R.A.F. OPERATIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 33, 7 August 1940, Page 11

R.A.F. OPERATIONS

WELL-KNOWN GISBORNE MAN

KILLED

Advice has been received by Mr. and Mrs. E. A. Collett, of Clifford Street, Gisborne, of the death in air operations with the Royal Air Force, of their younger son, Squadron Leader Wilfred Ira Collett.

The late Squadron Leader Collett, who before the war saw service with the Royal Air Force in England, India, and Egypt, was educated at the Gisborne High School. He "gained his first flying experience with the Hawke's Bay Aero Club, Hastings, before he left to train in England in 1933. As a pilot officer he was transferred to Ammam in Transjordania, and later to Egypt. When he was home in New Zealand on leave in 1937 he was with No. 45 Squadron, near Cairo. During the Italian invasion of Abyssinia he flew a good deal in the Sudan and at times up to the Libyan border. He saw a lot of fighting during riots in Jerusalem when the squadron was running mails between Egypt and Palestine. In 1936 he took part in an aerial survey of Cyprus, and in January, 1937, was in a reinforcement flight to the North-west Frontier of India. He was on duty in Egypt as an instructor at the outbreak of war and rejoined, the R.A.F. in that capacity. Squadron Leader Collett has been engaged in activities against the enemy, and was one of the New Zealand pilots who took part in the initial raid on the Kiel Canal and Wilhelmshaven. Later he was in the air battle near Heligoland and in long and arduous bombing and reconnaissance work along the coastline of Norway. Latterly he had seen equally arduous times over the Low Countries, and the northern French battlefields.

During his furlough, in New Zealand he married Doreen, third daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Nicol, Gisborne, I who accompanied him back to Egypt. He also leaves a - five-months-old daughter. SERIOUS INJURY. The following casualty was announced yesterday:—

Sergeant C. B. G. Knight, D.F.M., R.N.Z.A.F., seriously injured in flying accident. Mother: Mrs. Knight, Otago Street, Picton.

1 Biographical details of Sergeant Knight supplied by the Director of Publicity are as follows:—Sergeant Knight was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal in February of this year for gallantry and devotion to duty, being the first airman or n.c.o. of the Royal New Zealand Air Force to receive a decoration. He is the son of Mrs. K. E. Knight, Picton, and is 28 years of age. Formerly a corporal in the Nelson-Marlborough Mounted Rifles, he transferred to the R.N.Z.A.F. in 1937. Previously he was employed with the Post and Telegraph Department at Seddon.

i In February, 1939, Sergeant Knight was sent to the United Kingdom as a wireless operator, being lent to the Air Ministry by the R.N.Z.A.F. for employment with the Royal Air Force. The Distinguished Flying Medal was presented to Sergeant Knight by the New Zealand High Commissioner, Mr. Jordan, who congratulated him on his skill, courage, and coolness in the face of the enemy and under intense fire.