Nineteen workers, mainly women, were filling fuses when one exploded, killing one woman immediately and wounding two others, one of whom later died of her injuries.

He led three other volunteers in the hazardous work of clearing the wrecked factory of 12,724 fuses over the next three days, plus another 4,000 which were believed to be defective.

[5] Bywater's award of the George Cross for this work was published in the London Gazette on 26 September 1944.

Again, Bywater organised the evacuation of the building and led the team in the dangerous operation of clearing the unexploded ammunition.

After helping to set up an ordnance factory in New South Wales, he joined the Reserve Bank of Australia in Melbourne.