Carpenter was an RAF officer during World War II. He flew the Lancaster bomber which took the disguised Major John Smith and Lieutenant Morris Schaffer's team across the Austrian border into Germany. Later, he returned, this time with Colonel Wyatt-Turner aboard to extract the commandos. He landed near an airfield that was not far from the Schloss Adler. He and Wyatt-Turner sat on the landing strip waiting for Smith's team. When they appeared driving a stolen bus, Carpenter waited until everyone was aboard before he took off, barely avoiding being killed by the gunfire from pursuing Nazi troops.