550 Squadron Photos

F/O A C Bothe and Crew

The F/O Bothe crew, listed below, joined 550 Squadron in mid-March 1945:

Pictured below the F/O Bothe crew:

L-to-R: F/O Bothe, F/Sgt Wiltshire, F/O Collins, Sgt Andrews, Sgt Williams, Sgt Barton, Sgt Knight

F/Sgt J H Andrews (F/Eng)

A presentation of items (photos, notebooks, etc) was made to the 550 Association Museum by the daughter of F/Sgt J H Andrews (F/Eng) over the 2012 Remembrance weekend: see /pages/remembrance-sunday-2012.php.

F/O S W Collins (A/B)

Below is a composite photo which identifies F/O S W Collins in the Commissioned Bomb Aimers and Bomb Aimers on Parade photographs. Sidney Walter Collins is already identified in the F/O AC Bothe crew photograph (above). Also included is a shot of Sidney in his uniform at a seaside town (possibly Brighton?) and a photo of him teaching Royal Canadian Air Cadets in the summer of 1958. Sea Island is now occupied by Vancouver International Airport (YVR).

In addition to a long career as an electrical inspector for the British Columbia government, Sidney Collins taught ground school and meteorology for many decades at Abbotsford Airport (YXX). Sidney was also one of the founding members of the Abbotsford International Airshow in Abbotsford, BC Canada. Sidney Collins died on August 8, 2006.

Photo and information kindly made available by Graham Collins (son of F/O Collins).

Sidney Walter Collins (of Reading, England)

Sgt Fred Knight (R/AG)

Sgt Fred Knight flew as a rear gunner with the F/O Bothe crew (and others) in early-mid 1945. The pictures below are from Fred Knight's log books, showing a mix of flights with HCU prior to joining 550 Squadron, training flights after joining 550 and live ops while with the Squadron. Look out for comments like "piece of cake" and "bags of flak".

	Training in Wellingtons with 16 OTU Log book pages scanned and kindly made available by Christian Wood
	Training with 1667 HCU, Sandtoft Log book pages scanned and kindly made available by Christian Wood
	Ops with 550 Squadron March/April 1945 Log book pages scanned and kindly made available by Christian Wood
	Flights with F/Sgt Blower July 1945 Log book pages scanned and kindly made available by Christian Wood

Christian is trying to find out about the crew: if any of the crew are still alive, what happened after they disbanded, what happened when they returned to civvy street, etc. If you have any information then please email the web-site so that the information can be passed on. The email address is available from the Contact link at the bottom of the page.