Memorial

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The mission of the day was to give support to bombers returning from a bombing mission to Beauvais-Tille airfield.

1st Lt Dale B. Leaf's squadron was engaged in a dogfight with more than twenty German aircraft near Formerie, France. He was last seen to dive straight down, followed by four FW-190s.

According to records of the International Red Cross, Lt Leaf was buried at the Canadian Military Cemetery in Les Vertus, in grave number 782. On 28 and 29 April 1947, an American investigation team conducted a search for several deceased American soldiers at this cemetery. In row H, grave number 61 indicated on a cross that a Lt B. L. Dale O-88233, RAF, was buried there. Exhumation of caskets at this point revealed that there were no remains of a Lt Dale buried there. On one side, grave number 60, the grave contained a casket with the remains of an unknown Canadian soldier. The grave next to this, Number 61, should have been that of Lt. Dale (or Lt Dale B. Leaf). However, the next box in the row contained the remains of a flight sergeant of the RAF. There was no room in the ground for a box containing the remains of Lt Dale (or Lt Dale B. Leaf) as the boxes of the two other soldiers were side by side. The box, which should have contained the remains of Lt Leaf was not there, as indicated by the cross above the ground.

It was heard that the cemetery was originally formed by German occupation troops and later taken over by the French authorities, and in turn by Canadian and British personnel. The coffins were placed side by side in deep graves with no space between them. At some later date, which could not be established, the French removed the crosses from every grave, graded the entire cemetery, and then replaced the crosses along the rows.