This Canadian Survived WW II, But Didn't Make It Home-- Part 2: Plane Crashed While Carry POWs

After that telegram, Stanley and Loretta Hilchey were devastated, says their grandson , Bruce Hilchey.  Bruce's father is  Glyn Hilchey, Ray Hilchey's only surviving brother.

Ray Hilchey, 22, served as navigator  with Royal Air Force Squadron 514.    While the war was technically over, on May 9 his squadron was in the sky as part of an effort to repatriate tens of thousands of prisoners of war in Europe, according  to the book "Nothing Can Stop Us:  The Definitive History of the 514 Squadron RAF."

Now with nothing left to bomb,  the massed fleet of planes in the Bomber Command was put to good use flying Allied POWs home.

This did not go completely smooth.  Under Operation Exodus, the squadron's first task was for ten aircraft to pick up liberated POWs in Juvincourt, France.

Hilchey, along with six other crew members and 24 POWs took to the air at 12:15 pm local time for RAF Waterbeach, about 100 kilometers north of London.  Within ten minutes,  a message was sent from the plane that they would have to make an emergency landing.  

It circled  the Roye-Any Airfield twice and then crashed.   Every one on board died.  Their bodies were buried at  the Clichy  Northern Cemetery, in the northern part of Paris.

--GreGen