Calton Younger

Calton Younger (27 November 1921– January 2014)[1] was a World War II Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) pilot, a writer, and a trustee of several charities. He survived imprisonment in Nazi German Stalag Luft III POW camp and "The Long March" of 1945.[2][3][4]

Originally from Kerang in Victoria, Australia, Younger moved to Melbourne with his family while a teenager.[1] While he reportedly intended to undertake a career in journalism after leaving school in 1939, following the outbreak of outbreak of World War II, he volunteered for military service.[2] He joined the Empire Air Training Scheme in 1940 and became an observer (navigator) with the RAAF's No. 460 (Bomber) Squadron based in Yorkshire, England.[1] Shot down during a bombing mission northwest of Paris in May 1942, he was captured and kept as prisoner of war.[1] Younger spent time in camps in both Germany and Poland, including Stalag Luft III and Stalag Luft IV,[2] where he wrote and studied.[1] In January 1945, as Soviet forces approached from the east, he was forced to undertake "The Long March" towards Fallingbostel - from where he was liberated in April 1945.[4] After the war, Younger wrote a personal memoir, a novel and several historical works.[2] Calton Younger died, aged 92, in January 2014.[5]

Books

  • No Flight From the Cage (1956; a memoir)
  • Ireland's Civil War. New York, Taplinger Pub. Co. 1969. ISBN 978-0-8008-4240-6.; historical
  • State of Disunion (1972; historical)
  • Less than Angel (1960; novel)
  • Arthur Griffith (1981; a biography)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Harbutt, Karen (5 February 2014). "Former prisoner of war who worked for the less fortunate". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 7 October 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d Kilgarriff, Peter, Calton Younger 1921- 2014 (PDF) – via rafinfo.org.uk
  3. ^ "Calton Younger". The Times. 7 February 2014.
  4. ^ a b "Calton Younger - obituary". The Telegraph.
  5. ^ "Calton Hearn (Cal) Younger". vwma.org.au. Virtual War Memorial Australia. Retrieved 7 October 2025.
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