Air Commodore Air commodore (Air Cdre or Air Cmde) is an air officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is also used by the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence and it is sometimes ...

Arthur Dwight Ross (18 March 1907 – 27 September 1981) was a

Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; ) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environmental commands within the unified Can ...

(RCAF) Base Commander of No. 62 Base,

No. 6 Group RCAF No. 6 Group RCAF was a group of Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) heavy bomber squadrons in Europe during the Second World War, between 1942 and 1945. The group operated out of airfields in Yorkshire, England. History No. 6 Group was a Royal Cana ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Ross received the

George Cross The George Cross (GC) is the highest award bestowed by the British government for non-operational Courage, gallantry or gallantry not in the presence of an enemy. In the British honours system, the George Cross, since its introduction in 1940, ...

for his actions on the night of 27/28 June 1944 at

RAF Tholthorpe Royal Air Force Tholthorpe' or more simply RAF Tholthorpe is a former Royal Air Force List of former Royal Air Force stations, satellite station located near Easingwold, North Yorkshire, England. It was operational during the World War II, Secon ...

Early life and career

Arthur Dwight Ross was born on 18 March 1907, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. After graduating from the

Royal Military College of Canada The Royal Military College of Canada (), abbreviated in English as RMC and in French as CMR, is a Military academy#Canada, military academy and, since 1959, a List of universities in Canada#Ontario, degree-granting university of the Canadian ...

Kingston, Ontario Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the northeastern end of Lake Ontario. It is at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River, the south end of the Rideau Canal. Kingston is near the Thousand Islands, ...

in 1928 (student # 1815), he took a

commission In-Commission or commissioning may refer to: Business and contracting * Commission (remuneration), a form of payment to an agent for services rendered ** Commission (art), the purchase or the creation of a piece of art most often on behalf of anot ...

in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Ross received his pilot's wings at

Camp Borden Canadian Forces Base Borden (also CFB Borden, French: Base des Forces canadiennes Borden or BFC Borden), formerly RCAF Station Camp Borden, is a large Canadian Forces base located in Ontario. The historic birthplace of the Royal Canadian Air Forc ...

in February 1929.

Second World War

After a few years of aerial surveying and staffing work, Ross was appointed commander of No. 5 (Bomber Reconnaissance) Squadron on Canada's east coast in 1939 where he flew on anti-submarine and convoy escort operations. From August 1940 to March 1942, he worked with the

British Commonwealth Air Training Plan The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), often referred to as simply "The Plan", was a large-scale multinational military aircrew training program created by the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand during the Second Wo ...

as the officer commanding No. 3 Service Flying Training School (SFTS), at Currie Field in

Calgary, Alberta Calgary () is a major city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a Metropolitan area, metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the List of ...

. In December 1942, Ross became the Commanding Officer at RAF Middleton St. George. In February 1944 he was promoted from Group Captain to Air Commodore and was assigned to command No. 62 Base,

, headquartered at

RAF Linton-on-Ouse Royal Air Force Linton-on-Ouse or more simply RAF Linton-on-Ouse is a former Royal Air Force station at Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire, England, north-west of York. It had satellite stations at RAF Topcliffe and Dishforth Airfield (Brit ...

. While visiting the base's sub-station at

, an incident occurred which earned Ross the

, the highest gallantry award for civilians as well as for military personnel in actions which are not in the face of the enemy. The incident also resulted in awards being earned by other personnel.

George Cross

During the night of 27/28 June 1944, an RCAF Halifax aircraft of 425 Squadron was returning from a

bombing A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechan ...

raid on a flying bomb launching site in northern France. The aircraft struggled back on three engines. Upon landing, the pilot, Sergeant M.J.P. Lavoie, lost control and veered his aircraft into a parked Halifax which was fully loaded with fuel and bombs. The George Cross citation explains the incident in detail: Ross's George Cross citation reads:

Postwar

From 1945 to 1948, Ross commanded the RCAF Staff College in Toronto, Ontario. Until 1961, Ross was Air Commander of the Western Atlantic Area's Canadian Atlantic sub-area of

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

's Allied Command Atlantic.NATO Archives, NATO, The First Five Years 1949–1954
Retrieved: 2012-08-12 This command's purpose was to keep the sea lanes open between the United States and Europe during the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

Tributes

An air cadet squadron based in

bears his name (No. 58 Air Commodore A. Dwight Ross, GC, CBE, CD Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron). Dwight Ross School in Greenwood, Nova Scotia is also named after him.

References

* Coughlin, Tom. ''The Dangerous Sky''. Toronto: The Ryerson Press., 1968. No ISBN. * Roberts, Leslie. ''There Shall Be Wings''. Toronto: Clark, Irwin and Co. Ltd., 1959. No ISBN.
Alumni Profile on Arthur Dwight Ross in e-Veritas

Retrieved: 2012-08-12

External links

No. 58 Air Commodore A. Dwight Ross, GC, CBE, CD Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron
* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Ross, Arthur Dwight 1907 births 1981 deaths Canadian recipients of the George Cross Canadian Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Royal Canadian Air Force officers Royal Military College of Canada alumni Royal Canadian Air Force personnel of World War II Canadian military personnel from Manitoba