An outstanding Second War glider-towing operations D.F.C., 1940 operations D.F.M. group of...

An outstanding Second War glider-towing operations D.F.C., 1940 operations D.F.M. group of seven awarded to Squadron Leader R. E. Charlton, Royal Air Force, a three tour Navigator whose operational record included many sorties with No. 138 (S.O.E.) Squadron, in addition to transporting troops and supplies on D-Day, at Arnhem, and during the Rhine Crossing - among the latter an S.A.S. team as part of Operation Wallace Distinguished Flying Cross, G.VI.R., the reverse officially dated ‘1945’; Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R. (580858 Sgt. R. E. Charlton, R.A.F.); 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star, 1 clasp, France and Germany; Africa Star, 1 clasp, North Africa 1942-43; War Medal 1939-45; France, Third Republic, Croix de Guerre 1939, bronze, with gilt star on riband, mounted as worn, good very fine or better (7) £5,000-£7,000 --- Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, September 2003 and July 2010. D.F.C. London Gazette 8 June 1945. The original recommendation states: ‘Since being awarded the D.F.M. in November 1940, Flight Lieutenant Charlton has had an almost continuous record of operational and transport flying. He completed a full tour of operations with No. 3 Group on S.O.E. duties, 12 months with No. 24 and No. 512 Squadrons and over 12 months with this Squadron [No. 575] during which time as the Squadron Commander’s Navigator he has led flights on D-Day, Arnhem and the Rhine Crossing, in all completing 6 Airborne operational sorties apart from numerous sub-operational flights to the Continent. Since September 1939 he has completed over 1600 hours flying as Navigator. His work has been consistently conscientious and he is an outstanding Navigator. On the recent Rhine crossing operation his accurate and detailed commentary was invaluable and resulted in the Glider Captain being brought in sight of the Landing Zone under conditions of extreme low visibility during considerable harassing flak.’ D.F.M. London Gazette 17 January 1941. The original recommendation states: ‘This N.C.O. Air Observer has now completed 27 operational sorties and has been to an O.T.U. as an instructor and to rest. He has had a number of very trying experiences which included returning from Bremen on one engine, being severely shot up and the petrol tanks holed. Throughout all his trips he has shown unfailing cheerfulness and his happy smile has given encouragement and confidence to others in the crew when things were not going well. His work as a Navigator and Bomb Aimer has been consistent and good, and an example to his brother Observers in the Squadron [No. 77].’ French Croix de Guerre Order General No. 65, Paris 5 June 1946. The original recommendation states: ‘Prior to D-Day Flight Lieutenant Charlton had flown on 54 sorties as a Bomber Navigator, involving about 400 hours of operational flying. The exceptional skill and experience possessed by this Officer enabled him to guide his pilot, by night, to the exact position occupied by some of the first paratroops to be dropped in the invasion operation. Later in the day of the invasion, he was Navigator of an aircraft detailed, with a glider load, on a similar mission. Flight Lieutenant Charlton has also made a number of flights by night for the purpose of dropping leaflets and delivering urgent stores. In addition, he has been engaged in the transport of casualties of the Allied forces. He is a brave Officer and has set a fine example.’ Ronald Edmund Charlton, who was born in September 1915, enlisted in the Royal Air Force as an Aircraftman 2nd Class on the outbreak of hostilities, and commenced his operational career as a Navigator and Bomb Aimer with No. 77 Squadron, a Whitley unit operating out of Driffield, at the end of 1939. Going on to complete a tour of 27 sorties, Charlton undoubtedly experienced some hair-raising moments, not least during the raid on Bremen referred to in his D.F.M. recommendation. Not specifically mentioned, but undoubtedly of a similar nature, was the sortie flown by him to Poland in mid-March 1940, in Whitley “L-Love”, captained by Flight Lieutenant Tomlin. Bomber Command Squadrons takes up the story: ‘It was during the operation to Warsaw - Bomber Command’s second visit to Poland but No. 77’s first - on the night of 15-16 March 1940, that one of the Squadron’s crews performed a feat which probably remained unparalleled for the rest of the War. Having dropped their Nickels on Warsaw they returned safely across Germany and then, because the weather was bad, put down as soon as possible after the crossing - as they thought - the Franco-German frontier. A few words with the local peasantry quickly disillusioned them, but by that time German troops were approaching on cycles. The quick-witted crew promptly dashed back into the aircraft, took off under rifle fire, and landed safely, but rather shaken, at a French airfield.’ Charlton ended his tour with No. 77 in September 1940 and was gazetted for the D.F.M. in January 1941. Then, following service as an Instructor at No. 13 O.T.U., he commenced a second tour of operations with No. 138 Squadron, the S.O.E. support unit based at Newmarket /Tempsford, in late January 1942. The reasons behind Charlton’s transferral to No. 138’s clandestine world is part and parcel of the “Bunny” Rymills story. Both men had apparently upset the C.O. of No. 13 O.T.U., Group Captain Jarman, a formidable New Zealander, Rymills by smashing his aircraft into another on the ground, and Charlton, somewhat unfairly, for his much earlier navigational error on the Warsaw sortie outlined above. In company with another “undesirable”, Sergeant Stokes, they were threatened with a posting to Singapore, on the eve of Percival’s surrender to the Japanese, but in the event this transpired to be a cover for their actual transferral to No. 138. Rymill’s later commented of his new partners in crime, “They were superb operational types: cool, calm, and efficient under fire and masters of their respective trades. I could not have had better men to fly with.” The bland nature of the information contained in No. 138’s records makes it difficult to ascertain the exact content of Charlton’s operational sorties, but in addition to flying in Rymills’ crew it seems likely that he teamed up with Pilot Officer T. R. Russell in November 1942, when the Rymills transferred to the Lysander Flight. Russell, who had also joined No. 138 in January 1942, was posted with Charlton to No. 24 Squadron, Transport Command in early 1943, the pair of them flying together in the latter unit until the end of that year. By means of using Rymills and Russell as pilot guidelines, it is clear that Charlton participated in some classic S.O.E. operations, probable among them Operation Eel on the night of 29-30 May 1942, when assorted “passengers” parachuted out of a Halifax piloted by Rymills at 600 feet, somewhere in the vicinity of the Saone Valley. Norway, too, was part of the squadron’s brief, and another successful trip, part of Operation Castor/Coronna, was carried out there by Rymills on the night of 18-19 October 1942. Two nights later, similar success was achieved in Operation Plane II to France. Full details from 138’s records are included with the Lot, including numerous entries for Rymills and Russell, added to which frequent mention of both pilots maybe found in K. A. Merrick’s definitive history Flights of the Forgotten. Commissioned as a Pilot Officer in January 1943, at the end of his tour with No. 138, Charlton was next posted to Transport Command, joining No. 24 Squadron, a Dakota unit, that March. Thus ensued a series of return flights to Gibraltar with assorted pa...