The Desert Hawk: The True Story of J.F. “Stocky” Edwards, Canada’s World War II Flying Ace

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

Born June 5, 1921, on a farm near Nokomis, Saskatchewan, Jim Edwards
wanted to respond immediately to Canada’s call to arms in 1939, but
his military branch of choice, the RCAF, required a high-school diploma,
so Jim reluctantly remained in school to complete Grade 12.

Hehner’s very readable biography, which is chronological in
structure, follows Jim from the beginning of his flight training,
through his overseas postings connected to the North African, Italian,
and European campaigns during World War II, into his postwar RCAF roles
(including that of being one of Canada’s first jet pilots) and,
ultimately, his retirement. An exceptional fighter pilot and leader,
Stocky Edwards was, at war’s end, a wing commander and the recipient
of the Distinguished Flying Medal and the Distinguished Flying Cross and
Bar. Stocky’s shooting skills, honed during childhood while hunting
game birds, served him well as a fighter pilot, and he was officially
credited with downing 17 enemy aircraft while surviving 373 combat
sorties and a crash landing.

Neither Hehner nor Stocky glorifies his aerial dogfights, with Stocky
choosing to acknowledge them as a necessary evil to stop a greater evil.
In addition to a map showing Stocky’s wartime theatres of operation,
the book is illustrated with 23 black-and-white photos (many of them
family snapshots) and a drawing of a “Finger Four” fighter plane
formation. Recommended.