Robert Kipp

Born in Kamloops, Kipp joined the RCAF in 1940 and once his flying training was completed, was retained in Canada on instructing duties rather than being assigned to an operational posting.

He spent a period of time on staff duties from July to December before being posted to the Fighter Experimental Unit, with which he achieved more victories.

410 Squadron in 1948, he was killed in a flying accident the following July when his de Havilland Vampire jet fighter crashed at St. Hubert Airbase.

[1][2][3] Kipp's new unit was a Article XV squadron, formed under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, and composed mostly of RCAF flying personnel.

[4] Kipp, by this time promoted to flight lieutenant, was paired with Flying Officer Peter Huletsky as his navigator and on 12 December 1943, the duo, flying a sortie to France with another Mosquito of the squadron, achieved their first aerial victories; they and the crew of the other Mosquito combined to shoot down a Heinkel He 111 medium bomber and also had a half share in the probable destruction of another He 111 south of Bourges Airfield.

Weather affected operations at night for several weeks but Kipp damaged a Messerschmitt Me 410 heavy fighter over an airfield at Münster-Handorf on 14 January.

[1] On a sortie to Øresund, between German-occupied Denmark and Sweden, carried out on 14 April, Kipp and Huletsky were particularly successful, destroying two Junkers Ju 52 transport aircraft that had been adapted to a minesweeping role through the use of degaussing rings.

This intruder mission made Kipp and Huletsky the crew to have flown the single most successful sortie for the squadron and among the Fw 190s that they destroyed was the 100th aerial victory for No.

[2][8] Kipp shot down a Heinkel He 177 heavy bomber on the night of 14 May over an airfield in France, the last nighttime aerial victory for a pilot of the squadron until after the Normandy landings.

On a recent occasion Squadron Leader Kipp flew one of a small formation of aircraft detailed for a mission far into enemy occupied territory.

Success was achieved and by his careful planning and audacious tactics, Squadron Leader Kipp played a prominent part in the results obtained.

[Note 2] The published citation for the DSO read: This officer continues to display the highest standard of skill and gallantry in air operations.

[15] In the final months of the war in Europe, while flying Mosquitos on missions to strafe German airfields, they destroyed several aircraft on the ground in the Mühldorf and Kursheim areas: three Junkers Ju 88 medium bombers, a Messerschmitt Bf 110 heavy fighter, and a Fw 190.

A de Havilland Mosquito of No. 418 Squadron, 1943