Transcript of Oral History Recording
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TRANSCRIPT OF ORAL HISTORY RECORDING Accession number S00568 Title (408794) Charlwood, Donald Ernest Cameron (Flight Lieutenant) Interviewer Bowden, Timothy Gibson (Tim) Place made Melbourne VIC Date made 11 April 1989 Description Donald Ernest Cameron Charlwood, 103 Squadron Bomber Command RAAF and RAF, interviewed by Tim Bowden for The Keith Murdoch Sound Archive of Australia in the War of 1939-45 Discussing reasons for joining Air Force; elitism of Air Force; Empire Air Training Scheme in Canada; training on Ansons; bombing and gunnery course at Lethbridge and astro-navigation course in Manitoba; assignment to Bomber Command; training casualties; crewing up process; crew camaraderie; squadron discipline; attributes of Lancasters over Halifaxes; crew superstitions; lack of moral fibre; charges; level of stress; role of Pathfinders; bomb loads; flight procedures; navigational duties; dangers of bombing run; evasive techniques; post-operational interrogation; relationships with WAAFs on base; morality of bombing civilian targets; medical care; value of saturation bombing. DON CHARLWOOD Page 2 of 47 Disclaimer The Australian War Memorial is not responsible either for the accuracy of matters discussed or opinions expressed by speakers, which are for the reader to judge. Transcript methodology Please note that the printed word can never fully convey all the meaning of speech, and may lead to misinterpretation. Readers concerned with the expressive elements of speech should refer to the audio record. It is strongly recommended that readers listen to the sound recording whilst reading the transcript, at least in part, or for critical sections. Readers of this transcript of interview should bear in mind that it is a verbatim transcript of the spoken word and reflects the informal conversational style that is inherent in oral records. Unless indicated, the names of places and people are as spoken, regardless of whether this is formally correct or not – e.g. ‘world war two’ (as spoken) would not be changed in transcription to ‘second world war’ (the official conflict term). A few changes or additions may be made by the transcriber or proof-reader. Such changes are usually indicated by square brackets, thus: [ ] to clearly indicate a difference between the sound record and the transcript. Three dots (…) or a double dash (- -) indicate an unfinished sentence. Copyright Copyright in this transcript, and the sound recording from which it was made, is usually owned by the Australian War Memorial, often jointly with the donors. Any request to use of the transcript, outside the purposes of research and study, should be addressed to: Australian War Memorial GPO Box 345 CANBERRA ACT 2601 DON CHARLWOOD Page 3 of 47 TAPE 1, SIDE 1 Identification: This is an interview recorded with Don Charlwood, in Melbourne on 11th April, 1989. End of identification. Don, can we begin with what might loosely be called some ... some personal background. Your ... did you consider yourself brought up in an upper-class, middle-class way or ...? Can one be ... (Laughter). I really didn't give it much thought at all, but I think my father's family would like to have considered themselves slightly upper-class, they still had a lot of the English outlook and habits which had come over to him. My mother's family on the other hand were Scots, they were Camerons from around Glen Nevis. And her father was a ... was a blacksmith, but upwardly mobile, he ... he became a vet, and he employed quite a number of men. They didn't have any of the pretensions that my father's family had. But my father's family were very bookish, and had a marvellous collection of books, so that I think I derived something from both sides, Tim. And you're a Melbourne boy? Yes, I ... I was born in Hawthorn, but from the age of eight brought up in Frankston, which was my mother's old hometown, she was born there, and that's where her ... her father went in 1872. So I felt it a very familiar place when we went to it, and I thoroughly enjoyed my ... my boyhood there. A happy boyhood? A very happy boyhood. Except that at the end of it we ran into the depression, and I found trying to get a job a very tough business. My mother was intent upon my going out to try to beard Keith Murdoch in his den, on a Sunday of all days, at Langwarrin. I went out there three successive Sundays in a row, until at last I did get an interview with him. This was in an attempt to get onto a newspaper. But the best I could do was to get onto the waiting list of messenger boys, and instead of that I ended up going to a cousin's sheep property at Nareen, where years and years later Fraser lived. And I remained there until the outbreak of war, jackarooing. Or I think jackarooing is putting too good a name to it, I was just a farmhand there. Well I think for a lot of young men at that time the war did offer some sort of an alternative, employment alternative if nothing else, but what were your motivations for joining up? I had a detestation of war, and I ... I saw the approach of it all through the thirties with ... with ... really with horror. And when it came I think I was one of those who thought that - during the `phoney war' - that it might all be called off. But of course it ... it wasn't, and when France fell I was one of the many who had been thinking about it and wondering what to do. One of the many that then joined up at that time. DON CHARLWOOD Page 4 of 47 And I went to the air force, really because my cousin up at Nareen wanted to go in as a pilot, and I ... I was interested in navigation, and I thought we could crew together. In point of fact he went to Coastal Command, I went to Bomber Command, so we only saw each other on leaves over there. I think you wrote somewhere that you were a more unquestioning generation in those days, that ... that ...? Yes. Yes, I'm sure we were an unquestioning generation. When I go back over our schoolbooks and school songs and so on, we did follow the precepts set out in the declaration, you know, `I love God and my country, I honour the flag, I serve the Queen' - or the King then - `and cheerfully obey my parents, teachers and the law.' We didn't really question very much at all. Though at high school we had a very good history teacher who insisted we read leading articles in the paper and dissect them and so on. But even so we ... we knew what our duty was. We were a very dutiful generation, and very empire-conscious. And it ... it was quite unbelievable that ... that England could fail. (Coughs). Excuse me. (5.00) Just do that whenever you want to, by the way. Yes, yes. You would have, as indeed your parents would have, and, to a certain extent, I did in my generation, called England home? Well I never did, but my parents did. They ... they referred to England as home. Not that they really believed that it was home, Australia was certainly home, but it was just the habit that had been handed down from their parents. So you didn't call it ...? No, no, no, I didn't. I never heard anyone in my generation call it home. No. Well thinking back on my own statement then, I mean I'm ... my parents' generation called it home, I perhaps thought of it ... I don't ever ... Yes, yes, yes. Just putting myself back ... No. I don't think I ever said that either. No, no. No, my generation didn't. But then again, there was the feeling that ... well what was the feeling that you had about England and Europe? DON CHARLWOOD Page 5 of 47 Well the feeling was, I think, that Australia was a kind of slightly inferior camp, and that things were properly done in ... in England, and that our ... their standards were much superior to ours in many, many fields. And of course at school we learnt so many ... so many English poems and studied so many English novels that I think that inculcated the same kind of attitude. But certainly we felt that, except in cricket and war, we were slightly inferior. We were the best in the world in cricket and war, but ... (laughs). Did you choose the RAAF through a sense of ... did you feel you were joining an elite? I saw ... (coughs) ... I saw the RAAF as an elite. So much so that I didn't think I'd be acceptable to them, and ... I was quite overlooking the fact that they'd be needing such vast numbers. And when my cousin and I went along for interview I thought it might end there, but I was surprised when we were sent on then for the medical examinations. And they lasted all day, and ... Where were they? They were held here in Melbourne, and there were long queues at the beginning of the day, everyone very keen, and I remember thinking, `What a first-rate lot of chaps', but the queues were whittled away, and whittled away, and by the end of the day those of us who got through were a relatively small group. So I realised then that, yes, it was an elite and somehow or other I was one of them. I was quite surprised, all I had was the intermediate, but I found later that there were plenty without the intermediate there.