Operation: Armed Recce, Schlieden area, Germany

Date: 27th December 1944 (Wednesday)

Unit No: 184 Squadron, 121 Wing, 2nd Tactical Air Force

Type: Typhoon Ib

Serial: MN294*

Code: BR:T

Base: ALG B-80 Volkel, Netherlands

Location: Near Sistig about 5 km (3 mls) SE of Schleiden, Germany

Pilot: Lt. Anthony Ewart Collett 328482V SAAF Age 20. KiA

* Note: Many publications record this Typhoon as MN318. The Squadron Operational Record Book (ORB) records this aircraft as MN294.

REASON FOR LOSS

On the 27th December 1944 three sections of two aircraft led by Lt. Collett took off at 11:45 hrs from B-80 Volkel in the Netherlands detailed to undertake an Armed Recce in the Schlieden area in Germany.

During the first strafing attack Lt. Atholl Nicholson Fisher 328686V SAAF flying Typhoon Ib JR493 was seen by his No. 2 to bale out of his aircraft, and land safely, when it was hit by flak, caught fire and the tail unit fell off.

On the second strafing attack Lt. Collett collided with a Typhoon flown by Sqn Ldr. Strit from 124 Wing. The aircraft’s port wing was sheared off causing the aircraft to spin into the ground and explode. He was not seen to bale out.

Sqn Ldr. Strit was in fact Sqn Ldr. Walter Horace Brooke Short DFC, 136419 RAFVR, the OC of 181 Sqn, flying Typhoon Ib MP191 EL:P.

The collision occurred near Sistig about 5 km (3 mls) SE of Schleiden where the wreckage of Sqn Ldr. Short’s Typhoon was found during a Missing Research & Enquiry Unit (MREU) investigation into another Typhoon lost in the area. No trace of Lt. Collet’s Typhoon was found.

Note: Publications record that Lt. Collett was involved in a mid-air collision with fellow 184 Sqn SAAF pilot Lt. A.N. Fisher flying Typhoon Ib JR493. Both pilots baled out west of Ahrndorf, Lt. Collett was killed and Lt. Fisher became a PoW.

Note: Ahrndorf does not exist. Some thoughts are that this was a misspelling of Hahndorf but this place is some 300 km (196 mls) NE of the area of Schlieden.

Lt. Collett’s remains were transported and buried at the Monastery in Steinfeld, some 4½ km (2¾ ml) NE of Sistig. The Monastery later formed part of an Allied Military Government building.

Burial details:

Above: Grave marker for Lt. Collett (Courtesy of Des Philippet - FindAGrave)

Lt. Anthony Ewart Collett. Recovered and buried at the Rheinberg War Cemetery 14.D.7 on the 1st July 1947. Inscription: ‘WITH PROUD THANKSGIVING, WE WILL REMEMBER HIM’. Son of Son of Colonel Ewart James and Helen Liesching (née Greaves) Collett, of Middelburg, Cape Province, South Africa.

Researched by Ralph Snape and dedicated to this pilot and his family.

Other sources as quoted below:

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