Roy Oldfield Calvert, (31 October 1913 – 26 March 2002) was an officer of the

Royal New Zealand Air Force The Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) ( mi, Te Tauaarangi o Aotearoa, "The Warriors of the Sky of New Zealand"; previously ', "War Party of the Blue") is the aerial service branch of the New Zealand Defence Force. It was formed from New Zeal ...

(RNZAF) during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. He is one of only four New Zealand born airmen to receive two Bars to his Distinguished Flying Cross.Roy Oldfield Calvert DFC and Two Bars
Wings Over Cambridge. Retrieved 2011-05-19.

Flying career

Calvert was born on 31 October 1913 in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

, a small town in the

Waikato Waikato () is a local government region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipa District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton City, as well as Hauraki, Coromandel Peninsul ...

region of New Zealand's North Island. He was educated at Cambridge Primary School and between 1926 and 1929,

King's College School King's College School, also known as Wimbledon, KCS, King's and KCS Wimbledon, is a public school in Wimbledon, southwest London, England. The school was founded in 1829 by King George IV, as the junior department of King's College London an ...

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

. Before joining the RNZAF Calvert was a wool grader in the Cambridge district. Calvert volunteered for the RNZAF very early on in the war and was eventually accepted in December 1940. He began training at the Ground Training School, Wereroa, near Levin. At the completion of this course in May 1941, he received his

Wings A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expre ...

as a qualified RNZAF pilot. Calvert was posted

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

, England, via

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and sent to No 2 School of Navigation, at RAF Cranage, where he trained in

navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...

on the

Avro Anson The Avro Anson is a British twin-engined, multi-role aircraft built by the aircraft manufacturer Avro. Large numbers of the type served in a variety of roles for the Royal Air Force (RAF), Fleet Air Arm (FAA), Royal Canadian Air Force (RCA ...

light bomber.Roy Oldfield Calvert, Flying Career Details
Wings Over Cambridge. Retrieved 2011-05-21. On 14 April 1942, Calvert was posted to No. 50 Squadron based at

RAF Skellingthorpe Royal Air Force Skellingthorpe or more simply RAF Skellingthorpe is a former Royal Air Force station which was operational during the Second World War. It was located just west of the city of Lincoln, England about south-east of the village of S ...

. Two days later he flew his first operational mission in a

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

on a night raid on

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the N ...

, France. Despite their unreliable engines, Calvert enjoyed flying Manchesters.Lambert, Max (2005, pp. 184–187)
''Night After Night: New Zealanders in Bomber Command''
Published by Harper Collins, Auckland. . .

Distinguished Flying Cross

Along with his navigator, Calvert was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in October 1942 for his part in several combat missions over hostile territory including the 94-bomber raid on the

Le Creusot Le Creusot () is a commune and industrial town in the Saône-et-Loire department, region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, eastern France. The inhabitants are known as Creusotins. Formerly a mining town, its economy is now dominated by metallurgic ...

armament factory, whilst flying both Manchesters and Lancasters. The citation read:

Bar to DFC

On the evening of 9/10 November 1942, Calvert flew an operation to

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, almost at the end of his first tour. Approaching Denmark, towering cloud gave them icing problems that was so thick they could not see anything that would help identify position. Calvert turned south to run to the target by dead reckoning. Through a break in the clouds, Calvert spotted railway marshalling yards and prepared the aircraft for a bombing run. At that moment, the plane was hit by

flak Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based ...

killing the wireless operator, smashing the navigators arm and peppering fragments of perspex and flak splinters into Calvert's face and arm. With radio and navigation aids out, aileron trim and rudder unserviceable, Calvert flew the badly damaged bomber back to England, crashlanding at Bradwell Bay on the

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

coast. After a stay in hospital, Calvert returned to base and was awarded a

Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

to his DFC. The citation read:

Second Bar to DFC

At the end of his first tour, Calvert instructed for a year, but returned to flying operations in January 1944 with No. 630 Squadron based at

East Kirkby East Kirkby is a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated south-east from Horncastle, and on the A155 road. East Kirkby 13th century Grade II* listed Anglican parish church is dedicated t ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

. By August 1944 Calvert he had been promoted to acting

squadron leader Squadron leader (Sqn Ldr in the RAF ; SQNLDR in the RAAF and RNZAF; formerly sometimes S/L in all services) is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence. It is als ...

and was also acting commanding officer of the squadron for about two months. He was awarded a second Bar to his DFC on 15 September 1944, for service while flying with that squadron. His citation read:

Post-war

Calvert returned to New Zealand in late 1944 after he accepted the opportunity to join a group of New Zealanders about to return home through North America.Roy O Calvert (RNZAF 404890)
Cambridge Museum: World War II Stories. Retrieved 2011-05-21. He was discharged on 15 March 1945, returned to Cambridge and became a

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer m ...

for the rest of his working life. Calvert died on 26 March 2002, aged 88, after a battle with

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

. He was buried at the RSA

Cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

at Hautapu, Cambridge having lived in the town and district for all his pre and postwar life.

Flying career

Distinguished Flying Cross

Bar to DFC

Second Bar to DFC

Post-war

References

Further reading