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Charles Curnow Scherf was born on the 17th of May 1917, at "Big Ben" in Emmaville, New South Wales. The fifth child of Charles Henry Scherf and Susan Jane Curnow. Charles married Florence Hope O’Hara and together they had four children. Charles Scherf distinguished himself as a Mosquito Pilot in World War II, posted by the RAAF as a Flight Lieutenant with the Canadian 418 Squadron in the RAF where he flew 34 operations. Posted then to a staff job, he made occasional "visits" to his old squadron, and in fact destroyed more aircraft on these trips than he had while officially serving with them! These adventures ended when he was posted back to Australia in July 1944. In between leaving 418 and returning to Australia, Squadron Leader Charles Scherf was awarded the DFC and Bar and the DSO, and his final official tally was 13.5 destroyed in the air, 10 on the ground, and seven damaged. He survived the war, but it still took its toll on this young man from New South Wales. The grandson of German immigrants, he confided to his sister that he was tormented by the memories of the Germans he had killed and also of the friends he had lost. His drinking increased, and when driving he sped recklessly along the country roads. On the 13th of July 1949 the inevitable occurred when he was killed in a car accident near Emmaville, a victim of the war as surely as if he had been lost in his Mosquito. |