New Brunswick’s greatest ever wartime flying ace’s triumphant career defied the odds in a time when most new pilots died within days of entering combat.

New Brunswick’s greatest ever wartime flying ace’s triumphant career defied the odds in a time when most new pilots died within days of entering combat.

His life was cut short by a tragic and potentially preventable death immediately after the war ended, just as he was about to finally go home.

His importance was downplayed after his death, potentially for political reasons, and he is largely forgotten today.

Albert Desbrisay Carter --who went by the nickname “Nick” his whole life-- was born in Point de Bute in Westmorland County, near the Nova Scotian border.

Nick had always been drawn to military life. As a kid he was a cadet, then later a cadet instructor, after which he joined the New Brunswick militia.

He was a university student when the First World War broke out, but immediately dropped out to enlist as a soldier.

He served for 15 months as a machine gunner in the muddy trenches of the Western Front before he was struck by a massive piece of shrapnel from a German shell. 

He was badly cut from his hip down his right thigh, and wound became badly infected and septic. 

He was sent back to New Brunswick for several months to recover. The tone of the doctor who signed him off betrayed that he thought he would never serve again.

He recovered though and returned to Europe in late 1916. On his way back to the front he passed through Shoreham Aerodrome where he immediately fell in love with the idea of flying.

Nick’s decision to request a transfer and become a pilot raised eyebrows. He was high ranking as a Major, and considered too old at his 24 years to become a pilot. He persisted, and his transfer was accepted.

He underwent short training in Britain that was considered vastly inferior to the training the Germans received. 

The difference in quality of training was such that for a time the lifespan of a novice Allied pilot on the front was only 11 days.

In Nick’s very first flight after transferring to the front he went into battle with multiple German aircraft flying superior aircraft.He shot down two German planes.

Nick had a courageous streak and a natural talent for the then new area of flying; only weeks later he shot down three more planes in consecutive flights -- he was now officially an ace pilot. 

Most of his successes were accomplished flying a Sopwith Dolphin, noted for its unusual design. It was a biplane, but the upper wing was set back from the lower.

 The pilot would sit high up, so his head would be protruding from the cockpit on a level that was even with the top wing.

Nick enjoyed a full unencumbered view of the skies, however his head was exposed and prominent, and there was even risk of pilots breaking their necks on the upper wing. There was no enclosed cockpit, not even a windshield.

Like most planes of the time it was built out of wood covered in canvas, with wings of steel.

The Dolphin could reach a top speed of 211 km/h making it one of the fastest planes the Allies had, though still slower than the technologically more advanced German aircraft.

Pilots were expected to navigate with maps, fly their planes, and keep in touch with each other tapping out morse code with wireless telegraphy, all the while being shot at from the ground and hunted by enemy planes. 

Nick continued from success to success, ultimately shooting down 28 German planes, becoming revered as a hero across Canada.

Fighter pilots had reputations as reckless and wild characters, which was encouraged by newspapers and their own governments. 

While Manfred von Richthofen aka The Red Baron painted his plane bright red, Nick painted the nose of his plane bright blue. 

By 1917 the war had dragged on a long and brutal three years and the public was growing weary of it.

To try and encourage support from the public the government encouraged fawning coverage of the heroics of Canadian pilots like Billy Bishop and Alfred “Nick” Desbrisay Carter. 

Nick had a reputation for being very proud of his successes -- the words “unchecked ego” were by fellow pilots to describe him.

In his defence though, in only two years he went from learning to fly at Shoreham Aerodrome to becoming commander in charge of Shoreham Aerodrome.

On May 19th 1918 Albert encountered a German ace named Paul Billik, a rare working class pilot in an Imperial German Air Force that was largely reserved to aristocrats and elites. 

Paul Billik was the leader of a squadron that painted their planes black with white swastikas.

This was long before the Nazis existed, and then the swastika was considered an innocent good luck symbol. Billik, who died in a post-war plane crash before the rise of Nazism, would not have been welcomed by them -- he was Jewish.

Nick spotted Billik’s smaller squadron and the two aces peeled off and chased each low in the sky, behind German lines.Both pilots managed to shoot the other, and both were wounded. 

They continued to fight until Nick’s gun malfunctioned, shooting off the propeller of his own plane.He crash landed behind German lines and was quickly captured.

The Saint John Standard later lamented “if not for this misfortune his name would have gone up for the Victoria Cross.

He was reported missing, presumed dead. The loss of the high ranking ace pilot was a blow to the Canadian public’s morale.

One month later they learned that he was not dead but was in a Prisoner of War camp in Bavaria. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order with a Bar, and the Belgian Croix de Guerre.

He was released after the war’s end, and immediately caught the Spanish Flu Influenza which was sweeping the world, spending more than a month in hospital.

When he was finally released from hospital, Canada now had its own air force, the 123 Squadron, the forerunner of today’s Royal Canadian Air Force.

They were still stationed by the now silent front in case the war erupted again during the long peace negotiations.

Germany had to surrender parts of its air force, which was divided among the Allies. 

The 123 Squadron received brand new German Fokker D.VII’s which were vastly superior to their old Sopwith Dolphins.

On May 22nd 1919 as Albert Desbrisay Carter prepared to take flight in one such plane still bearing Imperial German insignia, a photographer snapped a picture of him smiling in his cockpit just before takeoff. 

An hour later he was dead.He had gone on a mock combat mission with Captain C.F. Flakenberg. 

According to Flakenberg’s testimony they were only 1000 feet above the ground when Nick’s plane’s lower wings broke off and he went crashing into the ground, killing him instantly. 

That conflicted with reports in British newspapers who claimed Nick’s plane had broken apart at 7000 feet and that the 26 year old ace would have survived if he had a parachute -- but had none.

The new all-Canadian squadron was controversial to the British, who wanted Canada to remain a part of a larger British Royal Air Force. 

Perhaps the British newspapers were smearing the Canadians with accusations of incompetence, or perhaps the Canadians covered up a mistake to protect their independence. 

Regardless, Albert “Nick” Desbrisay Carter’s legacy was minimized in the wake of his controversial death, and he is largely forgotten today.

He was outlived by both parents and his sister, who had been expecting him to come home in a matter of days when they received the tragic news.

The Saint John Standard mentioned in his obituary that just as devastated as his family was “thousands of boys all over New Brunswick” who looked up to him and considered him a hero.

More than a century later, Albert Desbrisay Carter still holds the position of 12th greatest flying ace in Canadian history.