• Operation Chastise (Dambusters Raid)

Date of birth:

July 3rd, 1917 (Toronto/Canada, Canada)

Date of death:

May 17th, 1943 (Gilze-Rijen/Noord-Brabant, Nederland)

Buried on:

Commonwealth War Cemetery Bergen op Zoom
Plot: 24. Row: B. Grave: 5-7.

Service number:

R/119416

Nationality:

Canadian

James Lamb Arthur was born in Toronto, Canada, on 3 July 1917, the second of four children. His father was an Anglican clergyman. Arthur excelled in maths at York Memorial College before working at the Bank of Toronto. Passionate about flying, he once waved to his family from a small aircraft. He also loved classical music, taking his sisters to concerts.

He enlisted in the RCAF in 1941, initially training as a pilot before switching to observer, qualifying as a bomb aimer in May 1942. Posted to 106 Squadron in February 1943, he flew his first operation on 12 March, bombing Essen amid heavy flak and searchlights.

The inexperienced bomb aimer with only one operation was posted to 617 Squadron, trained intensively with his crew and was placed in the mobile reserve.

AJ-S was shot down two hours after take-off on 17 May 1943, killing all aboard. The Germans buried Guy Pegler, Bill Long, Tom Jaye, and James Arthur in a communal grave at Zuylen Cemetery, Prinsenhage, alongside individually identified crew members. After the war, all seven were reinterred in Bergen-op-Zoom War Cemetery.

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• Photo 1: Findagrave
• - CWGC
  - Dambusters

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