Keith Thiele

 ( 1921 Births ) 

Thiele was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) in August 1942. His citation in part read: "he has shown great skill and has pressed home his attacks regardless of opposition. A fine leader and a courageous flight commander, this officer has set a most praiseworthy example". He completed a tour of operations in September, having completed 32 sorties. He was rested and sent to an Operational Training Unit to serve as an instructor but quickly found this duty unsatisfactory. He dropped a rank, back to flight lieutenant, in order to return to operations. After converting to the Avro Lancaster heavy bomber, Thiele was posted to the Australian No. 467 Squadron. He took severe risks and displayed leadership, tending to a sick comrade on one flight, and on another mission to Berlin flying low enough to knock out Nazi searchlights and anti-aircraft. In March 1943, Bomber Command ordered an attack on Nuremberg into the heart of the Third Reich. It was flying a Lancaster that Thiele completed 20 more missions and, in May 1943, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for displaying outstanding courage, keenness and determination during operations. On 12 May, Thiele was flying a Lancaster of No. 467 Squadron on a mission to Duisburg, an industrial city. He had nearly reached the target when his aircraft was hit by a flak underneath the fuselage, which severed the rear half of the starboard outer engine, punctured the starboard inner engine and blew out most of the perspex in the cockpit. Thiele, dazed by a blow from a shell splinter that had struck him on the side of the head, limped the aircraft back from Duisburg on two engines. Shortly after crossing the English coast he was unable to maintain height, but displaying superb airmanship he struggled on and succeeded in effecting a crashlanding at an airfield in Norfolk. For this feat, Thiele was awarded a Medal bar to his DFC, the citation praising his "courage, skill and determination of a high order."

In mid 1943, Thiele declined a posting to No. 617 Squadron under the command of Guy Gibson, the man who had led that squadron on the May 1943 Dambusters raid that blew up the Ruhr dams.Royal Air Force. Personal Effects of Guy Gibson on show . Retrieved 24 April 2011 A few weeks after the raid, Thiele received a message that Gibson wanted to see him at RAF Scampton, in Lincolnshire. Thiele, with 50 operations behind him, told Gibson that he had had his fill of bombers and was desperate to fulfil his ambition to fly Spitfires. He informed Gibson that he did not want to appear ungrateful but disclosed he already had the wheels rolling to go to a unit flying experimental Spitfires as a step out of Bomber Command.Lambert, Max (2005, pp. 204–209). Night After Night: New Zealanders in Bomber Command. Published by Harper Collins, Auckland. . . Thiele believed that he had been picked out by Ralph Cochrane of Group Headquarters as a likely successor to Gibson, a position that would eventually go to Squadron Leader George Holden. Air of Authority – A History of RAF Organisation – Air Chief Marshal The Hon Sir Ralph Cochrane Thiele's decision not to join No. 617 Squadron proved the right decision. On the night of 15–16 September 1943, 5 of the 12 Lancasters were lost during a mission to bomb on the Dortmund-Ems Canal, including Holden's, which was shot down by flak with no survivors.