Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Born the second child and only son of Thomas Edgar Douglas (b1887 in Albany WA) and Irene Hilda Champion (b1886 in Ballarat, Victoria) Cliff grew up in Albany WA before the family moved to Bedfordale in 1925. Edward (a Farmer) and Irene married in Armadale in 1915 and settled in Albany WA. By 1925 the family had moved to Armadale and  Edward was working at the Water Supply Coy. In 1926 Edward purchased an Orchard at Armadale WA where they grew oranges and stone fruit.

In 2005 Cliff participated in the City of Armadale's Oral History Prroject and was interviewed by Peter Stacker over three days in October, describing his life and his WWII service.

In 1936 Cliff was studying at Perth Technical School when he was employed as a Clerk by a firm of Chartered Accountants in Perth. He was a member of the Tennis Club and enjoyed hunting rabbits and kangaroos after work with his 22 rifle. In September 1939 applied for the RAAF Reserve and was given a badge and was able to participate in a night class scheme to study for subjects required by the RAAF. Cliff enlisted in the RAAF in November 1940, and undertook two months initial training at Pearce Aerodrome before going to the elementary training school at Cunderdin where he was taught to fly Tiger Moth aircraft. At Geraldton he learned to fly the twin engined Anson aircraft. He was awarded his Flying Badge on 2 May 1941 and a month later was promoted to Airman Pilot.Cliff then proceeded to England via New Zealand and Canada, and learned to fly the Wellington Bomber at No 27 Operational Training Unit. Cliff's first mission was with 460 Squadron on 12 March 1942, and he took part in twelve bombing raids over Germany, the Ruhr Valley, Rostock and Lubeck.

On 1 June 1942 he was returning from his twelfth mission (flying a Wellington N Z1346) and 'On the return trip, crossing coast of Holland at several hundred feet were fired on by two flak ships. The plane caught fire - engines and fuselage - and controls were apparently damaged, and we crashed in to the sea..... I remember nothing from a few seconds before the crash until three or four hours afterwards when the Captain, Navigator, Front Gunner and myself were being taken in an ambulance from a dressing station to hospital at Bergen op Zoom, Holland' (National Archives Australia). Cliff spent six weeks in hospital and after interrogation and solitary confinement was moved by cattle truck to Stalag VIIIB at Lamsdorf - 'Life there was different, to say the least... I was a prisoner in enemy hands fron seond June 1942 until released by the Russians on twenty second April 1945' Cliff said in 2005.

Liberated in April 1945, Cliff was Repatriated to England in May that year, and he and Dixie (Dorothy May Dixon b1923 in Staffordshire, England) were married in June. Dixie had been a Telephonist prior to joining the Womens' Land Army. Cliff returned to Sydney on board the Orion and from Sydney to Fremantle on board the Maloja, arriving in September 1945. Dixie arrived in Fremantle WA on board the SS Nestor in May 1946.

Cliff drove taxis for his brother-in-law Don Martin for a short period after returning to WA, then he and Dixie worked on a sheep farm at Dwarda nr Wandering WA - Cliff was a Farm Hand and Dixie the Cook. Cliff had earlier bought a property at Bedfordale, and he and Dixie moved there - Cliff worked as a Labourer and Truck Driver before becoming a Shopkeeper/Manager for Wesfarmers in Korbel near Merredin WA. In 1955 the family travelled to England, where Cliff worked for glass makers before returning to WA in 1957 and settling at Bedfordale, Armadale and working once again as an Accountant. Following Dixie's death in 1908, Cliff remarried and died in 2008.