George Frederick "Buzz" Beurling DSO, DFC, DFM & Bar, RCAF (6 December 1921 – 20 May 1948), was the most successful Canadian fighter pilot of the Second World War.
Beurling was recognized as "Canada's most famous hero of Second World War", as "The Falcon of Malta" and the "Knight of Malta", having shot down 27 Axis aircraft in just 14 days over the besieged Mediterranean island. Before the war ended his total climbed to either 31 or 31 1/3. Beurl...
more
George Frederick "Buzz" Beurling DSO, DFC, DFM & Bar, RCAF (6 December 1921 – 20 May 1948), was the most successful Canadian fighter pilot of the Second World War.
Beurling was recognized as "Canada's most famous hero of Second World War", as "The Falcon of Malta" and the "Knight of Malta", having shot down 27 Axis aircraft in just 14 days over the besieged Mediterranean island. Before the war ended his total climbed to either 31 or 31 1/3. Beurling's wartime service was terminated prior to war's end. In an attempt to continue combat flying in the postwar era, Beurling lost his life in a crash en route while delivering an aircraft to Israel.
Born in Verdun (now part of Montreal), Quebec, Beurling first took the controls of an aircraft in 1933 and was flying solo by 1938. He left school to work for an air freight company out of Gravenhurst, Ontario and soon gained a commercial license. He had intended to go to China, but was imprisoned for a few months for illegally crossing the...
less
