Scotland, May 1942

It is difficult, more than fifty years later, to appreciate the effect on a young twenty-year-old of being handed "the keys” to a Spitfire and told to take it up for a spin.

Dressed in helmet, goggles, leather gauntlets and battle dress he swung himself into the cockpit and adjusted the parachute so that he was sitting on it like a cushion. The first impression was how tight everything was. His shoulders touched the sides leaving little room for movement so that he was immediately at one with the aeroplane.

Above the Atlantic, October 1943

The two pilots now engaged in a furious dogfight, each trying to out-manoeuvre the other to deliver a fatal stream of machine gun or cannon fire. They dived, climbed and banked in a deadly game of cat and mouse, both pilots knowing that only one would survive.

“He’s good,” thought Russell.

Suddenly the Me-110 appeared to shake Russell off and made another dash for home, again at wave top level.

Rusty was interviewed for the Australians at War Film Archive on 19 July 2004.

The interview lasts roughly five hours and covers his life from his earliest memories of growing up in Fiji, the war years, his working life and service to the community in retirement.

There is also a full transcript of the interview.