Pilot Officer Richard Norman Chap was born on 18 September 1915 in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, USA, the fourth of the five children of Kasimer Frank Chapas ( 1879-1971) and Berenice Chapas née Valiuszevicz (1892-1960). Both his parents had emigrated from Lithuania to the USA in 1905 and 1906 respectively. He and his four siblings all used the surname of Chap.
The American Air Museum in Britain website gives details of his service and this shows that he had been training as a service pilot in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA when in 1940 he went to Canada and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, his service number was J/16637. Initially serving as a Sergeant in the Royal Air Force's No.121 (Eagle) Squadron he transferred to No.250 (Sudan) Squadron. Having been commissioned as a Pilot Officer, he was killed, aged 27 years, on 7 November 1942. The American Air Museum website states he was flying a Hawker Hurricane aeroplane, but this is incorrect. He was flying a Curtiss P-40K Kittihawk MkIII aeroplane, serial number FL877, when it was shot down by Messerschmitt Bf 109 aircraft near Sollum, Egypt.
As he has no known grave, he is commemorated on column 263 of Alamein Memorial, El Alamein, Maṭrūḥ, Egypt, in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website and on Page 64 of the Veteran Affairs Canada Second World War Book of Remembrance.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
