Dunkirk and Battle of Britain Top Gun. WW2 Ace Pilot Officer William McKnight

Bill McKnight emerges as Canada’s early war ace whose remarkable victories and fate define a turbulent aviation era.

In February 1939, 21-year-old medical student William Lidstone McKnight suspended his studies at the University of Alberta to take a Short Service Commission in the RAF. Leaving his Calgary home, he travelled to Britain and joined No. 242 Squadron, composed largely of Canadian pilots. By February 1940 he was flying the Hawker Hurricane.

On 19 May 1940, with 242 Squadron engaged in the air battles over France, Pilot Officer McKnight scored his first victory – a Messerschmitt 109E. By 1 June he had destroyed nine enemy aircraft, with three more unconfirmed. He added two further Me 109s on 14 June, the day he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. This achievement made him the leading Canadian ace of the time, a title he would hold until his death.

When the legendary, legless Squadron Leader Douglas Bader assumed command on 23 June 1940, McKnight continued to excel, claiming another six-and-a-half enemy aircraft and earning a Bar to his DFC—the first Canadian airman to do so. On 5 November 1940 he shared in the destruction of yet another Me 109. McKnight himself claimed twenty-three victories, a figure this book will confirm using his logbook and combat reports.

In early 1941, Fighter Command turned to offensive operations. On 12 January, during one of the first low-level Rhubarb sorties over the Pas-de-Calais, McKnight’s section attacked German troops under heavy fire before encountering Me 109s. His wingman returned safely, but McKnight was never seen again. Whether shot down by fighters or ground fire remains unknown.

In this new book, ‘Bill’s’ first biography, we meet two William Lidstone McKnights. There is ‘Willie’, as he was universally known in the service, the crack shot and leading Canadian fighter ace of the early war period, and ‘Bill’, as he called himself, a complex young person maturing at a violent and difficult time in world history.