Flight Lieutenant John Beeching has died. Photo: Supplied
Flight Lieutenant John Beeching, one of last remaining RAF Bomber Command veterans from World War II, has died.
Beeching served as a Mosquito pilot with 169 Squadron in the latter stages of the Second World War.
He died in Nelson on Wednesday, where he had lived for the last 55 years. He was 101 years old.
New Zealand Bomber Command Association vice president Lindsay Mouat said Beeching grew up in the East End of London and lived through the Blitz, which encouraged him to volunteer for the Royal Air Force while he was still in his teens.
Beeching then went to Canada to train and became a qualified pilot in July 1943. After operational training, he flew in the 169 Squadron at the beginning of 1945.
Mouat said he flew the famed De Havilland Mosquito, the Mossie or 'Wooden Wonder', on night intruder operations against German night fighters over Europe.
"He was essentially part of a special group, 100 group, which were using technical means to sabotage German defences against the RAF bombers."
Photo: Supplied
Beeching had spoken of doing spoof raids, to confuse the enemies.
"We dropped couple of tonnes of target indicators to get the Germans going and of course the main stream would turn off and go somewhere else, which was all part and parcel of the deceit, you know."
Beeching told RNZ in 2017 that his strongest memory was not any near-death experience, but getting back to the mess and having a couple of beers.
"We flew long operations over Germany - up to six hours some of them - and in the Mosquito that's a long way. It took us to the borders of Czechoslovakia and back, so it was a long way."
He said then that he was not sure where his final resting place might be - but he would be happy to have his ashes scattered over Tasman Bay, and he intended to pay homage to a favourite comedian Spike Milligan, by having his infamous epitaph engraved on his plaque: "I told you I was ill."
Beeching flew the famed De Havilland Mosquito. Photo: Supplied
Beeching was an employee at the Cawthron Institute in Nelson until his retirement at the age of 100 last year, where he worked several mornings a week fixing everything from microscopes to test tubes.
Last year, he told the Nelson Mail what he thought the secret to a long life was.
"You can drink gallons of beer, cover all your food with great big blizzards of salt, smoke till you're 40 and you'll live forever," he told the newspaper.
Mouat said following Beeching's death, there were now just two RAF Bomber Command veterans left in New Zealand who flew operations during WWII.
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