Rusty Leith - An Australian Spitfire Pilot’s wartime memorabilia and photos

Service as a Spitfire pilot
Colin Russell Leith (1922 – 2010) was a Spitfire Pilot with No. 453 Squadron RAAF. With 453 Squadron he flew Ramrod, Rhubarb and Circus sorties out of England during 1942-1943 channel offensives. After fufilling a required 6 months of operational rest as a gunnery instructor, he rejoined the squadron soon after the D-Day landings.

Now part of the 2nd Tactical Air Force, he flew with the squadron as they supported allied ground forces fighting their way out of Normandy. He was an "evader", helped by the French Resistance he spent 4 weeks sheltering behind German-occupied lines. Re-joining the squadron, he took part in Operation Market Garden before 125 wing was pulled back to England to start a new tour. From England, he particpated in dive bombing sorties, attacking German V2 Rocket launch sites as part of Operation Big Ben.

After the war he was honoured for his community work in Australia. Among his flying mates, he was known as "Rusty".

This website contains a collection of rare and historic material that illuminate the wartime experiences of Rusty, starting from his enlistment in the Royal Australian Air Force in May 1941 to his last flight as a fighter pilot on 1 June 1945. In total, he served four years and five months in the RAAF and was away from Australia on war service for 1415 days.

Information for researchers
Researchers and authors are encouraged to explore these pages, and make use of the resources. Any use of the material should carry a credit to the "Leith Family" and provide a hyperlink to this website.
Rusty's biography - Duty Done
Further information about this material and Rusty can be found in his biography Duty Done, available as a Kindle edition on Amazon.com

Purchase Duty Done
An extraordinary life
Russell Leith lived through extraordinary times, and he experienced extraordinary events. All of which experiences he had a remarkable skill in turning to positive benefit to himself and those around him, and in this way become an extraordinary person. Even the experiences which must have been unbearably painful.

Born in a sugar-growing village in the far-off island in the middle of the Pacific, he was packed off to boarding school across the ocean at the age of just 8. Seeing his parents three or fewer times a year, he remained in boarding schools in Fiji and then Australia till he was 15 when he was required to leave school to help support his family. Still only 15, he endured the experience of his mother collapsing and dying in front of him.
He went off to a horrifying war in distant Europe. He watched his mates die in flaming Spitfires.

He gained a step-mother. He was confined in a tuberculosis sanitorium for a year and a half. And later, he endured the loss of the woman of his life, his wife Meg, followed by 27 years of faithful widowhood.

Those close to him know that these experiences took their toll on him, but at the same time made him stronger, kinder and wiser. In his unique brave way, he treated them as challenges he could overcome.

Learn more about Rusty

Rusty LeitH AM DFC

An Australian Spitfire Pilot’s wartime memorabilia and photos.

Service as a Spitfire pilot

Information for researchers

Rusty's biography - Duty Done

An extraordinary life