Hubert Hatfield was born on 9th February 1915 at Beauharnois, Quebec, Canada. When he enlisted for RCAF service is not yet known. Once in the UK he had joined a settled 433 Squadron Wellington crew in mid-1943 (probably comprising of Higgs, Poole, Smith and McGregor) when their original pilot left the squadron. Later, after further training with his new crew they were posted to 432 Squadron. He flew his first operational flight on 2nd July 1943. 432 Squadron were based at Skipton on Swale at the time but soon after 432 Squadron moved to East Moor.
He and his crew were then posted to 1679 Heavy Conversion Unit in early October 1943 for conversion to fly Lancasters, after this conversion training was complete they returned to 432 Squadron. On 26th November 1943 he and crew flying in Lancaster DS832, accompanied by F/S Demaria as a second pilot, tasked with bombing Berlin. F/O Hatfield and crew bombed Berlin again on 2nd December 1943 without incident and no second pilot this time. In the records relating to the baling out of Lancaster DS832 on the night of 16th / 17th December 1943 he is listed as being uninjured, however recollections of the navigator stated that he broke his leg in a bad landing in a village near the crash site.
If he did sustain leg injuries in the bad landing then he was almost certainly admitted to Northallerton's Friarage Hospital. The squadron records do not state any injury or him leaving the squadron at this date as would normally occur. The squadron records state that he was posted out of 432 Squadron on 17th January 1944 to R.Depot. R.Depot was where airmen were posted to await repatriation so it appears that after his time with 432 Squadron he was posted back to Canada. He survived the War, returned to Canada, married and had a daughter. He died at Salmon Arm, British Columbia on 11th March 2009.