Ron Collins in Australia

February 10th 2023

Ron Collins, our oldest member, is currently enjoying an extended holiday with relatives, in Australia. Ron has made the headlines of the local Probus Magazines, and we thought you might like to read his story. The article is reproduced here:

“I was a 22-year-old Radar Technician in the Royal Air Force in North Africa when the Italian Government decided to change sides and join the allies. As a result. the Germans and allies rushed off to take over territory held by the Italians. The Germans took over the prime Island of Rhodes and the allies had islands in the Dodecanese which were Kos and Leros. In the Winter of 1943, there was the battle of Leros where unfortunately the British and Italians that were there were defeated, and I was taken as a prisoner of war. I was shipped across on one of the last two ships from Leros to the port of Pyrias in Athens. Unfortunately, at least one of the ships carrying many prisoners of war was sunk by what was later referred to as “allied action”. Several thousand prisoners, including British soldiers, drowned. We were paraded down the main streets of  Athens as propaganda action in front of large crowds of completely silent Greeks because it was the last success that the Germans had in the War. When we were held there in Athens we were then put in a cattle truck with straw and barbed wire and transported to a fleet of goods trains that took us North to Germany. It was a very eventful affair with many adventures. When we arrived in Frankfurt to my surprise, I was taken off the train and taken to a unit called Dulag Luft which was a prison. I was put in solitary confinement and eventually interrogated, then transported up to the North Atlantic coast to Stetin and arrived at the POW camp, Stalag Luft 1 in October 1943. When the war ended, Russian tanks and

personnel came and liberated us in the POW camp. In the days following the Liberation. there were no services, no food or water and after a few days the operation to repatriate us all began. We were flown from an airstrip close to the POW camp to Ford (UK) airdrome. I arrived home in the UK with ulcerated legs that required surgery, and significant malnutrition and weight loss. I spent some time in a wheelchair during my convalescence. In November 1945 I returned to service in the RAF and was given a priority discharge in June 1946. After leaving the RAF worked for Sir Alan Cobham who was an RAF pilot who had pioneered the route from London to Sydney via Africa and who was quite a character. He was very much involved in in-flight refuelling, and he had carried out several tests prior to the war. I joined him and helped to convert Lancaster bombers to British standards and meet Civil Aviation requirements. After that operation very fortunately the Berlin Airlift started. I ran a radio and radar workshop in Hanover and Hamburg for Flight Refuelling during the Berlin Airlift which lasted approximately 10 months. After this, I joined the Ministry of Civil Aviation Authority in the UK at Heathrow Airport to develop a ground approach system to replace the American system that had been in use up to that point. After this, I joined the War Office to put a call out for ex-radar personnel to service and maintain their artillery unit which was radar controlled along the south coast of the UK. I joined them and spent some 37 years when it became the Ministry of Defence [Army] and I ran various workshops. I retired at the age of 60 and after a short time, I realised that I was not ready to retire so I spent nine years with a security and access control firm dealing with security and access solutions which included a security install at Buckingham Palace. I attach a photo of my Father who served in World War I as a mounted cavalryman and luckily survived and went on to live a long life until the age of 96. Ironically, l survived a similar fate in Leros engineered by Churchill in World War II in a similar area of the World because of Churchill’s belief that we should “attack the soft belly of the access”. I am a Member of the Salisbury Probus Club in the UK which is a men’s only Club. I was humbled to be appointed an honorary member on my 100th birthday and delighted to have been welcomed by a Probus Club in Brisbane. I was delighted to see that both men and women are encouraged to participate.”   

We are honoured to have Ron as an ambassador for our club, and wish him ‘happy holidays’ and a safe return to the UK and all his Probus friends