The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (402155) Pilot Officer Charles Richardson Digges DFC, No. 139 Squadron (RAF), Second World War.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Troy Clayton, the story for this day was on (402155) Pilot Officer Charles Richardson Digges DFC, No. 139 Squadron (RAF), Second World War.

402155 Pilot Officer Charles Richardson Digges DFC, No. 139 Squadron (RAF)
Accidental 18 December 1941

Today we remember and pay tribute to Pilot Officer Charles Richardson Digges.

Charles Digges was born on 3 January 1917, the eldest son of Daniel and Minnie Digges.

Known as “Richie”, he grew up alongside his brother and two sisters, and worked on his father’s station near Coonamble in New South Wales. The family were well-known pioneers in the area.

Digges attended Dubbo Public School, and then Dubbo High School. He reportedly never passed his intermediate certificate, and was turned down by the RAAF when he first tried to join. Regardless, on 24 June 1940 he was accepted for enlistment with the Royal Australian Air Force. He gave his occupation as “lorry driver and engine driver”, and his mother later stated that he had done some private flying before enlisting.

After initial training in Sydney and Narromine, on 31 October 1940, Digges left Sydney, bound for overseas service.

As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, he was one of almost 27,500 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, gunners, and engineers, who, throughout the course of the war, joined Royal Air Force squadrons or Australian squadrons based in Britain.

Arriving in Canada, Digges attended specialist flight training school at Calgary. In March the following year, he left Canada for the United Kingdom, joining 13 Operational Training Unit in April 1941.

Digges had a flying accident on 21 June at Wrexham, with a note in his record that “airscrew and reduction gear came off while landing”. He ended up with a deep cut over his right eye, but was otherwise unharmed.

In late July 1941, Digges transferred to No. 139 Squadron, which was flying Bristol Blenheim light bombers. The squadron was known as the Jamaica squadron, this tag being taken in acknowledgment of a Jamaican newspaper that had started a fund to buy bombers for Britain.

On 16 August 1941, Digges accepted a commission and became a pilot officer. He had held this position for barely a month, when he carried out a successful attack on a large enemy tanker off the coast of West Flanders. For this action, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, becoming the first decorated Empire Air Training Scheme officer serving the United Kingdom.

The nomination for his award gave the details:

Undeterred by intense and accurate anti-aircraft fire from a formidable escorting force of six armed ships and four E boats, Pilot Officer Digges and Sergeant Cowen pressed home their attacks from mast height and both pilots obtained direct hits on the tanker which was left enveloped in smoke and flames. An hour later the tanker was seen to be sinking. Both these pilots displayed unflinching courage in the destruction of a valuable enemy ship.

The award received a lot of attention by the media, and Digges’ mother and grandmother were interviewed by Australian newspapers.

Digges’ grandmother, on hearing of his decoration, reportedly went into her garden to find laurel leaves to surround his portrait which stood on her mantelpiece. She said, “It doesn’t seem long ago to me that he was just a child telling me that one day he would have an aeroplane of his own. Ever since he was tiny he wanted to fly. I’m glad he got his wings.”

In December, No. 139 Squadron moved to RAF Oulton in Norfolk. On 18 December 1941, he was a member of a crew of a Hudson that crashed to the ground near the base at around 10.45 am.

The Digges family was stunned to receive the news that Richie had died, and that his funeral was to take place at 11:40 am on 23 December 1941, at Norwich Cemetery.

His father Daniel Digges was presented the Distinguished Flying Cross awarded to his son by the Governor-General in September 1942.

Charles Digges’ name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, among almost 40,000 Australians who died while serving in the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Pilot Officer Charles Richardson Digges, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Duncan Beard
Editor, Military History Section