Laurie Woods was born in Deloraine and joined the RAAF in 1942.

He won the Distinguished Flying Cross largely for flying a 30-tonne Lancaster bomber powered by four Rolls-Royce Merlin v12 engines home from Germany after the pilot had been shot.

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He was a bomb aimer and navigator and had only had 10 minutes of flight training prior to being thrown into the cockpit.

In all, he flew 35 missions with 460 squadron. Of the 49 original aircrew posted to No. 460 Squadron with him, only eight men were left alive in October 1944.

The Examiner is sharing stories of soldiers and veterans ahead of Anzac Day on April 25.

Mr Woods, AM DFC and Chevalier in the French Legion of Honour, died on March 22, at Greenslopes Private Hospital. He was 98.

Family members remember Mr Woods as a hard worker, who worked tirelessly to help sell his books right up until his death.

Sitting outside bookstores and signing his four books was his passion.

"I'd rather be here 'at work' than sitting at home," he would argue.

Over the years he sold more than 30,000 of his books which detailed his life and his fellow airmen from the beginning until closer to the end. While he sold them, he offered the opportunity for thousands of ordinary people to meet a man who fought for their freedom, risked his life, and came home to tell the story.

Mr Woods is survived by his daughters, Gillian and Carolinda, grand-children, Brendon, Erica, Jarod, Gene, Naomi, Denzaln, Matias and great-grand-children, Tegan, Jordyn, Harper and Phoebe.

It was Mr Woods' dream that one copy of his books could be placed in the libraries of every school in Australia. A Laurie Woods War Veteran Legacy GoFundMe page has been set up to enable this.

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