United Kingdom. Moses Schwartz, known as Moe to his family, was born on the 17th May in Montreal, Quebec, the son of Aaron and Sara Schwartz nee Yankeloritz , who were both immigrants from Romania, his father arriving in Canada in Moses was educated at Mount Royal School, Montreal. While at school he was a keen sportsman playing baseball, football and hockey. He left school at 14 to take up the occupation of clothing cutter in his home city.
He was fluent in English, French and Hebrew. On enlistment he was rated as an above average recruit, and it was noted that he had an ambition to become an air gunner. After initial training in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Moses moved on to No. On completion of the course on the 26th July , Moe joined No.
There he flew almost 24 hours as an air gunner on the Fairey Battle aircraft, completing his course on the 3rd September. During his posting to Mont-Joli Moses was promoted to Sergeant. After two weeks of embarkation leave, Moses was posted to No. On arrival in the United Kingdom Moses was initially posted to No. Just three days later, on the 26th May, Moe joined No. The crew, including Moses as rear gunner, flew their first operation to attack railway yards at Trappes on the outskirts of Paris on the 2nd June On the following day Moe was promoted to Flight Sergeant.
Over the following 6 months Moses and his crew completed a full tour of operations. In June , they raided V-weapon sites. In July and August, more V-weapon sites were on the target list alongside operations against German forces in Normandy including Caen and the Falaise pocket.
September saw a continuation of operations in support of land forces in France but also the crews first deep penetration operations into Germany, with missions to Munster and Kiel. On the 15th October the crew flew an operation to Duisberg but had an uncomfortable return journey when the port outer engine caught fire, forcing a landing at Blyton in Lincolnshire. Three more missions to Germany followed in November and December before Moses and his crew completed their tour. They returned to operations on the 14th February Sadly, the aircraft failed to return, and no trace was found of it or Moses and his six crewmates.
