The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (406423) Flying Officer Colin Levings, No. 512 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Second World War.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Sharon Bown, the story for this day was on (406423) Flying Officer Colin Levings, No. 512 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Second World War.

406423 Flying Officer Colin Levings, No. 512 Squadron, Royal Air Force
Killed in flying accident 21 March 1944
Story delivered 19 April 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Flying Officer Colin Levings.

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, on 23 July 1911, Colin Levings was the son of Agnes and Ferdinand Levings. Colin’s father had been awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal during the First World War, and when the family emigrated to New Zealand, he maintained a connection to the military, serving with the North Auckland Mounted Rifles in the late 1920s. Moving to Australia, Levings took up residence in Subiaco, Western Australia. On 31 January 1939 he married Minnie Vennetta Louise and they had a daughter, Colleen Minnie Levings, born in March 1941.

Before enlisting in the Royal Australian Air Force in December 1940, Levings had worked in a variety of professions. He had done pastoral work, worked as a physical balance instructor, and as a miner in Kalgoorlie. Following his enlistment in the RAAF, Levings began training as a navigator.

In September 1941, Levings embarked for overseas service. As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, Levings was one of almost 27,500 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, gunners, and engineers who, throughout the course of the war, joined Royal Air Force squadrons or Australian squadrons based in Britain.
Levings continued his training in Kenya, before joining the RAF in the Middle East. There he joined No. 45 Squadron, Royal Air Force, as it was preparing to be posted to Burma in the initial stages of the campaign following Japan’s entry into the war.

During the British retreat from Burma, No. 45 squadron carried out bombing raids against the Japanese as they moved from Magwe to Mandalay to Lashio. Eventually the squadron moved to an airfield near Calcutta in India, from where they flew operations against the Japanese in Burma. After 12 months, Levings joined No. 34 Squadron, flying Blenheims in the Burma theatre – and in December 1943 he was posted to Britain.

In early 1944 Levings joined no. 512 Squadron, a transport squadron that had begun retraining as a tactical Dakota squadron in order to tow gliders and drop paratroops during the forthcoming Normandy landings, and to support ground forces in Western Europe.

On 21 March 1944, after taking off from RAF Broadwell in Oxfordshire, Levings’ Dakota crashed into a wooded hillside which had been veiled by low cloud cover. Levings, his two British crewmates and two passengers were all killed.

Colin Levings was 32. His body was recovered from the crash site and buried in Brookwood Military Cemetery in Britain.

His name is listed here on the Roll of Honour on my left, among almost 40,000 Australians who died while serving in the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Flying Officer Colin Levings, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section