The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that Flight Lieutenant Charles Crombie shot down two Japanese bombers and damaged a third in a single action in 1943 despite his aircraft being ablaze?
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I changed the birth date of Charles Crombie to reflect the date listed on his enlistment papers, that were signed by him. The corrrect date should be 1915 not 1914. These records are held by the National Archives Australia.
This was editied back to 1914, the reason given, "rv per date given in Australian Dictionary of Biography, a source compiled by historians, over service record that could have been open to manipulation "
This raises the question, what historians ?
Service records were not open to manipulation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Charcoal59 (talk • contribs) 07:48, 24 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The Australian Dictionary of Biography is compiled by reputible and qualified historians, in the case of Crombie's entry by Dr Alan Stephens a highly notable Royal Australian Air Force historian. In this case, Stephens has gathered information from private records and, likely, Crombie's birth certificate. Service records were open to manipulation as one did not have to - during both World Wars in Australia - supply any kind of documentation to verity their claims, particularly date of birth, and large numbers of people enlisted under false dates. This was the case for a number of potential pilots as one had to be quite young to service in this capacity. For example, Clive Caldwell put his age down so he could serve as a pilot during the Second World War. Crombie's grave stone, as pictured in the acticle, states he died at age 31 meaning he would have had to have been born in 1914, not 1915, to be that age at his death, also. Cheers, Abraham, B.S. (talk) 10:37, 24 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]
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