Johnny Checketts
New Zealand flying ace (1912-2006)
John Milne Checketts, (20 February 1912 – 21 April 2006) was a New Zealand flying ace of the Second World War, who was credited with the destruction of 14+1⁄2 enemy aircraft, three probably destroyed and 11 damaged.
Born in Invercargill, Checketts worked as a mechanic before joining the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) in October 1940. After completing his flight training he was sent to the United Kingdom to serve with the Royal Air Force. From January 1942, he flew with No. 485 (NZ) Squadron before being posted to No. 611 Squadron. He returned to No. 485 Squadron in August 1943 as its commander but two months later was shot down over occupied France. He was returned to the United Kingdom by the French Resistance. He later commanded a wing carrying out operations in support of the D-Day landings and escorting heavy bombers on raids into Germany.
“Johnny Checketts” enters the record as new Zealand flying ace (1912-2006). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Johnny, Checketts and Zealand can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Johnny Checketts” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.