Raymond Collishaw
Source: Web (cahf.ca)
Military • Historical Archive • 🇨🇦 Canada • 0 views

Raymond Collishaw 🇨🇦

Air Vice-Marshal Raymond Collishaw (Known as "Black Flight Leader")
Second-Highest Canadian Flying Ace of WWI, Leader of the Black Flight
Born Nov 22, 1893 🇨🇦 Nanaimo (British Columbia), Canada
Passed Away Oct 02, 1976 West Vancouver (British Columbia), Canada
Lifespan 82 years old
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"In the air, speed and instant decision are the difference between life and eternity."

Archival Overview

Naval aviator and second-highest Canadian fighter ace of World War I, who shot down sixty enemy aircraft and commanded the famous all-Canadian 'Black Flight' of Sopwith Triplanes.

Biographical Record

Collishaw grew up in Nanaimo and served in the Canadian Fisheries Protection Service before joining the Royal Naval Air Service in 1916. In 1917, he formed and led No. 10 Naval Squadron's 'Black Flight', whose five black-cowled Sopwith Triplanes downed eighty-seven enemy aircraft in just three months.

Collishaw survived numerous dogfights with Manfred von Richthofen's Flying Circus, finishing the war with sixty victories. Remaining in the Royal Air Force, he pioneered mobile desert air tactics in North Africa against Italian forces during World War II, retiring as Air Vice-Marshal.

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial
Capilano View Cemetery
West Vancouver, Canada
GPS: 49.3333, -123.1500
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