richard joseph dick audet spitfire 9 ix rr201

Richard Joseph “Dick” Audet DFC (13 March 1922 – 3 March 1945) was a Canadian fighter pilot ace during World War II. In his first contact with enemy aircraft on 29 December 1944 he destroyed five planes. By the end of January 1945 he had claimed a further five victories and shared a sixth. He was killed in action on 3 March 1945 near Coesfeld, Germany

Audet enlisted for service in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) on 7 August 1941 and received his pilot’s wings in October 1942. He was then posted to the UK. During this time he met and married Iris Gibbins from Northampton

On 20 September 1944, he was transferred to a RCAF Spitfire Unit, 411 Squadron. Later that year on 29 December, piloting a Spitfire IXe he destroyed two Bf 109s and three Fw 190s in five to seven minutes over Osnabrück

On 3 March 1945, he was strafing a German train west of Münster. The train returned fire and Audet’s Spitfire crashed to the ground. There is some uncertainty as to whether he died in the crash or was captured, but his body was never recovered.