Australia's diminishing ranks of Spitfire pilots has been depleted further with the death on 30 November of Ted Sly, DFC MID.
Ted was almost part of the furniture at the Temora Aviation Museum, where he could be found regularly signing copies of his book The Luck of the Draw. A brother-in-arms with Bobby Gibbes, Clive Caldwell, Ray Thorold-Smith, Bruce Watson, "Widge" Gleed and author Paul Brickhill, Ted made his mark flying in the defence of Australia in the Second World War.
Edward Lyell Livingstone Sly was born in Oxford, UK, during April 1918. His father George, an Australian, was a cavalryman and later observer with the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War. The young Sly was born a Great Great Grandson of the explorer and engineer Sir Thomas Mitchell.
The Slys returned to Australia, and in his teenage years Ted had a short-lived career in banking in Sydney before turning his hand to jackeroo work near Charters Towers and then to a sheep station near Gunnedah. At the outbreak of the second war in Europe in less than 25 years, Ted enlisted in the 7th Light Horse before lured into an RAAF career. It was a career path that echoed that of his father's military service.
Under the Empire Air Training Scheme, he did his flight training at 1IFTS Lindfield and in Southern Rhodesia. It was here that fate dealt Ted a favourable turn. The night before graduation as a Sergeant Pilot, he was unexpectedly promoted to Pilot Officer, meaning his posting in the RAF switched from Singapore to the UK. Most of the pilots who went to Singapore were killed trying to resist the Japanese with Brewster Buffaloes or were captured when the island capitulated.
Among those who introduced Ted to Spitfire operations were Australian Tony Gaze and "Bluey" Truscott, CO at Ted's first operational squadron, 452 Sqn RAAF. He wasn't there long before another posting took him into North Africa to fly P-40 Kittyhawks with 450 squadron and his first combat sortie; a "Stuka Party" intercepting Ju87 divebombers.
"One of the most important 'training' exercises for a fighter pilot was his first combat experience," Sly would later write in The Luck of the Draw. "There was no textbook or training exercise that adequately prepared us for someone using their guns and cannon on our aircraft.
"Operational flying to escort convoys and searching for enemy positions were all static roles compared to combat, which occurred in seconds and in no time, was over."
Most of Ted's flying in North Africa was with 92 Sqn RAF on MkV Spitfires fitted with Vokes filters. He flew in support of the Battle of El Alamein and the push to drive Rommel's Afrika Korps out of Cyrenaica and back to Tripoli. On one mission his aircraft was holed, he believed, by the German ace Hans-Joachim Marseille.
Ted's time in the desert ended in 1944, when he was posted back to Australia. He wanted to remain with the RAF, but HQ RAAF was beckoning and before long he was with 2 Operational Training Unit at Mildura. That gave him a chance to reunite with Bobby Gibbes, who he had met during his days with 450 Sqn.
With his combat experience, Ted was a logical choice to take up a role as Flight Commander with 457 Sqn at Batchelor. 457 was part of 90 Wing, under the command of Group Captain Caldwell, another North Africa veteran, with Bobby Gibbes as Wing Commander. It was Sly's idea to borrow the shark mouth concept from 112 Sqn RAF that ended with the squadron nick-named Grey Nurse. The paint scheme survives today on the Temora Aviation Museum's Spitfire, which is painted in Bobby Gibbes' markings.
This posting took Ted to several bases throughout the South Pacific as the Japanese were forced back: Moratai, Labuan and the Phillippines. It was at Clark Field that Ted and other 457 pilots flew their Spitfires in trials against captured and rebuilt Japanese fighters. The US Army Air Force had requested 90 Wing to assist with the advance to Okinawa, but HQ RAAF had refused, leaving the wing effectively doing mopping up operations.
Edward Sly was discharged from the RAAF in January 1946, having completed two operational tours and one as an instructor.
Post-war, Ted married Irene Bettington and the two turned to a farming life, raising a family on property near Gunnedah. Later, he returned to the South Pacific, trying his hand at rice farming on Guadalcanal.
But according to Bobby Gibbes, Ted Sly's greatest achievement is the "living memorial" to the Spitfires of WWII. Ted established a fund that is now known as the Spitfire Memorial Defence Fellowship at the University of NSW and the ADF Academy.
In his later years, Ted Sly penned his autobiography The Luck of the Draw, and reveled in watching the Grey Nurse Spitfire flying at Temora Aviation Museum.
He truly was a great exponent of Supermarine's magnificent creation.