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Otto Hjalmar Antoft was born 21st February 1919 in Denmark, the son of Hugo Antoft and Asta (née
Rump) Antof. When he was eleven years old, the family emigrated to Canada.. In Nova Scotia, Otto
attended Kentville schools and graduated with honours from Kings County Academy in June 1937,
winning the Stevenson Scholarship to attend King's College. He graduated from university in 1941 with
a BA in Public Administration. After graduating, Antoft had intended to complete a Master's degree, but
the war prevented this. Otto worked as secretary and research assistant in the Nova Scotia House of
Assembly before joining the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1942.. He trained as a navigator and
observer, and was then sent overseas in the summer of 1943. Various advanced training courses
follow before he arrived at No. 1665 (Heavy) Conversion Unit at Royal Air Force (RAF) Station Woolfox
Lodge in Rutland. There he “crewed up†with six other members of the RCAF and RAF. Over
the next several months these men formed close bonds, and all together they were posted to No. 190
Squadron in February 1944, flying the four-engine Short Stirling bomber. They initially operated out of
RAF Station Leicester East, before being relocated to RAF Station Fairford, Gloucestershire, in March.
They underwent intense training in order to support airborne operations before delivering troops of 7th
Parachute Brigade to Normandy for 6th June 1944 – D-Day. During the remainder of the Normandy
campaign, the crew flew 14 missions, delivering supplies to the French resistance and special
operations personnel behind enemy lines. Otto’s final position was navigator in one of the Stirling
aircraft that for five days were towing gliders and dropping supplies to airborne units as part of
Operation Market Garden in Holland. On the first day, the unit carried the pathfinders of the 21st
Independent Parachute Company that marked the landing zones for the first lift. In the following days
the unit was deeply engaged in the re-supply missions. On 21st September, 1944 his plane was shot
down over Holland and Otto was killed. He was initially buried in a small cemetery in the town where
the plane crashed (Zetten, Valburg), the Imperial War Graves Commission later re-interred the remains
of the five airmen in Osterbeek Airborne Cemetery, Arnhem, Holland.
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