Vincent Sanford Maccausland

Vincent Sanford MacCausland was born on 1 February 1913 in Tyne Valley, Prince Edward Island, Canada, the son of Burns and Edith MacCausland, and worked as a schoolteacher before enlisting in the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1940. Trained first as an observer and then as a bomb aimer, he completed an operational tour with No. 57 Squadron in late 1941, was commissioned, and spent more than a year as an instructor before returning to No. 57 Squadron in March 1943, keen to fly a second tour. On 14 April 1943 he was posted to the newly formed No. 617 Squadron at RAF Scampton, joining the crew of Squadron Leader Henry “Dinghy” Young as bomb aimer. On the night of 16/17 May 1943, during Operation Chastise, he flew in Lancaster ED887/G (“AJ-A”), the fourth aircraft to attack the Möhne Dam; his accurately delivered Upkeep mine struck home and opened the initial breach in the dam wall. On the return flight AJ-A was hit by anti-aircraft fire as it crossed the Dutch coast and came down in the sea, killing all seven men aboard. MacCausland’s body was washed ashore on 27 May 1943, together with those of crewmates Lawrence Nichols and Gordon Yeo, and he is buried in Bergen General Cemetery in the Netherlands (Plot 2, Row D, Grave 3).