Norm Ginn, a crowd favourite with a colourful WWII history, has flown his last mission

One of SA’s last remaining WWII airmen - and a familiar face at Anzac and Remembrance Day services – has died aged 98.

One of South Australia’s most celebrated WWII veterans has died.

Victor Harbor man Norm Ginn, 98, was a regular at official Anzac Day and Remembrance Day ceremonies because of his colourful history in Bomber Command as a wireless operator in the famed British Lancaster bomber.

He joined the RAAF aged only 18, and soon became a wireless operator flying dangerous missions over occuptied Europe.

Norm Ginn as a trainee airman in 1942. Picture: Australian War Memorial

Mr Ginn was honoured in the Australian War Memorial’s Second World War Veterans Project. Picture: Australian War Memorial

Mr Ginn’s life was celebrated by family and more than 100 mourners.

One of his four children, Coralie, delivered a eulogy.

“My dad was an ordinary man and most of his life was fairly ordinary,” she said.

“For most of his 98 years he lived in a quiet and ordinary manner, but his honest, decent and dutiful approach saw him achieve some extraordinary things.

“As children we were always keen on hearing his war experiences and he was happy to tell us.

“He was quite amused to tell us he spent his 21st birthday as a guest of Herr Hitler as a POW.”

Norm Ginn (3rd from left) and his 460SQN Lancaster crew. Picture: Australian War Memorial

The four Rolls-Royce-engined Avro Lancaster bomber was one of the most recognisable WWII British aircraft, and the backbone of air superiority over Germany.

His near-100 year life could have ended very differently. With more than 1100 killed, Mr Ginn’s 460 squadron lost its entire strength five times over during the war. It remains the highest casualty rate of any unit in the history of the RAAF.

Mr Ginn’s luck in the aircraft ran out on his fifteenth mission, a bombing raid over Berlin in December 1943. The machine gunner bailed out of the flaming craft to safety, but was captured. Held first by the Germans, and later Russian forces, Mr Ginn returned to Australia in 1945 and left the RAAF in 1947.

Norm Ginn was a local hero in Victor Harbor. Picture: Dean Martin

Although originally from Mildura, Mr Ginn retired to Victor Harbor in 1979 and became a high-profile community character.

Mr Ginn was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for support to the community in

2018, after almost forty years of service to the local community.

He was an active member of the RSL and for thirty-five years he was a volunteer at the south coast District Hospital tending gardens.