Early life

Rusty was born in Vanua Levu, Fiji on 5 May 1922. He was the elder son of Colin and Eileen (nee Watson) Leith. Colin was then the manager of a sugar-growing estate for the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (CSR). Rusty had one sibling, a younger brother Ian (1923-).

At the age of eight, Rusty left the sugar estate to become a boarder at Suva Boys’ Grammar School on the main island of Viti Levu. He would come home three times a year. One of his year mates was Dennis McCaig who would later join 249 Fighter Squadron and was shot down twice but survived the war.

Perhaps Rusty's first experience of aviation was seeing the arrival of Charles Kingsford Smith’s plane Lady Southern Cross when it landed in Suva on 29 October 1934 on a flight from Brisbane to Oakland USA.

At the age of 13, he became a boarder at The Armidale School in northern New South Wales, Australia but at 15, to help support the family, left school and started work as a junior clerk with CSR in Sydney.

Life as in Australian Spitfire Pilot

At 18 he enlisted in the RAAF. His flying log book records the "first flight of my life" on 24 July 1941. After completing initial flying training in Australia and Canada, he moved to England in July 1942 for advanced training. He joined 453 RAAF Squadron at Drem, east of Edinburgh, exactly 12 months since that first flight. He realised he still had a lot to learn when, on landing after his first encounter with the enemy, he found that in his rush to "scramble" he had forgotten to fasten his safety straps and parachute. In September 1942, the squadron was moved to Hornchurch in Essex. In October 8, 1943, Rusty shot down two of five Messerschmitt Bf-110s his squadron destroyed in a single encounter off the Cornish coast.

In July 1944, during the Battle of Normandy, he and 11 other Spitfires of 453 Squadron were directed to intercept enemy planes in the Lisieux area. Rusty shared in shooting down one of them over enemy territory after a long chase. But with insufficient fuel to return to friendly territory, he opted to make a belly landing behind enemy lines rather than bale out. He was picked up by the Resistance and taken to a safe house where Jean and Renee Renoult were already sheltering two American airmen. The three remained hidden in an attic at the Renoult farmhouse until it was liberated by Canadian soldiers on 22 August. (See the Memorabilia/On the Run in France page of this website.)

Rusty resumed to operational flying in September 1944, by which time the squadron was based at Douai in northern France, providing air support for Operation Market Garden, the disastrous attempt to take the bridge over the Rhine at Arnhem -- the "bridge too far" battle.

On 27 September, he was flying one of six Spitfires that chased 50 Bf-109s and made his final ''kill'' of the war. It was also the squadron's last dogfight; two days later it was relocated to the RAF station at Coltishall in Norfolk.

By this time, the main threat to Britain was the V-2 rockets launched from Holland. The squadron was the first to be equipped with Mark XVI Spitfires; they were configured as dive bombers, with clipped wings and bomb racks under the wings. On 15 January 1945, Rusty was promoted to flight lieutenant, and 10 days later was informed that he had been awarded the DFC, which he later received from King George VI at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

The squadron's last raid on V-2s was on 30 March 1945, and early the following month they moved to Lympne in east Kent, to begin bomber escort duties in daylight over Germany.

On 25 April, Rusty led 453 Squadron on its last offensive operation in the European theatre of war, on the East Frisian island of Wangerooge.

Life after the war

Back in Australia, he was discharged on the 15 October 1945. After the war, he returned to work at CSR in Sydney, and in December 1945 married Meg Gwilliam, who worked for the same company.

In July 1949, he was diagnosed with ''mild'' tuberculosis, and spent the next 16 months in hospital and then a sanatorium. He put the time to good use, completing an accounting qualification.

In January 1970, he was appointed CSR's regional manager in Perth, Western Australia. When he retired in 1979, he plunged into the community service roles that had already characterised his professional life. This was recognised in 1994 when he was made a Member of the Order of Australia. He served on several boards and also played an active role in worker safety. In 1990, he became federal president of the National Safety Council of Australia.

Rusty died in Perth on 22 March 2010 aged 87.

The Spitfire Mark XVI (below) that he flew on the last raid against the V-2 rocket sites at Leiden is now part of the Temora Aviation Museum collection in Australia.

The canopy of the aircraft which he belly-landed in France in 1944 was recovered in 2000 after having sheltered a farmer's tomato plants for 50 years, and is on display at The Armidale School in Australia.

On the Unsung Heroes website, Rusty describes a dogfight over the Atlantic Ocean in which he shot down a Messerschmitt 110 twin-engine fighter but was almost shot down himself.

Rusty LeitH AM DFC

An Australian Spitfire Pilot’s wartime memorabilia and photos.

Wartime Memorabilia