Odd Bod Don Charlwood

Walter Eacott has written to us as follows - 

"I have just received an email from Doreen Burge, a publisher and daughter of famous Odd Bod Don Charlwood. Her mother Nell died on 22 March, age 97 and three quarters!

 Don was a Navigator on 103 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command, and completed a tour of ops in 1943. He became an author and wrote many books including “No Moon Tonight”, that detailed his training in Canada and subsequent ops on reaching England. Don met Nell, a Canadian lass, and their courtship whilst he was training may have been rather distracting for him! He died on 18 June 2012. I have attached a copy of his history from wikipedia, thinking that you may like to publish all or part of same for the website, especially the Military Section.

Regards,

Walter."

Thanks Walter. Don Charlwood’s story will certainly be of interest. Here is the Wikipedia entry.

"Military service:

In 1940 as war unfolded in Europe and France and the Low Countries fell he signed up for the RAAF and was placed on the reserve. For the rest of 1940, Charlwood worked at The 21 Lessons – a course to ensure candidates were fitted for the theoretical work of initial training. In May 1941, after 11 months on the reserve, Charlwood was called up and posted to No 1. Initial Training School, Somers, Victoria. From Somers, he proceeded to Sydney and then to Vancouver in Canada. Their trip to Canada on the liner SS Monterey was the first across the Pacific by Australian service personnel on a ship registered in neutral America. On reaching Vancouver, Charlwood along with the rest of his group, was sent to Edmonton. In October 1942, they started their training as bomb-aimer/navigators on Course 35 of No. 2 Air Observer Training School, Empire Air Training Scheme. Six months, a number of courses and stations, and around 160 hours of flying time later, initial training was complete.

In May 1943, Charlwood and his course travelled to England, on the Polish liner MS Batory anchoring on the River Clyde on the evening of 12 May. Here the course was split, with Charlwood and half of them posted to No. 3 Advanced Flying Unit, Bobbington, between the Severn Valley and Birmingham. After completing Advanced Flying, aircrew were posted to Operational Training Units, their entry into combat operations. Charlwood was posted to No, 27 OTU, Lichfield – a unit that fed Bomber Command. He had almost 200 hours flying time.

At Tatenhill, a satellite airfield of Lichfield, Charlwood, with Pilot Geoff Maddern, crewed up to form a crew of five – the basis of all his future flying in Bomber Command. On 1 August 1942 they flew together as a crew for the first time, in a Wellington Bomber. On the night of 5 September 1942, they made their last training flight. Charlwood's total flying time was now just under 257 hours. Training completed, they were posted to fly with No. 103 Squadron RAF, Elsham Wolds. Soon after joining the squadron converted from Handley Page Halifaxes to Avro Lancasters. Charlwood completed a full tour of 30 operations and was then "screened" to training duties with 27 OTU. He was subsequently mustered for repatriation to Australia via the US where he was to train for duties in the Pacific theatre on Consolidated Liberator 4 engined bombers.

Following his return to Australia he was invalided out of the RAAF in July 1945, and commenced work with the Department of Civil Aviation, initially as an Air Traffic Controller, and later in training and recruitment. It was while working at the DCA that he wrote No Moon Tonight relying heavily on diaries he kept during training and operational flying.

In 1992 Charlwood was made a Member of the Order of Australian in recognition of service to literature. He died in June 2012."