John Reginald Dodds was born on 16th April 1917 in Kempsey, New South Wales to Albert Edward and Edith Ann Dodds. He was employed as a school teacher prior to enlisting into the Royal Australian Air Force on the 3rd March 1941 in Sydney.
He left Australia in November 1941 for the United Kingdom via Canada. Upon arrival in England in December 1941, he was sent to training at RAF Cranwell, then in March 1942 to RAF Harwell station where he attended lectures and flight training. He was then moved to RAF Mount Farm station in April 1942 for practice bombing raids with a Wellington plane. At the end of June 1942 during a trip to Gibraltar, the plane he was on crashed landed. He along with the rest of the crew waited about in Gibraltar until Mid-July for their plane to be repaired.
In September 1942 he re-trained to fly in Bomber Command and was posted to 460 Squadron where he converted to Arvo Lancaster planes in early November 1942. As part of 460 Squadron he worked as the wireless operator for H for Harry and G for George. He was also involved in a raid over Mannheim in which the crew became lost on the return flight, ran out of fuel and had to parachute to safety. When his first tour ended in May 1943 he was posted to Blyton for signals instruction. On the 27 August 1943 he gained his commissioned and was promoted to the rank of pilot officer. On 15th January 1944 he was posted to 156 Squadron and he began his second tour of operational flying a month later. He was promoted to Flying Officer on 27th February 1944 and to flight lieutenant on 20th April 1944. On the 28th April 1944 whilst flying in a Lancaster ND409 on Ops to Greidrichschaffen, the aircraft was shot down by a night-fighter and all of the crew were killed. John Reginald Dodds is buried in Durnbach War Cemetery, Bavaria, Germany.
John Reginald Dodds was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, gazetted 18 December 1945. His citation reads “This officer has completed, as Wireless Operator, many successful operations against the enemy, in the course of which he has invariably displayed high skill, fortitude and devotion to duty.”