torch Bearers, a non-profit organization that educates young people about Canadian military exploits. He regularly took on speaking engagements to keep veterans' stories alive and fought with school boards to ensure Remembrance Day ceremonies were held annually.
Fox's son, Jim, said his father "had a to-do list for the day and I'm sure there were 17 things on it."
Fox's family said he spent his life wondering why he survived numerous dates with death.
Fox was in the process of telling his story and those of other veterans in a book titled Why Not Me?, which the family hopes to finish. "It did give him a purpose in life and he was searching for that," his son said.
Fox is also survived by another daughter, Adrienne Black, who lives in New Jersey, nine grandchildren, three step-grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
CHARLEY FOX WELL-KNOWN IN DUNNVILLE AND NIAGARA, ALWAYS VOLUNTEERED HIS TIME WITH THE ANNUAL DUNNVILLE AIR FORCE REUNION COMMITTEE
Posted By KATHY RUMLESKI AND BOB LIDDYCOAT, SUN MEDIA
Posted 1 hour ago
The tragic death Saturday of Canadian war hero Charley Fox - who escaped death several times during a remarkable military career - has left family and friends reeling and wondering who will take on the huge role Fox filled as educator of youth and spokesperson for veterans.
Fox, 88, a Second World War Spitfire pilot, was killed in a car crash in Oxford County, shortly after attending a Canadian Harvard Aircraft Association meeting near Tillsonburg.
Fox is well-known in Dunnville and Niagara. He spent many hours volunteering his time with the annual Dunnville air force reunion committee as well as local legions.
With Remembrance Day less than a month away, the popular Fox's schedule was packed full of activities.
"He'd want us to continue to remember our veterans. Somebody else (must) pick the torch up and continue those things he started because it was so important to him," said Fox's daughter Sue Beckett of Thamesford. His family said his activities put 70,000 kilometres on his vehicle each year.
Fox's son, Jim, said Fox, a London resident, stopped in at his grandson's hockey game in Kitchener last Thursday even though he had business to take care of.
"He had a to-do list for the day and I'm sure there were 17 things on it." Said Beckett: "He had all of these other things to do ... but he always had time for us, too."
Fox travelled to Ottawa at least once a month for veterans' business and there was talk of taking him to the 2009 Grey Cup festivities in honour of the 100th anniversary of the first controlled power flight in Canada and the British Empire.
He also planned to travel with students overseas on memorial pilgrimages next year.
Joan Sullivan, president of the Air Force Association of Canada (AFAC), 427 London Wing, said Fox had told her Friday about some of his upcoming engagements, including one this Saturday at the AFAC national convention in Ottawa.
"He was willing to talk. A lot of veterans won't talk about their experiences," said Sullivan, who had known Fox for more than 50 years.
Continued After Advertisement Below
Advertisement
In an August interview with Sun Media's Dunnville Chronicle Fox explained, "Most of the boys who came home would never talk about the war. They felt guilty they came home and their buddies didn't. I was the same way. But now I think maybe I came home so I can tell people about it so that's what I'm doing now."
Teacher Robin Barker-James, who owns a farm near Tillsonburg where Fox took part in war simulation events and who travelled with him to Normandy in 2004 for D-Day anniversary events, said Fox drove his car around the farm like it was a fighter jet.
"I don't think you could take that out of someone who spent so many hours of their young life in one of those machines," he said.
Barker-James said that 12 years ago Fox told his students at Glendale high school an amazing story that riveted them. "Two of his fellow air crew had been killed in an airplane crash. Since he was the duty officer, he went to verify their identities. They were soaked in gasoline. The smell was overpowering."
Three times after that, Fox was in near-fatal car accidents and he smelled gasoline and slowed the car down.
"Did he smell it (Saturday)?" Barker-James wondered. "He had a lot of unexplained incidents involving those who had died and those who are still living. Charley believed there was a much bigger dimension to life than what we give credit for."
His family said Fox spent his life wondering why he survived numerous dates with death. He was searching for a way to make sense out of what happened and to find a way to contribute through the life he felt was saved and to honour his fallen comrades, son Jim Fox said.
He was in the process of telling his story and those of other veterans in a book titled Why Not Me?, which the family hopes to finish.
"It did give him a purpose in life and he was searching for that," his son said.
He was also eagerly looking forward to the 65th anniversary of the end of the war as he saw the occasion as the perfect opportunity for governments of the allied forces to make long-overdue amends for what he labelled grave injustices.
Fox had taken it upon himself to obtain official recognition for the Polish forces who have never been recognized for their valiant and unmatched efforts in the War.
Recently, he told the Chronicle, "It just blows my mind, the more I learn and the more I get into studying what the Poles did during the war. And the more I believe the Canadian government should be the first to officially recognize their efforts."
The Allies were afraid to upset Stalin and start a new war, said Fox, so they agreed to his demands to give Poland back to Russia and so, in the Yalta agreement of February 1945, Churchill and Roosevelt failed the Poles terribly when they allowed Stalin to draw the Iron Curtain across Europe.
"I am amazed at what they went through, and are still going through. Poland is recognized by NATO and the European Union but no country has recognized them as yet, " he lamented. He had become very passionate and outspoken in his belief that the Allies must somehow atone for this grave injustice.
In addition to gaining recognition for the Poles, Fox was working on several other projects, including: recognizing Canadian Prisoners of War from the Second World War, Korea, Vietnam and other conflicts; twinning Canadian Cities with cities in Holland; and recognizing the 50 Aircrew executed on direct orders of Hitler after The Great Escape, later immortalized in the movie of that title.
Fox was the Master of Ceremonies at a reunion celebrating the 63rd anniversary of the No. 6 RCAF flying school in Dunnville on Sept. 17 and spoke of the latter project.
He noted that among the 50 POWs executed were six Canadians, including Flight Lieutenant Pat Langford of Dunnville. In the early years of the Second World War, Fox was a flight instructor in Dunnville and he went on to become a decorated pilot for his substantial efforts during the war.
From Dunnville, he joined an Operational Training Unit at Bagotville, Quebec.
In August 1943, he went overseas and checked out on Spitfires. In January 1944, he began his tour with 412 Squadron. On June 18, 1944, the squadron moved to B4 airstrip in Normandy at Beny-Sur-Mer.
An official commendation for a bar added to his Distinguished Flying Cross stated: "This officer has led his section against a variety of targets, often in the face of intense anti-aircraft fire. He has personally destroyed or damaged 22 locomotives and 34 enemy vehicles, bringing his total to 153 vehicles destroyed or damaged. In addition, he has destroyed at least a further three enemy aircraft and damaged two others. In December 1944, Flight Lieutenant Fox led his squadron on an attack against enemy airfields in the Munster area and personally destroyed another enemy aircraft, bringing his total to four. Through his quick and accurate reporting, a further four enemy aircraft were destroyed. Since the award of the Distinguished Flying Cross, this officer has display outstanding skill, coolness and determination."
Fox ended his tour in January 1945 at Heesch in Holland. He then became Operations Officer in the Intelligence Section of 126 Wing. Fox was a member of the flight of four who flew the last operational sortie of the war for 126 Wing, landing at 8 a. m. on May 5, 1945.
Fox is also one of those credited with ending the career of Field Marshall Rommel when he strafed his staff car and Rommel was injured enough to put him out of commission for the duration of the war.
The life of Charley Fox has been lionized in a book by author Steve Pitt, entitled, Day of the Flying Fox - The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.
Barker-James said Fox dealt with death a long time ago and wasn't afraid.
"He wanted to die, as he would put it, 'With his boots on.' In other words, doing things to promote the remembrance of what happened.
"He was dying with his boots on. He had just come from the Harvard society. He was in his car, a machine," said Barker-James, who added that the crash scene was directly on the Harvard flight path.
"There's an eerie appropriateness about this." Fox is also survived by another daughter, Adrienne Black, who lives in New Jersey, nine grandchildren, three step-grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
His wife Helen died in 1993. The Betzner funeral home in Thamesford is in charge of arrangements.
