| Rank | Flight Lieutenant (Pilot) |
| Service # | J/7746 |
| Unit # | RCAF, 407 Sqdn. Demon Sqd., Long Range Patrol |
Son of Ivan N. Pritchard and Leta M. Pritchard, of Selkirk St., Chatham, Ontario, Canada.
It was reported in the CDN 27/10/42 that Beverly was promoted to the rank of Flying Officer. He had received training at Picton, NS., Trenton, Verdun and received his Wings at Brandon, MN. He later took a navigation course in PEI and went overseas in January 1941 where he entered the RAF Coastal Command, serving in the ‘Demon Squadron’.
“One of the jobs of the squadrons to harass German shipping in the North sea. The ‘Demon Squadron’ is composed of an intrepid bunch of flyers and often attacks German shipping with such vengeance that the planes come back to their station with mastheads and ships riggings hanging on the wings.” CDN 29/10/42(P)
An article appeared in the Moosejaw Times Herald newspaper “Canuck Pilots in Thick of Sub Fighting”, written by Alan Randal, Canadian Press, dateline 31/05/43. Reporting on the efforts of Canadian flyers fighting the “Nazi submarines”. RAF Coastal Command reported that February of 1943 was “one of the best months the Command has known”, with more submarines attacked and believed destroyed.
Canadians flying with the RAF’s “407 Demon Squadron had been “chalking up victories of their own” and featured “Flying Officer Bev Pritchard, a gangling piano-playing pilot from Chatham, Ont., got one.”
While on a hunting mission in the Bay of Biscay with FO. Ron Finlayson (Navigator), Flt. Sgt. Al Johnson, Flt Sgt. Tommy Main, Flt. Lt. Cameron. “Pritchard explained a submarine has only two alternatives when it comes under attack by a Coastal Command craft – it can stay up and shoot it out or dive in a hurry.”
“Usually” said Pritchard, “you see a submarine about the same time they see you.” The attacked a large black object on the surface of the water, and that it was submerging. The crew was well trained and each member of the crew tended to his job during an attack. “The pilot drops the depth charges himself, and in this case we dropped them just ahead of where the swirl showed the conning tower had disappeared”. “If we didn’t get him we certainly shook hi up a bit,” Finlayson.
The attack on the submarine did not mean the end of the mission, Pritchard and his crew had only been out a couple of hours. They still had hours to go to cover their patrol area.
It’s not known if Beverly was flying Wellington bomber MP 622 on his last mission but it is known that WO. Tommy Main and WO. Allan A Johnson were lost with Flt. Lt. Pritchard. TSGNO.
Age: 23, DOAA – Date of Death: 13/08/1943. In Wellington bomber MP 622, and a Halifax bomber collided in mid-air and crashed 2 miles SE. of Milton, Hampshire, England. All of the crew was lost.
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