Awards to the Royal Air Force from the estate of the late Eric Campion

A superb Second World 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

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, clasp, France and Germany; Africa Star, clasp, North Africa 1942-43; War Medal 1939-45; French Croix de Guerre 1939, with gilt star on riband, mounted as worn good very fine or better (7) £2000-2500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Awards to the Royal Air Force from the estate of the late Eric Campion.

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D.F.C. London Gazette 8 June 1945. The 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 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 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 unparallelled 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 passengers and supplies. His subsequent posting to No. 512 Squadron in August of the same year resulted in similar activity, including duties relating to the Churchill / Roosevelt/Stalin conference at Teheran in November 1943. Other V.I.P. flights with No. 512 included such passengers as Air Marshal Sir Charles Burnett and the Lords Sherwood and Wimborne. In March 1944, on being appointed to No. 575 Squadron, another Dakota unit of Transport Command, Charlton returned to more active duty, participating in at least six glider-towing missions, D-Day, Arnhem and the Rhine crossing among them.

During “Operation Mallard”, on the eve of D-Day on the night of 5-6 June 1944, operating out of Broadwell, Charlton and No. 575 were detailed to drop paratroops and equipment of the 3rd Paratroop Brigade on Drop Zone ‘N’, located on the east side of the River Orne between the villages of Ranville, Amfreville and Le Mariquet, a task which was successfully accomplished at the cost of flak damage to five of the 21 Dakotas engaged. On the following day they returned to the same D.Z., towing 19 Horsas of ‘F’ Squadron, Glider Pilot Regiment, laden with men and equipment from the 1st Battalion, Royal Ulster Rifles and 195th Air Landing Ambulance, the whole arriving at the correct time and place, before going on to capture Longueval. Thereafter regularly engaged in supply and casualty evacuation flights to Normandy, Charlton’s aircraft on one occasion was ordered to embark ‘one special bag of private mail for General Montgomery’, and, on the night of 19-20 August 1944, assisted in conveying jeeps and men of the S.A.S. to Rennes as part of “Operation Wallace”.

During “Market Garden”, on the first day of operation on 17 September 1944, once more operating out of Broadwell, Charlton and No. 575 towed 24 Horsas of ‘G’ Squadron, Glider Pilot Regiment, laden with men and equipment from the 1st Battalion, Border Regiment (1st Airborne Division), to Landing Zone ‘S’, an area situated to the N.W. of Arnhem, between the Arnhem-Utrecht railway and Arnhem-Ede road. The Squadron went on to tow another 25 Horsas on the second airlift, in addition to completing 38 re-supply sorties. On one of the latter, on 24 September, with Wing Commander Jefferson at the controls, Charlton’s Dakota actually landed on a temporary airstrip in the Arnhem battle area.

And it was for just such work that the aircrew of Transport Command won the admiration of all concerned, the sight of their all too slow Dakotas entering the German barrage, where they were often hit but continued to circle and throw out their supplies, before plummeting earthwards, becoming for some, one of the most poignant memories of the entire Arnhem battle. As one soldier would later recall:

‘The cold-blooded pluck of the pilots was quite incredible ... The ack-ack was such as I have only heard during the worst raids on London but concentrated on one small area. The German gunners were firing at point-blank range, and the supply planes were more or less sitting targets ... It made you feel terribly small, frightened and insignificant ... One could do nothing but stare awe-inspired at the inferno above ...’

During “Varsity”, the crossing of the Rhine on 24 March 1945, Charlton and the aircrew of No. 575, now operating out of Gosfield, towed over a number of Horsas laden with men and equipment from the 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Regiment, and the 1st Battalion, Royal Ulster Rifles. It was during this operation, while again acting as the Squadron C.O’s Navigator, that Charlton’s ‘detailed and accurate commentary’ was responsible for bringing their Horsa to within sight of the L.Z. ‘under conditions of extreme low visibility and during considerable harassing flak.’

Charlton was recommended for the D.F.C. a few days after “Operation Varsity”, and received his Croix de Guerre at an investiture held at the Institut Francais on 15 July 1947. He retired in November 1957, having attained the rank of Squadron Leader.

Sold with one or two wartime photographs of glider landing zones.