Keith Chisholm

Chisholm was born in Petersham, New South Wales, and educated at Newington College (1930–1936).Newington College Register of Past Students 1863–1998 (Syd, 1999) pp34 While training as a dentist, war broke out, and he joined the Royal Australian Air Force, in 1940 and trained with the Empire Air Training Scheme in Canada, being one of the first Australian graduates.[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article44960699 The Advertiser, Adelaide, 8 October 1941][http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article50001096 Barrier Miner, Broken Hill, NSW, 21 May 1945]

Image:K.W.Truscott and K.B. Chisholm, 452 Squadron, September 20, 1941.jpg (left) and Sergeant Chisholm (centre) of No. 452 (Spitfire) Squadron RAAF at an RAF station, with the Squadron Intelligence Officer, 20 September 1941]]

In May 1941 he was assigned to 452 squadron, a Royal Australian Air Force squadron which belonged to the RAF Kenley Wing. In August and September 1941, he was responsible for 7 "kills," while flying Spitfire Mark Vs, however he was shot down near Berck-sur-Mer, on 1 October 1941, and parachuted into the sea. The official Australian War History notes:

{{cquote|In Chisholm the squadron lost a pilot of outstanding ability who had contributed greatly to its record of achievements. His subsequent exploits... may serve to indicate the character of these early non-professional pilots.}}

He was captured by the Germans and sent to Lamsdorf Prisoner of War camp.John Hetherington (1954) Air War Against Germany and Italy 1939–1943.[Australia in the war of 1939–1945. Series 3, Air; v. 3] Australian War Memorial, Canberra. pp.140–142 . In April 1942 he and another RAAF airman exchanged identities with two soldiers and were able to join a working party outside the camp. In June, Chisholm and several others escaped, but they were recaptured near Brno, in Czechoslovakia, and returned to Lamsdorf Prisoner of War camp.

In August 1942, having again swapped his identity, Chisholm and three others managed to escape from a work camp near Gliwice in occupied Poland. After a week they made contact with sympathetic Poles from Home Army and were taken to a resistance leader in Kraków. Chisholm lived with a Polish family in Warsaw for much of this time. Various plans for escape back to England were developed and abandoned as the war progressed.{{Cite book |last=Douw van der Krap |first=Charles L. J. F. |title=Przeciw swastyce |last2=Turczyn |first2=Ryszard |date=2011 |publisher=Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie Oddział Publicat |isbn=978-83-245-9035-3 |location=Wrocław; Poznań}}{{Rp|pages=|page=198}}

The official account of his escape notes a degree of audacity in his activities; on one occasion, when a fellow escapee's papers ({{ill|Charles Douw van der Krap|pl}}) were challenged in Poland, he pushed a German policeman into the Vistula river to effect their escape (the German subsequently drowned; according to Krap diary, however, Chisholm overreacted to a routine document check, which endangered them and caused Krap's, whose document was recovered by the Germans; much trouble, forcing him into hiding).{{Rp|pages=201–204}} Finally, in March 1944, Chisholm and another Dutch escapee, {{ill|Frederik Kruimink|nl}}, left Poland by train for Berlin, using money and forged papers obtained from the Polish resistance.{{Rp|pages=206–207}}

After a day spent in Berlin; "Visiting cinemas, viewing bomb damage and dining in restaurants," Chisholm and his partner departed by train for Brussels. After many delays, Chisholm reached Paris on 10 May 1944. Here he lived with a policeman and joined the French Forces of the Interior, until, with liberation, he was able to return to England on 30 August 1944.[http://www.conscript-heroes.com/MI9-05.html WWII Escape and Evasion Information Exchange website]

Official War historian John Hetherington commented: {{cquote|For more than two years he had by tenacity, effrontery and resilience kept himself free in enemy territory and despite repeated failures as his successive plans neared fruition, had finally surmounted all difficulties and escaped completely.}}

Chisholm was the first Empire trainee to win the Distinguished Flying Medal.

After the war, Chisholm sponsored a member of the family who had hidden him, Polish lawyer and former underground member Halina Kozubowska, to come to Australia. He met her on arrival in Sydney with other refugees in November 1946.[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18003746 Sydney Morning Herald, 26 November 1946][http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47507407 Australian Women's Weekly 4 Jan 1947]

"I always fall on my feet" he told the Western Mail in 1952, following his engagement to 24-year-old Eliane Defferriere, in Paris in 1952.[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page3695418 Western Mail, Perth. 3 July 1952] After the war he became a woolbuyer,[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51595637 Australian Women’s Weekly, 2 July 1952] moving to Andover, Massachusetts in 1957.

Chisholm died in 1991,

[http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/AARG/kbchisholm.html Warbirds Resources Group] survived by his second wife, Marie-France, and four children. A memorial service was held in the Newington College Chapel.The Newingtonian (Syd, 1991) pp213 In 1993, his ashes were returned to Australia by his widow and stepson and interred, with full military honours, at Rookwood Cemetery with a Newington College Guard of Honour.The Newingtonian (Syd, 1993) pp220

{{Portal|Biography}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chisholm, Keith Bruce}}

Category:1918 births

Category:1991 deaths

Category:Australian World War II flying aces

Category:People educated at Newington College

Category:Military personnel from Sydney

Category:Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Medal

Category:Recipients of the Military Cross

Category:Royal Australian Air Force officers

Category:Royal Australian Air Force personnel of World War II

Category:World War II prisoners of war held by Germany