HEWITT, CPL HOWARD Reg. # R 177021

R.C.A.F.

405 Squadron

Canadian Army Overseas

Howard Edward Hewitt was born July 16, 1918 in Burks Falls the son of Francis ‘Frank’ and Annie Amelia ‘Minnie’ (White) Hewitt. 

Howard married Muriel Elizabeth Hyde March 13, 1944 in England.

In 1949 and 1958, Howard was identified in Magnetawan.

He died Nov. 1, 1988 in Toronto and buried at Spence.

Howard and Muriel had a cottage on Whitestone Lake in later years.

Howard was one of the service men to whom Godfrey Grunig’s students wrote. Howard’s responses follow.

Wikipedia provides the following description of 405 Squadron:

“No. 405 Squadron RCAF was formed at Driffield, Yorkshire, on 23 April 1941 as an Article XV squadron and equipped with the Vickers Wellington bomber. It flew the RCAF's first bombing operation ten weeks later on 12/13 June, attacking the railway marshalling yards at Schwerte. It converted to the Handley Page Halifax in April 1942, taking part in the historic 1,000-bomber raid on Cologne on the night of 30/31 May 1942.^[2]

In late October 1942, the squadron was loaned to Coastal Command to fly anti-submarine patrols in the Bay of Biscay at the time of the North African landings.^[2]

Returning to Bomber Command at the beginning of March 1943, the squadron flew with No. 6 Group RCAF for short time before being selected for the elite No. 8 (Pathfinder) Group based at Gransden Lodge Airfield, with which it served until the end of the war. Through the last 20 months of the bomber offensive the squadron was equipped with the Avro Lancaster.

The squadron's last operational mission took place on 25 April 1945 when nine Lancasters bombed the Berghof, and four aircraft bombed enemy gun batteries on island of Wangerooge. The squadron was disbanded on 5 September 1945.^”