Richard_vanB
Recruit
- 7
- Aug 29, 2025
Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules
Thank you. What means ORB? 2P stands for second pilot. i thought that a Dakota has been used as a transportplane and not for reconaissance? Or am i mistaking? and 437 squadron was raised on 14 september. The Tozer named on my photo flew on 13 september.I have the 437 Sq ORB and there is a F/O G.R. Tozer 143290 listed as (2P) which I imagine is co-pilot and flew in Dakota Mk.llls
i find something: 289 130944 R4/832 7600 1 Cdn. A.P.I.S. Tozer 15. he flew some missions. Also on a canadian website:ORB- Operations Record Book. The brief look-over I have given show the Daks flying freight and mail into Europe and returning with wounded, etc. I'll go over it again but Tozer doesn't show up until at least the 3rd week in Sept. '44 The book starts on Sept 04 '44. The last name and serial number are the same and he was not assigned to one Dakota, always 2P. Once we get into October, the squadron typewriter is having a melt down so its a little hard to read what's typed
perhaps he was RAF-pilot? his id-nr is RAF 143290?The first mention of F/O Tozer I can find is for Sept.18 '44 Operation Market Garden, D+1. They were a glider tug and he was 2P
Thanks. it seems that this pilot is the pilot who flew also the reconnaissance mission on 13 september. Probably whit a spitfireA copy of 437 on Sept. 16-18
....and the first mention I could find of Tozer
thanks, he flew also above The Hague. He was a RAF pilot? kis that correct?Flight Lieutenant Gerald Grahame TOZER DFC 108837 Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, No.IV(AC) Squadron RAF in Spitfire PR.XI PL796 conducted eight photographic runs over the city of Boulogne in France, which was still held by the Germans at that time.
Reason for the photos going through 1 Canadian APIS was that No.35 (Recce) Wing RAF which the Squadron was a part of, provided aerial reconnaissance support to 1st Canadian Army and it was units of the Canadian Army holding the perimeter encircling Boulogne at the time and the photographic request for the sortie came from the Canadian Army units involved.
So not the Flying Officer Tozer who was co-pilot on Dakotas.
It is 1st Canadian Air Photo Interpretation SECTION. As I have pointed out above, they were attached to No.35 (Recce) Wing, 84 Group, 2nd Tactical Air Force, supporting 1st Canadian Army.I've got more information from the canadian war museum:
he 1st Cdn A.P.I.S. was an Air Photo Interpretation Service, not a squadron. The two most likely squadrons to be involved in a reconnaissance flight at that time would be 414 and 430 Squadrons. 414 were flying Spitfire Mk. IX aircraft at that time, and 430 were flying Mustang Mk. I aircraft. Each squadron has a history [see references below]; neither mentions an officer named "Tozer".
There is a "G.R. Tozer, F/O, (2P) RAF143290, (Sep 44 - Dec 44)" listed on the "437 Squadron Names of Personnel" site. However, that squadron was a transport squadron formed in Sept. 14 and first used in action that on the 17th at Arnhem towing gliders behind Dakota (DC-3) aircraft. It would have been difficult for a pilot to make the transition between a single-engined aircraft like the Spitfire or Mustang to a twin-engine aircraft like the Dakota.
F/O Tozer of 437 Squadron might not be the same as the Tozer of the 1st Cdn APIS. The name on the photograph might be the name of an analyst in the APIS, not the pilot.
In summary, it seems likely that the squadron involved in the flight over The Hague on September 13, 1944, was from either 424 Squadron (in which case, a Spitfire Mk. IX) or from 430 Squadron (a Mustang Mk. I). You might be able to get more information from Library and Archives Canada (LAC) related to those two squadrons.
so the question remains: who flew on 13 september 1944 a reconnaissance mission above The Hague!