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Jake 'Fritz' Giacomelli
Jake 'Fritz' Giacomelli
| The images and text featured on this page have been sent to me from Dave Giacomelli and I have reproduced them here with his kind permission. |
Jake was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada 9 Nov 1920 and his parents had come to Canada from the Marche district of Italy before WW1. He was a star athlete in high school and broke all inter-school pole vaulting records. He also was a talented football player and tried out for the Hamilton Tiger Cats football club after the war.
He trained in Canada as an Air Observer at Toronto's No 1 Air Observer School, at Jarvis, Ontario at No 1 Bombing and Gunnery School where he received his 'wing' and at No 2 Air Navigation School at Pennfield Ridge, New Brunswick.
After arrival in England in April 1942 he underwent further training including the Advanced Flying Unit at Dumphries and No 14 Operational Training Unit at Cottesmore where he met his operational tour pilot, Laurie Blair. From here they went to 1657 Heavy Conversion Unit where the crew formed up. They arrived on 149 Sqn in December 1942, just after one of the squadron members F/Sgt Middleton had been posthumously awarded the VC. After his squadron service in June 1943, which included the Battle of the Ruhr, he instructed on radar for over a year at 1651 Heavy Conversion Unit at Waterbeach and Wratting Common. He was commissioned during this period and volunteered for a second tour. He returned briefly to Canada in Aug 1944 to marry. This time he crewed up as the bomber aimer with an all-Canadian crew and served with 419 Sqn of the RCAF's 6 Group based at Middleton St. George in Yorkshire. They flew the Canadian built Lancaster Mk X. When the war ended they flew the Lancasters back to Canada. Upon take off from the Azores they lost an engine and almost crashed, but they eventually made it safely back. Fritz had volunteered for the Tiger Force to bomb Japan, but the atomic bomb ended the war.
Post-war he worked for the Canadian Post Office, became a postmaster and retired as the public relations officer at the main branch of the Hamilton Post Office. He married Jean Anderson Buist of Toronto and they had two sons, David and Patrick.
He enjoyed fishing and bird hunting, but his real love was training
and judging dogs. At one point he was unquestionably the most sought after obedience judge in North America. Almost every weekend he was away judging either in Canada or the USA. He also wrote a monthly column on dog obedience training for a national magazine.
He retired at age 55 to pursue his hobby more fully, but died young at age 60 in May 1981.
This website was designed and developed by Darren Norton, Brandon, Suffolk