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Dance, John James

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Personal Information

Rank F/O
Forename(s) John James
Surname Dance
Gender M
Age 20
Date of Death 23-10-1943
Next of Kin Son of Lawrence Aloysuis Dance and Catharine Nora Dance (née Tahany), of Toronto, Ontario
DANCE JJ

Aircraft Information

Aircraft Handley Page Halifax V
Serial Number EB218
Markings IP-N

Memorial Information

Burial/Memorial Country United Kingdom
Burial/Memorial Place Runnymede Memorial
Grave Reference Panel 173.
Epitaph

IBCC Memorial Information

Phase 2
Panel Number 152

Enlistment Information

Service Number J/22617
Service Royal Canadian Air Force
Group 6
Squadron 434 (Bluenose)
Squadron Motto In excelsis vincimus (We conquer in the heights)
Trade Air Bomber
Country of Origin Canada

Other Memorials

Location Village Green, Tholthorpe, North Yorkshire
Country United Kingdom
Memorial Type Memorial Stone with inscribed Metal Plaque and Maple Tree
Memorial Text A memorial to those Canadians who served at RCAF Tholthorpe during WW2, including 434 Sqn RCAF
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Location Former Control Tower, old Tholthorpe airfield site, North Yorkshire
Country United Kingdom
Memorial Type Inscribed Metal Plaque
Memorial Text A memorial to those Canadians who served at RCAF Tholthorpe during WW2, including 434 Sqn RCAF
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Miscellaneous Information

John was born on 25 October 1922 in Toronto. His father, a Salesman, was born in Toronto and was deceased by the time John enlisted. His mother was born in Orillia, Ont. He has two married sisters. The schools John went to were St. Anthonye 1929- 1936 and Bloor Collegiate Institute 1936-1940. (Junior Matric). John enjoyed several sports including baseball, hockey, tennis, basketball and softball. He worked as a Post Office Messenger for Canada Post Office between 1940 and 1942 when he joined the RCAF.
He enlisted on 23 March 1942 and after training embarked for the U.K. on 3 February 1943. He arrived at 3 PRC on 13 February 1943, then went to 9 (0) AFU 12 April 1943, 20 OTU 18 May 1943, 1664 CU 1 August 1943, and 434 Squadron 27 August 1943. He was lost a little under two months afterwards.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

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Fellow Servicemen

Please note that this list gives all the losses aboard the quoted aircraft and occasionally these may have occurred on an earlier date when the aircraft was not itself lost. Please check the dates of death carefully.

Brown C P (F/S)
Farr H P (F/O)
Fry A F (F/S)
Guay F J (F/S)
Thornley D L (Sgt)
Watson F B (WO2)

Last Operation Information

Start Date 22-10-1943
End Date 23-10-1943
Takeoff Station Tholthorpe
Day/Night Raid Night (32% moon)
Operation Kassel. 569 aircraft, 43 losses (7.6%), due to the German controller correctly assessing that the raid was on Kassel. Blind H2S marking overshot the target but 8 out of 9 visual markers were accurate. German decoy markers drew off some of the main force but otherwise the raid was exceptionally accurate and concentrated leading to a firestorm. Over 26000 homes were destroyed and a further 26000 damaged. Some 63% of housing in the city became unusable, resulting in 100-120,000 people being displaced. The number of industrial, public and military buildings destroyed are too numerous to list Of particular note, however, was that the railway system was badly damaged and the three Henschel factories which produced the V1 bomb were all seriously damaged. This certainly pegged back the V1 deployment capability significantly. The number of dead was around 5600
Reason for Loss Lost without trace

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Casualty Pack

IBCC is delighted to introduce a unique facility to link the Losses Database to the relevant RAF Casualty Pack on the National Archives website. This project is the result of on-going collaboration between IBCC, the MOD Records Office and National Archives, Kew. This document describes what Casualty Packs are, when they were created, the process of making them available to the public and then goes on to describe the process by which you can view the contents of the packs. Casualty Packs (CPs) were created by the RAF whenever there was serious injury or loss of life associated with operational activity within the RAF. This includes operational flying losses, enemy action due to air raids, road accidents either on station or even off-station if they involved RAF vehicles. Deaths due to natural causes in service or accidents that did not involve RAF vehicles did not generally give rise to a CP.

CPs were originally given a unique reference number by the RAF. Each begins with the letter ‘P’ and is followed by six digits, then an oblique (forward slash) and the finally the year in which the incident took place- for example P396154/42.

The CPs are in the process of being made available to the general public as they are passed from the MOD Records Office, Portsmouth to National Archives, Kew. This process requires some rework to the files which is very time consuming, so the process of making them all available to National Archives will take several years. They are being made available in increasing date order.

Once CPs arrive at National Archives they are assigned a unique AIR81 number, so each CP has both a P-number and an AIR81 number. Both are searchable on the National Archives website under ‘Search the catalogue’ and both are included on the IBCC website.

The AIR81 reference on the IBCC website is a link to the file on the National Archives website. When you click on it, the relevant page will open in a new tab on your browser.

There is currently no plan to digitise AIR81 files, partly because they are fragile and partly because the information they contain can at times be sensitive, even harrowing, since they may contain exhumation reports and even photographs of corpses. Family members wishing to read the AIR81 files relating to their ancestors are advised to exercise caution and be guided by National Archives warnings where appropriate.

There are two means for accessing AIR81 files- to attend in person or to order a copy by post.

To attend in person, the attendee should first create a Reader’s Ticket. This can be done online by following this link: https://secure.nationalarchives.gov.uk/login/yourdetails. Then click on the AIR81 reference on the IBCC website and click Order in Advance. Enter your Reader’s Ticket number and state the date on which you intend to visit. National Archives will have the file ready for you when you arrive, saving you time. When you visit Kew, you must quote the Reader’s Ticket number and take along two forms of ID- one bearing your signature and one bearing your address. When you view the files, you are permitted to take photographs of each page, should you wish.

Alternatively, if you wish to order a copy by post, please be aware that there is a charge for this service based on the number of pages in the file. Click on the AIR81 reference on the IBCC website and then click Request a Copy. There is an £8.40 charge for National Archives staff to access the file and give you a quotation for the copying service. The process takes around 24 days to complete and can be expensive.

IBCC wishes to thank the staff at the MOD Records Office and National Archives for their engagement and assistance in making this facility available to our website users.