Sale  

Kenneth Sidney Collins

Rank:Flt.SgtNumber:1484085
Ship/Rgn/Sqn No:612 Sqn RAFVR
Name of Rgt or Ship:Coastal Command
Died:25/05/1944Age:20
How Died:Killed in Action
Country of burial:Lost Overseas
Cemetery or Memorial:Runnymede Memorial
Town Memorial:Sale & Hale
Extra Information:
Attended Bradbury Central School and Altrincham Grammar School.   Employed
by the Petroleum Board in Manchester.

Joined the RAF in late 1941 and was sent to the U.S. Naval Air Services
Camp at Pensacola, USA for training.

He was lost whilst serving as a second pilot on an operation over the Bay
of Biscay.

612 Sqn was stationed at RAF Chivenor, north-west Devon, w.e.f. 1st March
1944.

145 Sqn Memorial - Altrincham Grammar School.

Also listed on the Hale Cenotaph.

No 612 Squadron was formed at Dyce on 1 June 1937 as an army co-operation
unit of the Auxiliary Air Force. At the end of the year it received
Hectors, but on 1 November 1938 it was redesignated a general
reconnaissance squadron, receiving Ansons in July 1939. Hectors were
retained until November, but the Ansons began coastal patrols on the
outbreak of World War Two. In November 1940, conversion to Whitleys began
and these flew their first patrols in February 1941, though it was the end
of the year before the last Anson left. In December 1941 No.612 moved to
Iceland, returning to Thorney Island in August 1942 for anti-submarine
patrols over the Channel and Bay of Biscay. Some Wellingtons arrived in
November 1942 and a few operated until January 1943, but it was not until
April that conversion was resumed and June before all the Whitleys had been
replaced. Patrols over the Bay of Biscay continued until September 1944,
apart from a short break in Ulster between January and March 1944. After
three months patrolling the Western Approaches, the squadron moved to East
Anglia to fly anti-E-boat patrols off the Dutch coast until the end of the
war. On 9 July 1945, the squadron was disbanded. 

Memorials found on:
Alt Grammar School - 145 Squadron A.T.C.
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