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Excerpt from: High in the Sunlit Silence, Tony Vine, Vivid Publishing 2017 - Loaded by author

Flight Sergeant Kenneth Charles Scott
 

Ken Scott was born in Wallsend NSW in 1922. He was the son of Robert Scott and Lizzie Scott (née Williams). He had two older brothers, Jack and William, and a twin brother, Robert, who died shortly after birth. Ken enlisted in the RAAF in July 1941. At the time of his enlistment, he was living in Bathurst. His older brother William[1] enlisted briefly in the RAAF in March 1941 before later serving in the army in 1943.

Ken was educated at Bathurst High School, leaving school in 1937.  His father was a long-serving superintendent at Bathurst Ambulance Station; the family lived in the station residence. At the time of his enlistment, Ken was employed as ‘cannery hand’ with the Edgell Company and had previously worked as a ‘butter factory improver’. Ken was a small man; on his enlistment, he was 1.70 metres and weighing just 62 kilograms. Despite his diminutive stature he had played first grade tennis and had been captain of both his school’s second fifteen rugby team and the junior baseball team. He also listed golf, cricket and rifle shooting as sports he participated in.

On completion of his initial training at Bradfield Park, Ken joined Pilots’ Course 20 at 5 EFTS at Narromine, where he received basic flying training. He completed the course on 22 February 1942. He returned to Narromine for a brief period of refresher training before being posted to 5 SFTS in Uranquinty on 5 April to complete his flying training on the Wirraway fighter as a member of Pilots’ Course 21 (SFTS). On arrival at Uranquinty, instead of beginning to fly from day one, he was sent on an ‘initial bayonet course’ for which he was awarded a pass!

Ken completed his service flying course and was awarded his wings on 16 September 1942. He was promoted to sergeant the following day. On completion of his course, he returned to Bradfield Park, before taking pre-embarkation leave at home in Bathurst. On 17 October Ken, along with eight of his Narromine course mates, embarked for the United Kingdom. He arrived at 11 PDRC in Bournemouth on 15 December.

Like many of the men, on his arrival in the UK, Ken found that a backlog of trainees meant that he would be held at 11 PDRC awaiting a position on an advanced flying course. In Ken’s case, the wait was even longer as he had been ‘streamed’ as a fighter pilot. Priority was being given to training bomber pilots because of the high losses that were being sustained. In February 1942, whilst at Bournemouth, he was charged, convicted and reprimanded for ‘leaving his room in an untidy condition’ and ‘having his bed made down at 0900 hours’[2].  At 11 PDRC, he was promoted to flight sergeant on 17 March 1943.

On 17 April, Ken joined 17 AFU(P) at Calveley, Cheshire to undertake advanced flying training on the Miles Master aircraft. The Master was an exceptionally manoeuvrable and fast trainer. It was an ideal aircraft to train pilots on before they progressed to more advanced aircraft such as the Spitfire and Hurricane. After five weeks’ flying the Master, Ken posted to to 61 OTU at RAF Rednal, Shropshire to convert to the Spitfire aircraft. He remained at 61 OTU until late August, when he posted to No. 453 Squadron RAAF.

453 Squadron had been raised in Australia in 1941 and originally equipped with Brewster Buffalo aircraft. 453 Squadron had been decimated during the Malaysian Campaign and disbanded in Australia in March 1942, only to reform in Scotland three months later flying the Spitfire.

When Ken joined the squadron, it was operating from RAF Perranporth in Cornwall. In October, the squadron intercepted a force of eight Messerschmitt Bf 110 fighter bombers and shot down five of them for the loss of two Spitfires. At the end of November, Ken joined the Air Fighting Development Unit (AFDU) at a RAF Sub-Station near Newmarket in Suffolk. The role of the AFDU was to conduct comparative trials and to develop and promulgate tactics against the enemy. It achieved these aims by using captured enemy aircraft as well as trialling new aircraft and modifications to existing aircraft.

On 18 December, Ken was tasked with flying a Hurricane fighter from Newmarket to Tuddenham, fourteen kilometres to the north-east of Newmarket, to conduct a fighter affiliation session with a Stirling bomber. These exercises generally involved a fighter acting the part of a hostile aircraft to train bomber crews in defensive tactics. The weather was marginal, with 10/10 cloud cover down to around 3000 feet and visibility less than 2000 yards. On Ken’s arrival at Tuddenham, he was told that the exercises had been cancelled. At 1032, he took off to return to Newmarket.

At approximately 1100, fifteen kilometres south-west of Newmarket, Ken’s aircraft crashed into the ground at high speed and a steep angle. There were no witnesses to the accident and the aircraft was not found until later that afternoon. The engine was embedded six metres into the ground and initially it could not be ascertained if Ken had been onboard when it crashed or if he had parachuted to safety. The force of the impact was such that Ken’s body was not recovered from the aircraft for a number of days, and it was not until 21 December that Robert Scott was informed by telegram that Ken had been killed.

The accident investigation concluded that Ken had lost control of the aircraft in the clouds. He had overshot Newmarket by about fifteen kilometres; it is probable that he was also lost.

Flight Sergeant Kenneth Charles Scott is buried in the War Graves section of Cambridge City Cemetery, not far from his Narromine course mate Flight Sergeant Roy Scott, killed on 16 December, and Flight Sergeant Ian Scott, RAAF, who was killed on 17 December 1943.

[1] Cpl William James Scott 403700/NX173578, RAAF & 2nd AIF; b. Wallsend NSW 22 Oct 1918.
[2] National Archives of Australia: A9301, 412848.