Pilot Officer Antonio Simmons Dini

Antonio Dini was born in Christchurch on 17 January 1918. He received his secondary education at the Christchurch Technical College, obtaining his University Entrance Certificate and Engineers Preliminary Certificate. His school sports included rugby, swimming and badminton, becoming a member of the Colleges 1st XV 1935-36 and senior athletics champ for 1935.

For five years he was a military cadet in the aircraft squadron of the Technical College and after leaving college was employed as a junior mechanic with the Post & Telegraph Department. 
 
Applying for a short service commission in the RAF he sailed to England aboard the Ruahine on 1st December 1937. After training Dini was granted the rank of Acting Pilot Officer in March 1938 and during April was posted to No. 3 Flying Training School at Shellingford. In October he was posted to the School of Naval Co-operation on flying duties. 
 
In May 1939 he was transferred to No. 750 Squadron for flying duties on loan to the Royal Navy and four months later was posted to No. 66 Squadron. 
 
After a period of short administrative duties with the RAF he was posted in April 1940 to 607 Squadron who were based at Abbeville, France. No. 607 Squadron, having been there since November 1939, had only recently re-equipped with Hawker Hurricane’s - relinquishing their biplane Gloster Gladiators. 
 
On the 10th May Germany invaded Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg and Dini was involved in the action immediately. On this day in three attacks on enemy bombers he was able to claim two Heinkel He 111’s destroyed and two damaged. His first encounter took place near Lille when, after an initial burst, the enemy machine emitted a cloud of oil and smoke and was last seen diving towards the ground. Shortly afterwards he was on patrol with another pilot from his squadron when they intercepted seven Heinkels over Audenarde. 
 
Dini attacked the last aircraft and saw it fall away and crash in flames. His third encounter of the day took place in the evening, when he intercepted three Heinkels near Douai. Smoke poured from both engines of the machine he attacked, but oil on the windscreen of his Hurricane prevented observation of its fate. 
 
On the 11th May, flying Hurricane P2572 (AF-B) he shared in the destruction of a further Heinkel He 111 north east of Brussels. 
 
On the 13th May he destroyed a Messerschmitt Bf-109E near Diest, and on the 17th destroyed a Dornier Do-17 east of Cambrai and two Heinkel He 111’s near Binche. 
 
For eleven hectic days the squadron had battled in impossible conditions, losing many aircraft on the ground due to bombing. 
 
Records for this period are lost but it is known that on 19th May the ground personnel left for England, eventually sailing from Boulogne on the 20th and the remnants of No. 607 re-assembled at Croydon on the 22nd. The squadron claimed 72 enemy aircraft destroyed during that eleven day battle. In eight days of battle Dini had shot down five enemy aircraft, shared destroyed two, damaged two and shot down a further three inconclusively. 
 
Upon his return to England he was posted to No. 605 Squadron based at Hawkinge in Kent and on the 31st May 1940 Dini, aged 22, was killed in a flying accident in Kent. 
 
Pilot Officer Antonio Simmons Dini, No 40609, is buried in the Borough Cemetery, Hawkinge, Folkestone, England.