He was 97.
Its latest newsletter, The Talespinner, said Flying Officer Don Ivey RNZAF, NZ41191, French Legion of Honour, was one of the very last veterans of World War Two.
Mr Ivey was born in Timaru on June 6, 1922 and educated at Anama and, later, at Ashburton Technical School.
He later began shepherding at Mesopotamia and Ashley Gorge.
At the outbreak of war, Mr Ivey enlisted in the RNZAF and after basic training in Levin began training at Taieri, flying Tiger Moths.
He later went to Canada for advanced training.
His first posting was to No.4 Service Flying Training School, Saskatoon, in 1942, flying a twin-engine Cessna Crane.
His next posting was to Ontario where he flew Harvards, Avro Ansons and Airspeed Oxfords.
In 1943 Mr Ivey flew a de Havilland Mosquito after a posting to Nova Scotia.
There he teamed up with navigator Sergeant Ewan Waterer.
They went to High Ercall in England to begin a Night Intruder course in Mosquitoes.
Mr Ivey was rated "above average''.
He was then posted to Kent and flew his first war operation in May, 1944 when the squadron bombed St Tromo aerodrome in Belguim.
On D-Day, June 6, 1944 - Mr Ivey's 22nd birthday - he flew his seventh combat mission, in France.
In later flights he attacked trains and motor transports.
In December 1944, Mr Ivey put a Mosquito down in France, landing at night with one engine out.
It was his 63 operational sortie.
Yet, throughout his extensive operational flying, he was given neither a decoration or promotion to recognise his service.
The night missions he flew were dangerous as every train attacked had anti-aircraft guns.
In February 1945, Mr Ivey and his navigator flew their 66th and last operation with a daylight attack in Germany.
All but two of his flights were at night and most at low level, searching out enemy transport movements.
After the war, Mr Ivey returned to New Zealand and began farming at Ruapuna, Mid Canterbury.
He married Mary Branch in 1950 and they had two children, Basil and Suzanne.
In 2015, the aviation museum noted that France was beginning to acknowledge the contribution made by New Zealanders to its liberation.
The French Embassy was alerted to Mr Ivey's service and on October 9, 2015, museum members saw Mr Ivey receive the Medal of Knight of the French Legion of Honour from the French ambassador.
Mr Ivey told The Courier in 2015 that on one mission he recalled "streams of flame and glycol'' as a companion plane was hit and went down.
Of the 15 planes on that sortie, five went down.
He said getting the medal from France was a great honour.
[The Courier acknowledges information provided by the Aviation Museum for this story]
