Clive Robertson Caldwell was born in Lewisham, Sydney on the 28th of July, 1911. Pre war he trained for his civil pilot's licence whilst a member of the Royal Aero Club. He joined the RAAF at the beginning of the war in 1939 and was commissioned as a Pilot Officer in 1940. As he was destined to become an instructor after completing his training, he resigned and re-applied as an air-crew trainee. His commission was reinstated in January 1941, and he was sent to the Middle East where he took up flying duties in Tomahawks with 250 Squadron RAF. Following a short period of operations in Syria and Cyprus, Caldwell and the squadron were relocated to the Western Desert. It was in this theatre that he achieved great success during intensive operations. U.K RAF PILOT NORTH- AFRICA WW2 BBI 1/6 - Forces of valor
Annie, funnily enough, too books about CRC came out very close to each other about 2-3 years ago. Kristen Alexander of Alexander Fax Booksellers wrote Clive Caldwell Air Ace and had access to personal documents while Jeff Watson wrote Killer Caldwell which was available widely in Kmart and the likes so sold very well. I got both of mine at a 50% off everything re-opening sale at a local bookshop (went a bit silly in there!) but have yet to read either! I think I might do one of them next. I have heard the Alexander book is the better of the two but at the same time Watson is well known as an aviation nut so he might tackly things differently. I was a bit miffed about the title of his book though - Killer Caldwell - as CRC apparently didn't like the nickname. My favourite quotes about him (that I've read to date):
He was the nephew of Keith "Grid" Caldwell, WW1 pilot, and the highest-scoring (or second-highest-scoring, depending how you count) New Zealand ace of WW1.
I'd like those books Andy !! I was surprised that it seemed the best information I could find about him came from a die cast toy site !! And I knew that the videos of the Battle for Malta - PART 1, 2 and 3 1940 would be of interest to you !! :mosking: ( By the way Hans-Joachim Marseille wasn't too shabby himself !! :biggrin1: )
Don't know where you would have got that idea, Annie...:becky: Last week, I finally got a book on Malta I've been chasing for some time. I love the pic at this link when he was a 'lowly' F/L - Australian War Memorial - Killer Caldwell
