Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 39 Warrant Officer I Vincent Albert Fox, of MG-B, was killed in April 1945 when RAF fighters mistakenly attacked a large group of POWs who were on a force march in Germany. Flight Lieutenant Doug Maxwell Cox, DFC, recounted his days as an evader, behind enemy lines, in his story “It Was a Long Walk Home” which was published in the RCAF magazine ‘The Rondel’ in May 1961. After hiding out in a rural area, dressed as a farmer labourer, he contacted the French Resistance. He was hidden in a Paris apartment; however, two attempts to get him back to England by sea failed. Doug did recount the time he and another evader were riding in a train’s passenger car when two Gestapo were checking identifications papers. Fortunately for Doug and his friend, the inspection stopped two seats short of where they were sitting. His final ‘walk’ was across the Pyrenees and into neutral ‘Axis-friendly’ Spain. In early July, he made it to the British Garrison in Gibraltar and arrived back in England on 24 July. Doug was surprised to learn that, during his evasion escapades in France and Spain, he had been promoted to Flight Sergeant and again to Warrant Officer II. He happily collected his back-pay before being repatriated to Canada on 7 September. Doug returned to England in June 1944 and was posted to 433 Squadron, RCAF. He flew another 30 bombing missions between 18 July and 25 October. During that period, he was commissioned to the rank of Pilot Officer. On 15 November 1944, Doug was awarded an ‘immediate’ Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions with 433 Squadron. Doug was released from the RCAF in the summer of 1945 and enrolled in Dalhousie University that fall. After obtaining a BA degree, in 1949, he took his wife and young children to Bordeaux, France, as part of a university training plan. While there Doug made a visit to the grave of his pilot Tommy Tomlinson in the Elan Churchyard. He returned to Canada in 1950 and enrolled in the University of Toronto obtaining a degree in French studies. Doug re-joined the RCAF in 1953, as a navigation officer, and was employed as Language Professor at the College Militaire Royal in St. Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec. Flight Lieutenant Douglas Cox, DFC, was released from the RCAF in 1966 and moved his family to Lunenburg County. Doug taught school in Hebbville and Mahone Bay until his retirement in 1979. Retirement allowed him more time to work his Christmas tree farm. He became a member of the Western Nova Scotia Aircrew Association, the Royal Air Forces Escaping Society (Canadian Branch), Branch 24 Bridgewater RCL and a ‘friend’ of 14 Construction Engineering Squadron, RCAF. Douglas Maxwell Cox, DFC, died on 17 April 2012 at the Veterans’ Unit of Fishermen’s Memorial Hospital in Lunenburg. continued ...
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