32 Facts About Keith Thiele

Keith Thiele was one of only four New Zealand-born airmen to receive two medal Bars to his Distinguished Flying Cross.

Keith Thiele was educated at Waltham Primary and Christchurch Boys' High Schools.

Keith Thiele was working as a junior reporter at the Christchurch Star-Sun newspaper when war was declared in September 1939.

Keith Thiele was 19 when he joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force in December 1940.

Keith Thiele was posted to an operational training unit before being transferred to the Canadian No 405 Squadron at RAF Pocklington a few miles east of York, equipped with Vickers Wellington II medium bombers.

Keith Thiele was promoted straight from pilot officer to flight lieutenant, skipping the intermediate rank of flying officer, and then to squadron leader in the space of a few months.

Keith Thiele was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in August 1942.

Keith Thiele was rested and sent to an Operational Training Unit to serve as an instructor but quickly found this duty unsatisfactory.

Keith Thiele dropped a rank, back to flight lieutenant, in order to return to operations.

Keith Thiele 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.

Keith Thiele 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.

In mid 1943, Keith 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.

Keith Thiele 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.

Keith 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.

Keith Thiele was posted to a transport squadron and then almost immediately to the trans-Atlantic Ferry Command to fly Canadian-built Lancasters to England.

Keith Thiele spent three months in Canada before flying one of the first Lancasters to England.

Keith Thiele was trained by a Spitfire conversion unit in December 1943.

In February 1944, Keith Thiele transferred to RAF Fighter Command and was posted to No 41 Squadron based in the south of England.

Keith Thiele was one of the experienced pilots sent to destroy V1-flying bombs destined for London.

Later promoted to flight command, Keith Thiele joined No 486 Squadron in October 1944 to pilot Hawker Typhoon fighters from Volkel, the Netherlands, on which he completed 50 operations.

Keith Thiele then joined No 3 Squadron, in the same wing, flying Napier-Sabre powered Hawker Tempest V fighters, becoming the squadron's commanding officer in January 1945.

On 24 December 1944, Keith Thiele claimed a Messerschmitt 109 shot down, when, with another Tempest, he attacked a formation of 10 Messerschmitt 109s over Malmedy.

Keith Thiele claimed one Me109G destroyed, having seen the enemy pilot bail out.

On 10 February 1945, Keith Thiele led a formation of eight Tempests to attack locomotives in the Paderborn-Rheine area.

Slightly wounded, Keith Thiele was taken captive by the flak crew that had shot him down and, following interrogation, he was sent to a prisoner of war camp at Dulag Luft near Wetzlar.

Keith Thiele was one of four New Zealanders to have been awarded the DFC three times.

Keith Thiele was a member of the Caterpillar Club, an informal association of people who had successfully used a parachute to bail out of a disabled aircraft.

Keith Thiele was the captain of the inaugural jet service from Brisbane to London in October 1959, flying the Sydney to Singapore leg of the trip in the Boeing 707.

An avid adventurer, twice during sailing excursions on the notorious Tasman Sea, Keith Thiele had his tiny yacht smashed by mountainous waves, yet he managed to sail home.

Keith Thiele later built and operated a marina in Sydney and sailed his own yacht across the Tasman Sea to see New Zealand's first America's Cup defence when he was 80.

In later life, Keith Thiele retired to the Queensland town of Bundaberg.

Keith Thiele died in Sydney on 5 January 2016, at the age of 94.