Pen to paper for past flying serviceman

THE exploits of a World War Two gunner from Victoria’s south-west are being memorialised in the form of a book by one of the region’s RSL members.

Inverleigh RSL Sub-Branch treasurer Andy Tepper has been chipping away at a biography detailing the service history of Colac-born Royal Australian Airforce Flying Officer Keith Kelly.

With more than 200 pages written, Tepper said Flying Officer Kelly’s career of 40 missions was impressive.

“He’d done his cadetship in Colac at about 17 and then joined the RAF and went over to England as part of the Dominion Air Force,” he said.

“He went through all the training there and joined up a Wellington bomber crew. He accomplished 40 missions in this Wellington bomber.

“They were doing missions over to Italy from Africa. They crash-landed once at the airfield in Tunisia, and were living in tents and mud fields in the Foggia plains.

“While they were in Italy they got shot up by a German fighter. There’s another story where they were flying over the Alps and the plane froze up. It was quite an adventure.”

Following his conflict service, Flying Officer Kelly taught Morse code and survival techniques in Palestine before returning to Australia on Melbourne Cup, 1945 after which he lived in Bannockburn.

Having known Flying Officer Kelly personally, Mr Tepper gathered much of his research through interviews before the veteran passed in 2019.

Mr Tepper said he felt compelled to write down Flying Officer Kelly’s story.

“I thought it was legendary he’d done 40 missions. You were lucky to survive five,” he said. “His story encompasses war life in Australia.

“There was a group called the Golden Oldies and I knew him from there. They flew over to England to get citations for him.

“They had the 70th anniversary of the bomber command over there and Keith was in the photo in their centrefold. It was a big surprise to him.

“It was a Wellington bomber and he was a wireless operator part of the initial crew before they went on actual missions. The Wellington was the longest surviving bomber in the war.”