John McElroy was a highly experienced Canadian pilot. His military career began in the Canadian infantry before he subsequently enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1940. He initially served with 54 Squadron and in the spring of 1942 he joined 249 Squadron RAF in Malta, together with George Beurling. During the defense of Malta, he shot down five German aircraft and was awarded the DFC. He later claimed two more German aircraft over Normandy in June 1944 and one more a month later, receiving a bar to his DFC. He eventually ended the war with a total of 13 enemy aircraft destroyed.
At a loose end after the war, McElroy was recruited specifically to fly the IAF Spitfires because of his considerable experience on the aircraft. He joined 101 Squadron.
In the first dramatic encounter with the RAF on 7th January 1949 he, together with American pilot Chalmers “Slick” Goodlin, engaged four enemy fighters, assuming that they were Royal Egyptian Air Force Spitfires. McElroy shot down one of them and Goodlin shot down another.
Later, in the afternoon in the fourth clash, four IAF planes, led by Ezer Weizman, spotted twelve enemy planes. In the engagement McElroy downed one and the American Bill Schroeder downed the second. The third volunteer pilot in Weizman’s flight was a Jewish American, Caesar Dangott. This made McElroy’s score of two for the day.
The fifth RAF plane downed that day fell to an 82nd battalion tank machine gunner, British non-Jewish volunteer Johnny Dawson (Burrows).
Source: South Africa’s 800 by Henry Katzew
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