Son of Stephen and Mary Annie (nee Bartosek) Vasicek, of  R.R.#1 Mull, Ontario, Canada. Brother of Mary Ann, Lloyd, Charles. John was born at Moravia in Czechoslovakia in 1923 and came to Canada with his parents in 1924. He was a student at the Zion public school and Chatham Vocational School for four years. John was a farmer in Harwich Twsp., north of Blenheim.

John enlisted at Windsor, ON in the RCAF 13 Sept. 1941. His mother had passed away in 1940.

John Anthony Vasicek graduated as a Pilot Officer in September, 1942 at RCAF – Montreal at the head of his class.

The CDN 9/09/42 reported that a flight over the Naples district a Canadian flier said, “the whole area of approximately 1,000 square miles was swarming with an invasion fleet”.  FO John Anthony Vasicek 20 year old Spitfire pilot from Chatham, ON. brought back the first eyewitness account of the Allied landings. He flew over the region on his way to a reconnaissance mission after dawn. 

“Through the haze I suddenly I suddenly saw what at first appeared to be a moderately large amount of shipping”, he said. “then as I got closer to the bay I got a more accurate picture and realized the whole area of approximately 1,000 square miles was swarming with an invasion fleet.”

“The ships varied in size from assault barges to warships. The barges were sailing in dozens and dozens of large formations” he said 

It was a calm sea with no whitecaps, so that the straight lines of foam made by the assault flotillas showed very clearly against the blue of the sea 

On his return trip Vasicek saw the invasion fleet again with many more men landed.     

John’s father Stephan was notified in early February, 1944 that his son was missing after operations. He presumed that this was in the Mediterranian theatre of war. He was flying in an RAF squadron for several months assisting in the invasion of Sicily and Italy. CDN 2/02/44(P)

Age: 22, KIA – Date of Death: 18/01/1944. Flying Spitfire fighter EN 504 on reconnaissance flight for the 5^th Army. He crashed south of Garigliano, Italy. The aircraft was seen to go into a spiral dive and F/O Vasicek bailed-out at 100 feet but he made no apparent effort to open his parachute. The crash is believed to have been caused by a lack of oxygen and not due to enemy action.

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Supplemental Information

Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead, Grave/Memorial Reference: IV, K, 2. Cemetery: MINTURNO WAR CEMETERY. “The First 200 Years” by Alvin Armstrong. Index of Overseas Deaths. They Shall Grow Not Old. Blenheim IODE Tablet of Remembrance, MCWI. CDN-Obit (sister Mary Ann) 15/09/14.

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