Harold Victor Spicer was born in Wharton, Cumberland County NS, to Hubert and Julia Spicer on 9 July 1918. He was living in West Advocate, where he worked as a truck driver, when he travelled to Moncton to enlist in the RCAF on 13 June 1940. He qualified as an air gunner (AG) on 14 August 1940 and as a wireless operator/air gunner (WAG) 16 March 1941. Sergeant Spicer arrived in England on 21 June 1941, was posted to 407 Squadron, RCAF, on 1 August. He was commissioned to the rank of pilot officer on 25 October. At that time 407 Sqn was a Coastal Strike unit of RAF Coastal Command, and flew Blenheim and Hudson bombers on attacks against enemy shipping between Heligoland and the Bay of Biscay. Pilot Officer Spencer was killed in action during Operation Fuller (also known as “the Channel Dash”). On the night of 11 February, the two enemy ‘pocket battleships’ Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, along with the battle cruiser Prinz Eugen, sailed from the French port of Brest in hopes of making it to the safety of northern German ports. They would have to run the English Channel through the Strait of Dover. Operation Fuller was the British joint navy/air force plan to stop and destroy all three warships once they attempted to run up the channel. Escorted by six destroyers, 26 E-Boats, 14 torpedo boats, 32 bombers and 252 fighter planes the German vessels steamed steadily up the Channel and successfully made it to safety in German waters - albeit with some damage from sea mines. Operation Fuller failed for many reasons: Royal Navy and Royal Air Force operational SOPs that delayed radio reporting; poor flow of information between the RN and the RAF at many levels; willful neglect of war office orders by the head of RAF Bomber Command; a lack of internal coordination at many levels within the RN and RAF; and, human error. The price Coastal and Bomber Command paid for their futile attacks on these battleships was staggering. The RAF lost 48 aircraft, including most of the crews, and another 22 aircraft were badly damaged. The Royal Navy had one destroyer severely damaged, several Motor Torpedo Boats damaged, 6 Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers lost, and 230–250 sailors killed or wounded. Enemy losses were 13 sailors, and 11 pilots killed. www.ns.legion.ca 129 continued ... Flushing (Vlissingen) Northern Cemetery continued ... Sergeant L.H. Chessun (wireless operator/air gunner) RAF, washed up near Zoutelande on 8 August; Flight Sergeant . P.W. Rawcliffe (air gunner) RAF washed up near Zoutelande on 25 September; and Sergeant S. Coulson (bomb aimer) RAF. His body was never recovered, and he is commemorated on panel 80 of the Runnymede Memorial. Pilot Officer Harold Victor Spicer Row D. Grave 29 – 12 February 1942. Age 23. Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion
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