Charley Fox
Charles W. Fox (born in
1920 in
Guelph, Ontario) is a former
flight lieutenant in the
Royal Canadian Air Force in
World War II.
Fox, the son of an
Irish immigrant, joined the RCAF in
1939 at the beginning of the war (his brother Ted joined the
Royal Canadian Artillery). He graduated near the top of his class in
1941 and was offered a job as a flight instructor in
Dunnville, Ontario. He remained in this position until
1943 when he began combat training in
Bagotville, Quebec. He flew
Spitfires over Europe, destroying or damaging 153 enemy vehicles (mostly trains), and was awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross (with bar).
In 1944, he began his tour of duty with the Canadian 412 Squadron. On
D-Day he flew three patrols off the coast of
France. On
July 17,
1944, he flew from the Allied air base at
Beny-sur-Mer in
Normandy and strafed an unknown black car; he later learned that one of the passengers was German
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, who was seriously injured in the attack. The
Americans also claimed to have hit Rommel's car, but German reports specifically mentioned a Spitfire rather than an American
P-47. As Rommel was soon afterwards implicated in the
assassination plot against
Adolf Hitler, he was allowed to commit suicide and his death was announced as a result of injuries from the air attack. In
2004 Fox was officially credited with injuring Rommel, although he has expressed some regret about the attack, as Rommel was supposedly planning to secretly negotiate an earlier end to the war with the Allies.
Fox ended his tour of duty in January, 1945, and served in the 420 Reserve after the war. He retired in
1956 and began to work at a shoe factory, from which he retired in
1998. On
April 30,
2004, was named honorary
colonel of 412 Squadron in
Ottawa.
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Biography from Spitfire Emporium
