Barry Morgan-Dean loved life. It was obvious from his smile and the twinkle in his eyes--and from his awesome sense of adventure. He was plucky--the kind of kid who, in the mid-1930s, drove an old open Ford thousands of miles from his home in Kansas City, Missouri back to his native British Columbia; who raced to the local airport to earn his private pilot's license as soon as he was old enough; and who, in 1937, sailed for England to join the RAF.

Morgan-Dean trained with 11 FTS at RAF Wittering. He earned his wings in 1938, and was assigned to fly bombers with 103 Squadron. When World War II began in September 1939, 103 Squadron left for France as part of the Advance Air Strike Force. Before leaving, the base priest administered the last rites to Morgan-Dean and other Roman Catholics in the squadron.

The war got off to a slow start. The first few months didn't bring daily encounters with the enemy. Morgan-Dean flew reconnaissance missions and dropping leaflets over enemy lines. Delighted in shaking hands with First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill as he toured the various bases in France; thrilled at meeting Charles Boyer in a Paris bar, and enjoyed an occasional leave back in England.

In early May 1940, Morgan-Dean was called back from such a leave. The AASF needed every man to counter the German offensive through the Low Countries that began on 10 May.

Late on the afternoon of 12 May, Flight Officer Morgan-Dean took off from Betheniville in Fairey Battle L5512 for a low-level bombing run against German tanks near Bouillon. His gunner was 21-year-old Aircraftsman First Class H.B. Sewell, from Wolverhampton. Two other planes made up the three-plane formation. Morgan-Dean never reached Bouillon. Six miles south of Sedan, he encountered heavy flak.

The Vancouver Sun carried a front-page story the next day. Morgan-Dean was ìmissing in action, presumed to have lost his life. The Air Ministry confirmed his family's worst fears in early 1944: A search crew had found wreckage from his plane at Les Epinettes, near Sedan. Beside it was an unmarked grave.

Of the three planes in Morgan-Dean's formation that fateful day in 1940, only one returned to base. Four men gave their lives in the cause of freedom. Morgan-Dean and his gunner, A.C. H.B. Sewell; Pilot Officer E.E. Morton, and LAC A.S. Ross. (Morgan-Dean and Sewell rest in a small churchyard in Haraucourt, Ardennes.)

The wreckage a Fairey Battle which was almost certainly the aircraft flown by F/O Morgan-Dean which crashed near Haraucort on the 12th May 1940. Photo: Imperial War Museum Neg No HU31472.

Acknowledgements:
Many thanks to Janene Zaccone for writing this piece and providing the contact, information and photograph from the Morgan-Dean family in Canada. We are also grateful to the Morgan-Dean family their co-operation.

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