Tribute to Keith Malcolmson - The Last Letters

With the final victory in sight and II(AC) Squadron playing their part as the advance drew ever closer to the goal of occupying Germany, this was not a time to be slacking in the efforts to bring the conflict to a close.  Shiny Two were at the forefront of the advance providing aerial reconnaissance to the troops on the ground and the mix of nationalities of the aircrews reflected the collective passion of the allied nations in ridding the world of the Nazi blight.  One of those pilots could not have come any further to join in the struggle as his home was Christchurch, New Zealand.  He was never to see his homeland again for in February 1945 he perished when his aircraft crashed in Northern Europe.

A collection of letters and subsequent research has revealed the backdrop to a sad and poignant tale of one man's journey in the service of II(AC) Sqn and a reminder of the terrible sadness that such a sacrifice leaves behind.

George Keith Malcolmson, the youngest son of Robert Gavin and Margaret Jane Malcolmson, was born in Timaru, Canterbury, New Zealand on 8 July 1915.  Educated at Christchurch West School and Christchurch Boys’ High School he spent three years in the Cadet Force and simultaneously being actively involved in cricket, football, golf, swimming and mountaineering.  When he wasn't dashing around a Sports Field or learning the military arts he was indulging in another of his passions, music, for he loved to sing and was an accomplished piano player.  His experience with the Cadets set him on a military career and on leaving school he joined the RNZAF to follow his dream of becoming a pilot.

His first posting on 27 January 1941 was to the Initial Training Wing at the RNZAF’s Training Depot in Levin in the North Island.  He was one of 164 Leading Aircraftsmen trainee pilots of Course No.20 who arrived that weekend to take part in a short course of introductory and basic ground instruction flying the de Havilland Tiger Moth.  His reward on completing the course was a posting to No.3 Elementary Flying Training School at Harewood on 7 September.

On 17 October 1941, he married Ena Wynne Williamson; the next day he was transferred to Wigram for more advanced training with No.1 Service Flying School!

At Wigram, equipped with the North American Harvard and twin engine Airspeed Oxford, Keith qualified for the coveted Flying Badge, or ‘Wings’.  Following this training Keith was recommended for and appointed to a commission as Pilot Officer on 10 January 1942.  Just over 2 weeks later he was posted to the United Kingdom with 28 other officers and airmen.  He left behind his young wife who by now was pregnant.

The party took over a month to reach the UK and they were held at a Reception Centre pending their postings to a unit of the RAF.  Keith was destined for further advanced flying courses and spent the next 4 months honing his skills on twin-engined Oxford and Avro Anson aircraft.  Clearly, he was very good and at the end of this bout of training he was assessed as being "above-average" and, much to his exasperation, was not sent on an operational posting as he had hoped but, instead, despatched on 23 July for a course at No.2 Flying Instructors School at Dalcross, in Inverness-shire.

The flying instructor training took until almost the end of the year during which time he was promoted to Flying Officer.  Fully qualified as a Flying Instructor he was then posted to No.24 EFTS at Sealand, Cheshire and must have felt he had gone full-circle as he undertook the task of pilot instructing duties flying the aircraft where it had all begun for him, the Tiger Moth.  He was destined to remain at Sealand for nearly 15 months.  It was on 24 April 1943 that Keith got the call to report to No.2 FIS at Montrose for a refresher course.  Whether he was aware of that station's connection with the history of II(AC) Sqn will never be known but he may have suspected that he was now set on the path of flying something other than the ubiquitous Tiger Moth.  In June he was posted No.5 AFU at Ternhill in Shropshire as a staff pilot which entailed more instructing but now on the more modern Miles Master single engine trainer.  Soon after arriving at Ternhill, Keith was promoted to acting Flight Lieutenant.

In September, Keith received a ten day posting to the RAF College at Cranwell for a conversion course, whereafter almost two years of continuous instructing duties, Flight Lieutenant Malcolmson was at last permitted to direct his energies towards an operational flying career.

Meanwhile, back in New Zealand, his daughter Robin whom he had never seen was fast growing up and Keith ensured that any letters sent home included messages for her.

"England, Officers’ Mess, RAF Perth. Telephone Scone 205. My darling daughter. Here is a couple of toys daddy bought for you in Chester today.  I hope you have as much fun with them as I did getting them for you.  Be a good girl, won’t you, and daddy will be home to take care of mummy and you as soon as he can. Here is a big hug and kiss for you OK and give one to mummy for me XO. Your loving Father Keith’.

He was assigned to the Hurricane and Spitfire equipped No.41 Operational Training Unit headquartered at Hawarden, Wales.  Artillery Reconnaissance was part of the training and at the end of the course in December Keith was sent to join 84 Group Support Unit at Lasham, Hampshire who formed part of the RAF’s 2nd Tactical Air Force.  In late 1944 the GSU acted as a holding pool for aircrew destined for 2TAF operational squadrons then based in continental Europe.

Keith was posted on 17 January to No.II (AC) Squadron, then based at Gilze-Rijen, some 15 miles west-north-west of Eindhoven near the Belgium border.

So it was that he reported to the boss of II (AC), Colin Maitland, to join with other New Zealanders serving in the Squadron.  With a total of 1,289 hrs and 25 minutes Keith Malcolmson must have been considered a valuable addition to the pilots of II (AC) as his log book and experience as an instructor testified.  His long awaited operational career was poised to begin.

II (AC) Sqn had just that month replaced the Squadron’s North American Mustang IIs for the late model Rolls Royce Griffon 65 powered Spitfire Mk XIVs.  However, the weather was so bad that Keith had hardly any opportunity to pilot the new steed.  He wrote another letter to his wife,

Early in the morning of 8 February, Keith took off in Spitfire RM805 to carry out an artillery reconnaissance flight of the Reichswald Forest area.  The duration of the flight is unrecorded but it was known that he became separated from his No.1 due to poor visibility and on the return leg missed Gilze-Rijen.  He attempted to reach nearby Woensdrecht airfield but with fuel running short and few options it became clear that a forced landing near Huijbergen (in Noord-Brabant province in the liberated part of the Netherlands) was going to be required.  He made a last minute turn to line up with the runway which was less than 1½ miles from the airfield but by this time the engine probably had already stopped.  Between Malcolmson and the runway was a stretch of forest which could only be passed if he had engine power.  Not having this option Malcolmson tried to touch down on a farm field in front of the forest but the Spitfire’s starboard wing hit a concrete water basin and then smashed into the ground.  The aircraft cartwheeled and disintegrated killing Keith Malcolmson in the process.  It was a terrible ending of a difficult return flight.

---

Sadly, the next communication to be delivered to his wife Ena was from the New Zealand government.   The telegram read:



This was shortly followed by another official letter from the Air Department which was equally straightforward:

A few days later a more personal note was received; this one from a friend and fellow New Zealander Flying Officer Warren Blain, who wrote 10th February 1945:

‘Dear Mrs. Malcolmson, On behalf of myself and the boys of the Squadron I wish to extend my greatest sympathy in your sad bereavement.  Keith was liked immensely by all who knew him here and when we were all greatly shocked when we heard he had been killed when he crashed.  I had been his friend for some nine months knowing him first as an instructor and then as a great pal through the latter part of my training and on the Squadron.  I attended his funeral at Bergen op Zoom, Holland and saw that everything was done that could be under the circumstances. I wish to extend my sympathy to his mother who I know will miss such a good son and to you who will miss him most. As for mail etc. the base post office has been instructed to return all letters to you which I think will be to your wish.  If you should like further details I will write again at a future date. Yours truly, Warren Blain’. In early 1946, about a year after Keith Malcolmson died, his widow received a letter from Belgium.  It came from the small town of Wevelgem and was dated 23 December 1945.  The letter told that Keith and a friend had been guests of the Soenens family, proprietors of a local pub called the ‘Concorde’, who had taken an interest in the Allied aircrew who were stationed at the nearby airfield. They wrote in their best English: ‘Dear Mrs.Malcolmson, What a surprise this morning to hear the sad news of your dear husband you have lost.  We all feel so bad for that, although we only met him once, we saw in him such a gentleman.  He came in on New Year’s Eve (with another friend of his (whom) he met in England a year before and who was now in Wevelgem with us.  He had to come down on the airfield here on his way back from Germany.  We had a very nice evening together but while the other boys were playing the piano all at once I saw him crying and when I asked him about this, he said: ‘Oh, this all reminds me of home, all I want is to see that dear little girl of mine, just think, she is so old and I have never seen her yet’. I cheered him up as much as I could and said the war would soon be over.  He stayed overnight with us and when I got his breakfast ready in the morning he said to his friend: ‘Oh, look here, boiled eggs, something I did not get since I left home.’ Now, Mrs. Malcolmson, we know very well where that Canadian cemetery is, it is about 80 miles from here.   But we have a boy in a school in Antwerp, which is only 20 miles from there.  Now at present the border of Holland is shut for us, but as soon as we are allowed in, which I think will be very soon, we will go and visit his grave with some flowers and try to get a snap shot of it to send to you.  You will, whenever you come, find a welcome home with us. Your husband asked us to write you but, I never thought our first letter would bring such sad news.  I can realise how much you must miss him but look up on it as he is one of the biggest heroes of the war.  If there is anything at any time we can do for you we would only be too pleased to do so.  I am sure we will never be able to repay the people, for the lives of their dear ones gave us back a free country once more.  Please excuse my mistakes for I have not been writing English for long.  We would be pleased to hear from you again. Love to you and your dear little daughter. We call ourselves your true Belgian friends, Mr. and Mrs. Soenen, 33 Vanackerstraat Wevelgem, Belgium.’ In April 1946, Anna Soenen wrote another letter to Malcolmson’s widow; a reply to Ena's letter from New Zealand.  Anna's letter contained a few photographs of Keith Malcolmson’s grave at Bergen op Zoom Canadian Cemetery which had been taken by Mrs. Soenens’ son; also enclosed was a little piece of wood that her son had cut from the grave and some weeds that grew there.  (Anna apparently had been unable to make the visit as she had to take care of her husband who was very ill).  She apologised for the lack of flowers on the grave and promised to do better a next time.  She also suggested that Mrs. Malcolmson could send anything they wanted to be put at her husband’s grave. The son was clearly much affected by his visit for she wrote: He is 17 years old and has such a great heart, he wrote and told me that he was sick all day after going to visit Flt Lt Malcolmson’s grave. He said: ‘To think that there are so many lonesome graves left behind so far from home and their dear ones’. So began a correspondence between Ena and Robin Malcolmson in New Zealand and the Soenens in Belgium.  This was to continue until 1961 by which time both Soenens had died.  However, the link with Bergen-op-Zoom had been further established for another family, the Van Rijens, who lived close by to the Canadian Military Cemetary where Keith lay at rest had taken an interest and had been maintaining the grave.  By this time the cemetary had been transformed by the Commonwealth Graves Commission into the impressive standard of memorials that are dotted throughout Northern Europe. In May 2010, Robin, now Mrs. Robin Peirce, travelled to the Netherlands to visit her father’s grave and see the site where he crashed in February 1945.  It was an emotional visit.  At the Canadian Military Cemetery of Bergen op Zoom, her father’s grave looked extremely well cared and well kept.  In silence, she laid a poppy wreath, a bouquet of lilies and put a little cross in the ground with a New Zealand flag. After having spent time there she went to Huijbergen and saw the actual site where his Spitfire crashed that fateful day back in February 1945, only less than 2 miles short of the runway of another Allied airfield called Woensdrecht, now the airfield where young Dutch airmen are getting their initial training to fly combat aircraft.  Even after so many years since the event it was obvious what had added to her father’s misfortune for about half a mile from the runway was a forest and his aircraft, without any engine power, would have had no chance whatsoever to pull up over the trees and make it for the final part of his glide. It was a memorable day. The Crash site at Huijbergen The following day Robin had lunch with Mrs. Rachel Fry, the ambassador of New Zealand, at the residence in Wassenaar.  She was very interested to hear the story and told Robin that she had recently been there when the Dutch Prime Minister accompanied the Prime Minister of Canada to Bergen op Zoom. Maybe the most moving day was on 9th June.  The Officer Commanding Gilze-Rijen air base very kindly invited Robin to be his guest and visit the airfield from where her father made his last flight.  After a warm welcome Robin visited the airfield’s Tradition Room where she saw many things relating to the history of Gilze-Rijen including the German occupation and the use of it by Spitfires of Polish Squadrons and by II (AC) Sqn.  She presented the curator with a frame of four photographs of her father: in training, in OUT and while flying as a member of Shiny Two. The rest of the day was passed touring the station whilst Chinook, Cougar and Apache helicopters flew around and soldiers were working in and outside the hangars.  She visited the area where the Royal Netherlands Air Force Historical Flight keep the Spitfire, Beechcraft, B25 Mitchell, Auster, Stinson, Piper Cubs and Fokkers S11 in flying condition and where other volunteers were painstakingly restoring a Ryan trainer of the Dutch air forces in former East-India. Then Robin was taken to the ‘English Camp’, a large area where in 1944/1945 RAF aircraft stood.  She went to the old wooden shed where RAF pilots would wait before going on a mission.  She walked the narrow path which took men like her father to the waiting aircraft and then she was driven over the old perimeter track to the part of the runway (East-West) from where the Spitfires would take off. Robin and Spitfire at the Historical Flight of the RNedAF While standing there the curator Leo Derksen handed her a small piece of rock: remains of the 1943 foundation of the old runway, which was now demolished to make room for helicopters. It was a very emotional day and for Robin it was as if she had finally found peace by being where her father took off for the last time.  The visit to the Netherlands, and the wonderful reception by the Commanding officer of Gilze-Rijen, plus the luncheon at the New Zealand ambassador’s residence gave Robin a chance to reconstruct her father’s last days.  It gave a chance to realise how much her father’s sacrifice was acknowledged.  It was a healing process after many years of wondering just what had happened. Acknowledgement is given to Detective Constable Michael Glenday of the Christchurch Police for his assistance. Post Script:  In 2012 Hans Onderwater and his wife Marjoan will fly to New Zealand to see Robin and, hopefully, the son of Kevin Fahey, another No. II(AC) Squadron pilot, who flew Swifts and Hunters with Shiny Two.  Proof, if proof was needed, of the bonds of friendship that come from being associated with II (AC) Sqn.