KLEZEL, Ronald Charles
| Service Number: | 429581 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 9 October 1942 |
| Last Rank: | Flight Sergeant |
| Last Unit: | Not yet discovered |
| Born: | Richmond, Queensland, Australia, 4 August 1923 |
| Home Town: | Innisfail, Cassowary Coast, Queensland |
| Schooling: | Tully State Rural School, Innisfail State High School, Queensland, Australia |
| Occupation: | Junior Accounting Clerk |
| Died: | Flying Battle, Germany, 6 October 1944, aged 21 years |
| Cemetery: |
Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Germany |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Innisfail Cenotaph, International Bomber Command Centre Memorial |
World War 2 Service
| 3 Sep 1939: | Involvement Flight Sergeant, 429581 | |
|---|---|---|
| 9 Oct 1942: | Enlisted Royal Australian Air Force, Flight Sergeant, 429581 |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Ray Clitheroe
Ronald Charles KLEZEL was born on 4 August 1923 in Richmond, Queensland, only son of Charles Edwin Klezel, a World War 1 Infantry veteran, and Kathleen "Kate" Klezel formerly Iles nee Bennett who were married in 1922. Ronald had an older half-brother and two half-sisters whose biological father had died of a snake-bite in 1920 aged only 24yo.
Young Ronald was educated at Tully State Rural School and graduated from Innisfail State High School with a Junior Public Certificate in November 1939 with "First Class passes" in Geography, Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, and Book-keeping, all the makings of an Air Force Navigator.
While Ronald was finishing school, Great Britain had declared war on Nazi Germany and like many Australian teenagers, Ronald wanted to defend "King & Country" but was too young at 16, to "join-up". He wanted to join the RAAF, but had to be content with being a Junior Clerk from 1940 with an Innisfail Chartered Accounting firm, "H.K. Smith and Pickwell".
On 19 January 1942, 18yo Ronald, still too young to fight, and still working as a Junior Clerk, joined the "RAAF Reserve", signed off by his mother. By June 1942, he had already started applying to the RAAF Recruiting Office in Brisbane to qualify as a Navigator in readiness for his 19th birthday in August and amid Family discord. Ronald's mother did not want her son to enlist, which was however supported by his father.
Ultimately, on 4 October 1942, two months to the day after his 19th birthday, Ronald C. Klezel was enlisted in the RAAF with his mother listed as "next-of-Kin" and his married half-sister, Vera Diehm, of Ipswich, QLD as "Person to be informed of casualties"!
After navigator training, on 1 May 1943 Ronald was one of 30 RAAF Aircrew who boarded "SS President Monroe" bound from Brisbane QLD for San Francisco USA, enroute to to join 466 Squadron of "Bomber Command" at RAF Driffield, Yorkshire, England.
466 Squadron were flying "Hudson III" Bombers to Germany, with 5 Australian Aircrew plus British Flight Engineer. On the night of 6 October 1944, Ronald's crew were to bomb "Sterkade Oil Plant" in Western Germany. Only the Flight Engineer survived, captured and ended the war as a POW.
Ronald was 21 years old, and his death destroyed the relationship of his parents, but Kate Klezel was still trying to find out the circumstances of his death from anyone who might have known him in England in a newspaper article in September 1945.
* From Research by Ray Clitheroe, husband of Judy Clitheroe nee Wright, and Roslyn Hinspeter nee Perrot, both maternal 1st cousins, once removed of Ronald Charles Klezel, and both grand-daughters of Paulina Rachel Klezel, Ronald's Aunt and older sister of his father, Charles Edwin Klezel.
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