Leon Newman KING

KING, Leon Newman

Service Numbers: 434344, NX136680
Enlisted: 29 November 1941
Last Rank: Flight Sergeant
Last Unit: No. 80 Squadron (RAAF)
Born: Katanning, Perth, Western Australia, 29 September 1922
Home Town: Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
Schooling: Sydney Technical College, New South Wales (1938-39)
Occupation: Telephone Mechanic
Died: Prisoner of War - Executed by the Japanese, Talaud Islands, Netherlands East Indies, 23 March 1945, aged 22 years
Cemetery: Ambon War Cemetery, Ambon, Maluku, Indonesia
Plot 3. Row C. Grave 6. Local Roll of Honour - Canberra, ACT
Memorials: Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial
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World War 2 Service

3 Sep 1939: Involvement Flight Sergeant, 434344
29 Nov 1941: Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, NX136680
12 Nov 1942: Enlisted Royal Australian Air Force, Flight Sergeant, 434344
12 Nov 1942: Enlisted Royal Australian Air Force, Aircraftman 2 (WW2), 434344, No. 3 Initial Training School Sandgate
16 Jan 1944: Promoted Royal Australian Air Force, Sergeant
16 Jul 1944: Promoted Royal Australian Air Force, Flight Sergeant
21 Dec 1944: Involvement Royal Australian Air Force, Flight Sergeant, 434344, No. 80 Squadron (RAAF), Air War SE Asia 1941-45
13 Jan 1945: Imprisoned Air War SE Asia 1941-45

Help us honour Leon Newman King's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by David Barlow

During a ferry flight from Noemfoor Island to Morotai Island on the 13th of January 1945 four Kittyhawk aircraft from Number 80 Squadron RAAF ditched into the sea near Karakelang and Maroh Islands in the Japanese-held Talaud Islands group

Flight Sergeant Ronald Wilford Parry 434265 in Kittyhawk A29-668 was not located and he is commemorated on the Ambon Memorial

The other three pilots were captured by the Japanese and made prisoners of war (POW); they were executed on 23 March 1945 at Beo in the Talaud Islands - Flight Sergeant Leon Newman King 434344 (A29-653), Warrant Officer Peter Waters 410186 (A29-630) and Flying Officer Francis Lawrence Hann 411448 (A29-508)

Following a war crimes trial in 1946 seven Japanese officers were sentenced to death for complicity in the murders of the three men

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