Edward Carter Eaton (17 September 1898 – 26 June 1918) was a Canadian First World War

flying ace A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ace is varied, but is usually co ...

credited with five confirmed aerial victories.

Biography

Eaton was born in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

, Canada on 17 September 1898.The Aerodrome website page on Eato

Retrieved 20 September 2020 At the time of his enlistment on 11 August 1915, he gave his birth date as 1896. He was 5 feet 6 inches tall, with dark hair and hazel eyes.Attestation paper

Retrieved 20 September 20 Eaton served in France during late 1917 with

No. 65 Squadron RAF No. 65 Squadron was a squadron of the Royal Air Force. First World War The squadron was first formed at Wyton on 1 August 1916 as a squadron of the Royal Flying Corps with a core provided from the training station at Norwich. It served as a trai ...

as a

Sopwith Camel The Sopwith Camel is a British First World War single-seat biplane fighter aircraft that was introduced on the Western Front in 1917. It was developed by the Sopwith Aviation Company as a successor to the Sopwith Pup and became one of the b ...

pilot. In company with a couple of other British pilots, Eaton drove an

Albatros D.III The Albatros D.III was a biplane fighter aircraft used by the Imperial German Army Air Service (''Luftstreitkräfte'') during World War I. A modified licence model was built by Oeffag for the Austro-Hungarian Air Service ( ''Luftfahrtruppen''). T ...

down out of control on 23 November 1917 for his first aerial victory. On 4 January 1918, he sent an

Albatros D.V The Albatros D.V is a fighter aircraft built by the Albatros Flugzeugwerke and used by the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' (Imperial German Air Service) during World War I. The D.V was the final development of the Albatros D.I family and the last Albatro ...

down out of control over

Passendale Passendale () or Passchendaele (; obsolete spelling, retained in English; vls, Passchendoale) is a rural Belgian village in the Zonnebeke municipality of West Flanders province. It is close to the town of Ypres, situated on the hill ridge separ ...

. His next two victories came when he and another British pilot destroyed another D.V on 16 February, and a

Fokker Dr.1 The Fokker Dr.I (''Dreidecker'', "triplane" in German), often known simply as the Fokker Triplane, was a World War I fighter aircraft built by Fokker-Flugzeugwerke. The Dr.I saw widespread service in the spring of 1918. It became famous as the ...

triplane on 20 May. On 28 May, he drove down a German Pfalz D.III out of control to become an ace.''Above the Trenches: a Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the British Empire Air Forces 1915-1920'', p. 146 On 26 June 1918, Eaton was involved in a

dogfight A dogfight, or dog fight, is an aerial battle between fighter aircraft conducted at close range. Dogfighting first occurred in Mexico in 1913, shortly after the invention of the airplane. Until at least 1992, it was a component in every majo ...

, and was shot down and killed by

Fritz Rumey Leutnant Fritz Rumey (3 March 1891 – 27 September 1918) ''Pour le Mérite'', Golden Military Merit Cross was a German fighter pilot in the First World War, credited with 45 victories. He was one of only five German soldiers who won both of ...

. See also

Aerial victory standards of World War I Aerial may refer to: Music * ''Aerial'' (album), by Kate Bush * ''Aerials'' (song), from the album ''Toxicity'' by System of a Down Bands *Aerial (Canadian band) * Aerial (Scottish band) * Aerial (Swedish band) Performance art * Aerial sil ...

Biography

References

Further reading