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FLTLT Wilfred Stafford Needham 407447

Squadron/s76 SQN
457 SQN
Rank On Discharge/Death Flight Lieutenant (FLTLT)
NicknameWilf
Mustering / SpecialisationPilot
Date of Birth11 Mar 1920
Date of Enlistment12 Oct 1940
Contributing Author/sPhil Listemann
David Hamilton
Updated by Vince Conant
August 2013
The Spitfire Association

Wilf was born on the 11/3/1920 at Renmark, SA.

He enlisted on the 12/10/1940 and after training to be a pilot graduated to fighters.

He first served with No 76 RAAF Squadron and later moved on to No 457 Squadron (Spitfires)

Wilf was discharged 22/11/1945

Wilf's RAAF personnel file has not been digitised as yet so there is little information about him but the squadrons that he served in were in the thick of the action in the Pacific theatre of war. He would have, like all pilots and ground personnel, experienced the worst of war.



Group portrait of participants commencing No 7 Pilots' Course at RAAF Point Cook, Victoria. Identified in the back row, from left to right: Leading Aircraftmen 407442 John Norman Muir McFarlane; 408856 Terence Desmond Madigan; 407399 Alan Wayne Archer; 407404 Maurice Arthur Blake; 408074 Noel Sherrin Geappen (died 16 February 1942 on operations over Sumatra); 408075 Roswell Aubrey Headlam (died 24 January 1942 in an accident in Burma); 04404 Maxwell Osman Carr; 407016 William Keith Bolitho; 407471 Laurence Roy Watson; 407443 Charles Brian McGrath; 407439 Lawrence Arthur Kirk; 407450 Frank Kenneth Smith (died 8 August 1943 in an accident at The Rock, NSW); 408090 Ronald Albert Heath Smith; Dixon; 407468 Murray Edgar Towill; and 407319 Dudley George Eve. Centre row: Leading Aircraftmen Kennedy; 407419 William Roger Francis; 407398 David Searle Ambrose (died 23 May 1942 in an accident in Tamworth, NSW); Rees; McClure; 407467 Robert Ward Threlfall; 407264 Bevan Lotwych West; 407463 Bryce Teasdale Stapledon; 407312 Rowell Wesley Amery; Adams; 407405 Maurice Everest Bridgland (died 28 October 1942 in an accident in the Gulf of Aden); 407476 Donald William Wickes (died 15 April 1944 on operations over South West Europe); 407477 Dennis de Courcy Wilson; 408078 Frank Deryck Ward (died 5 October 1941 on operations over the Middle East); 407475 Rex Malcolm Whitburn; and 407329 Eric Albert Magor (died 19 November 1941 on operations over the Middle East). Front row Leading Aircraftmen 407313 Gavin Anderson Atkinson; 407347 John Harry Hayward Williams; 407400 William Edwin Barclay; 407469 Peter Robinson Vickery; 407336 Lionel Henry Peake; 407431 Ronald Gordon Howland; 407403 Harold George Bennett; 407316 Robert Bruce Cock; 407452 Douglas Garfield Orchard; 407429 George Stacey Hodges; 407448 David Osborn Nightingale; 407435 John Evan Jenkins (died 21 September 1942 in an accident in Cootamundra, NSW); 400643 John Allan Burrage (died 21 February 1942 on operations over Sumatra); 407449 Colin Henry O'Loughlin; 407433 Lilini Sidne

Learn more about the squadron/s in which Wilfred served.

We do our very best to make sure the information in the stories we share is correct. These stories are maintained to show our respect for the pilots, ground crew, design engineers and all who were involved with the Spitfire. In many cases, the information has been collected from the personal interactions between our members and the pilots and crew featured, and on many occasions, this process happened much later in the veterans' lives. If you believe anything on our site is not historically accurate, we welcome the additional stories, records and photos needed to help us correct the record. We thank you for your understanding.