550 Squadron Crew

F/O J O Richard DFC and Crew

F/O Richard and crew were posted to 550 Sqdn from 100 Sqdn "C" Flight w.e.f 25/11/1943. They were in fact the first crew in the list of transferred crews on the date of squadron formation.

F/O J O Richard posted in as P/O Richard, but by the time of his first operation he was already F/O; he transferred out of 550 at the end of his tour as F/Lt Richard DFC.

The crew completed their tour at the end of May 1944 and were posted out between 10 and 17 June 1944.

Thanks to Rodney Rate (son of F/Sgt Rate) for making the photos below available.

F/Sgt William George Rate

F/Sgt Rate

Aircraft on fire on the ground

Two unknown airmen

Compass used by F/Sgt Rate, and which he
bought home and his son used at school

Group photo (possibly a mix of air-crew and ground-crew)
Since F/Sgt Rate is present it is/was thought perhaps it could be the F/O Richard crew
The location is not known, it may be North Killingholme or one of the postings included in the log book page attached below

The request from Rod Rate is that if anyone can identify other faces in the picture he would be delighted to hear from them.
Please email the web-site (contact details at the foot of the page) if you have any information about the men in the photograph.

	Aircraft being serviced (PDF format, picture)
	Page from F/Sgt Rate pay book which has references to North Killingholme base (PDF format, picture)
	Page from F/Sgt Rate log book showing postings (PDF format, picture)

F/Sgt W G Rate RAAF (W/Op)

Many thanks to Rob Rate (son of William George Rate) for the following story concerning his father post-war.

"I thought you might also be interested in a story about my dad. It goes like this.

While at Killinghome, Bill met the daughter of the English base commander. When he finished his tour sometime in 1945, he was sent to Italy to do some training work of some kind. We don't know the details but nor did the daughter of the base commander, who we have since found out, thought that he must have been killed. Neither made contact.

Well Bill returned home to Fremantle Western Australia in early 1946 and recommenced building a family (I was born in 1941 before he joined the Air Force). He and my mother Jean had 3 girls and another boy. Mum died suddenly in 1981 and Bill lived alone at 416 Canning Highway (which he built before he went to war) on his own for the ensuing 6 years. Then one day, an amazing thing happened.

Two ladies from Bill's lawn bowls club in Hilton near Fremantle were playing a slot machine in a casino in Las Vegas.
An American speaking lady who was an employee of the casino and on her way home, sat down beside them. Shortly later she said "Where do you ladies come from?"
To which they replied "Australia".
The American said "I can hear that, but where in Australia?"
They said "Western Australia". To which the American said "Where in particular in Western Australia?"
They replied "Fremantle".
And the American said "Well I'm in fact British born but I married an American serviceman and we brought our 4 boys up here in Las Vegas. However, during the war, I was the daughter of the North Killinghome base commander and I met an Aussie from Fremantle called Bill Rate."
And they said "He plays bowls at our lawn bowls club in Hilton"!

Well they came home and got up in front of the mob at the Hilton Park bowling club and given that mother Jean had been a long term bowler at the same club, as we say in Australia 'did him over'. Bill went home and called the American lady who had given her details to the aussies (her husband had also passed away) and invited her to come to Australia for a holiday. She came for 3 weeks and then returned to Las Vegas. The next year she returned and stayed for 6 months and took up lawn bowls with Bill. Then she went back to the US. The next year she returned to oz and she became our stepmother!

They had 10 years together before dad died and she returned to the States. Unfortunately she passed away about two years later. So how about that for a crewman of 550 Squadron?

Some of this detail may not be exactly correct but it is an incredible story don't you think?"