Pilot Officer John Wilson Summerhayes

426 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force Killed in action on Saturday, 13th May 1944, aged 23

John (Jack) Wilson Summerhayes was born in Ridgetown, Ontario April 17, 1921, one of seven children born to Leo and Daisy Summerhayes. Raised in Brantford, Ontario, Jack attended high school for one year and did some farm work. In 1938 he started work as a mill hand at the Dunlop Tire and Rubber Company in Buffalo, New York, moving on to become a machinist at Goldie, McCullough in Galt. During 1940, Jack moved back to Brantford, Ontario where he was a machine operator for the Coshutt Plough Company.

On June 6, 1942, he married Bernice Anderson. Jack had previous military experience, having served for six months in 1940 with the Dufferin and Haldimand Rifles Regiment in the non-permanent active militia, when he enlisted with the RCAF in Hamilton on August 31, 1942. The family moved to Simcoe and on May 14, 1943, son, John Douglas, was born. At 5' 10 1/2" tall and weighing 162 pounds, Jack's hobbies included boxing, baseball, hockey and playing the guitar.

He disembarked for the UK on October 16, 1943. He had hopes of returning home and working for the plow factory after the war. He was the mid-upper gunner of LW 682/M, and was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre 1940 with Palm (Belgium). The following is taken from Canadian Foreign Affairs;

“GERAARDSBERGEN (GRAMMONT) (Nederboelare)
Coming from Brussels or Ostend, take the Wetteren exit (exit 17) off the E40 and take the N42 towards Geraardsbergen. As you enter the town, 500 metres after the railway crossing, there is the monument on your right at the Gabriels gas station (shown below).

The aircraft engine recovered in the area has been placed in the centre of a vertical steel plaque . The name of the aircraft “Halifax LW 682" is burned into the upper right hand corner of the plaque. The names of the crew are in raised lettering on the right: “Joseph Arbour, Wilbur Bentz, Roy Ellerslie, Jack McIntyre, Fred Roach, Clifford Phillips, Jack Summerhayes and Tom Taylor”, together with the date and place of the crash: 'Schendelbeke, 13 May 1944'. The story of the aircraft and its crew appears in Dutch beside the monument.

“The drama at Schendelbeke.In the spring of 1944, the Allied Air Forces organised a large-scale bombing campaign against rail installations in Belgium and northern France in order to prevent the Germans from moving equipment and supplies towards the planned invasion front. Louvain was the target during the night of 12 to 13 May 1944; 120 four engine bombers took part in the raid, most of them with Canadian crews. The formation was attacked by German fighters. On the way back, a German pilot, Major Martin Drewes, shot down three: one over Halle, one at Rhode-Saint-Genèse and the third in this area."

“Halifax LW 682 “M for Mother” went down in the Dendre marshes at 0109 hrs. None of the seven Canadians and one Englishman survived. The German occupation forces buried five, but found no trace of the other three. They disappeared into the mud with the wreck of their aircraft and were considered missing for half a century. Members of the Belgian Aviation History Society, assisted by the fire brigade, the local police and the federal Gendarmerie, organised a recovery operation over the weekend of 6 and 7 September 1997. The operation was funded by 426 Squadron Association and the Government of Canada. The team managed to recover the bodies of Fred Roach, John Summerhayes and Wilbur Bentz from the marshes. It was a relief for the families in Canada to know that their father, brother and uncle were no longer missing. The three bodies were buried in the cemetery at Geraadsbergen on 10 November 1997. The crew, who had trained, flown, fought and died together, could finally rest together.”
The monument was inaugurated on 15 May 1999 by Doug Summerhayes, son of one of the missing men.

Information has been provided by the courtesy of the Veteran Affairs Canada and the Brantford Kinsmen Club.