Joining the Royal Air Force as an aircraftman 2nd class (service number 1314695) in February 1941, he completed pilot training in the United States in Georgia, Alabama and Florida.

[2] Equipped with the North American P-51 Mustang, 268 Squadron flew "rhubarbs" (low level sweeps) to attack enemy shipping off the Dutch coast and ground targets such as troop transports and military railway freight.

On 26 November 1942, during a mission over the Netherlands he shot down a Messerschmitt Bf 109 near Elburg and minutes later a Junkers Ju 52 transport aircraft near Oldebroek.

They broke into twos and Bethell joined Les Long known to all as "Cookie",[11] hoping to cross the Czech border about 40 miles distant.

Snow and flooding forced them to alter their route toward Frankfurt an der Oder where they hoped to hop on a freight train and escape to Sweden.

On release from wartime service he joined the trading company Gellatly Hankey in Africa working in the Khartoum and Addis Ababa area until boredom led him to rejoin the general duties branch of the Royal Air Force as a flight lieutenant on 7 December 1949.

[5] He was initially employed in the brokerage business in Montreal, he worked for Elican, a Belgian company and later joined the financial services industry.

On retiring in the early 1990s he and his wife Lorna moved to a farm at Caledon, Ontario, north of Toronto, where he spent much time on a John Deere tractor cutting fallow hayfields.