Ivan served in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve as a Navigator with No. 512 Squadron, Transport Command, based at RAF Broadwell in Oxfordshire.
Shortly before midnight on 6/7 June 1944 – the night after D-Day – he was killed in action during “Operation Rob Roy”, a resupply mission in support of Allied airborne forces in Normandy. He was aboard Dakota III KG347, tasked with delivering supplies to Landing Zone ‘N’.
Tragically, the aircraft was shot down by Allied naval anti-aircraft fire as it approached the drop zone. All those on board were killed: Ivan, three fellow RAF crew members, and a Lance Corporal despatcher from the Royal Army Service Corps.
Charles lies buried in Hermanville War Cemetery, France, and his headstone bears the inscription:
FAREWELL! ‘TIS HARD TO GIVE THEE UP; WITH DEATH SO LIKE A SLUMBER ON THEE
