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ALG Wormhout was the Advanced Landing Ground home base of 'B' Flight, 665 (AOP) Squadron RCAF, which operated from April to June, 1945 during Second World War. The base was located twelve miles southeast of Dunkirk, France.
Advanced Landing Grounds (ALGs) were temporary advance airfields constructed by the Allies during World War II during the liberation of Europe. They were built in the UK prior to the invasion and thereafter in northwest Europe from 6 June 1944 to V-E Day, 7 May 1945.
No. 665 "Air Observation Post" Squadron, RCAF was formed in England during the Second World War. It was manned principally by Royal Canadian Artillery (RCA) and Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) personnel, with select British artillery pilots briefly seconded to assist in squadron formation. Numbers 651 to 663 Squadrons of the RAF were Air Observation Post units working closely with Army units in artillery spotting and liaison. A further three of these squadrons – Nos. 664, 665 and 666 – were RCAF AOP squadrons manned by Canadian and British personnel.
World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.
For more than six weeks, the five Auster Mark V aircraft of 'B' Flight operated from ALG Wormhout. Initially, the aircraft were tasked with directing Czech Army artillery gunfire onto targets in the Dunkirk area. After the surrender of Dunkirk on May 9, 1945, the Flight was tasked with communication and VIP flight duties in support of First Canadian Army.
The Taylorcraft Auster was a British military liaison and observation aircraft produced by the Taylorcraft Aeroplanes (England) Limited company during the Second World War.
The First Canadian Army was a field army and the senior formation of the Canadian Army that served on the Western Front from July 1944 until May 1945 during the Second World War.
Royal Canadian Artillery Captain Horace Trites was the Flight Commander of 'B' Flight, 665 (AOP) Squadron, RCAF; the other four pilots in the Flight included Captain Jean-Louis Lamy, Captain Beverly Dane Baily, Captain Bill Milliken, and Captain F.R.'Ray' Irwin.
Captain Irwin and his observer, Gunner R.D. 'Ray' Knight, are credited with having been the last Canadians to fire a hostile shot in the European theatre of Second World War, on May 7, 1945.[ citation needed ]
