A well-documented Second World War campaign group of four awarded to Squadron Leader B. R. Murphy, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, a long-served fighter pilot who evaded capture via the famous “Pat O’Leary Line” in 1943, only to suffer serious burns after baling out of his flak-damaged Spitfire over Cologne in December 1944 - in the interim, according to contemporary sources, he had claimed three “kills” and inflicted much damage on enemy transport and communications

1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star, clasp, France and Germany; Defence and War Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf, together with his Caterpillar Club membership badge, gold, with “ruby” eyes, the reverse engraved ‘F./L. B. R. Murphy’, R.A.F. Escaping Society membership badge, gilt and enamels, an attractive Baroda Squadron sweetheart’s brooch, silver and enamel, hallmarks for Birmingham 1943, his wartime St. Christopher lucky charm, silver, the reverse engraved ‘B. R. Murphy, 119286’, and a set of related dress miniature medals, generally good very fine (12) £1800-2200

Basil Robert Murphy was born in Midhurst, Sussex in April 1915, the son of a Private in the Rifle Brigade who was later killed in action. Educated at the Royal Masonic School at Bushey, Hertfordshire, he enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and commenced training as a pupil pilot out in Canada in September 1941, where he attended an elementary flying training school in Calgary and qualified for his “Wings” in January 1942.

Embarked for the U.K., he next attended R.A.F. Ternhill and No. 52 Operational Training Unit at Aston Down, following which, in the summer of 1942, he commenced his operational career with a posting to No. 124 (Baroda) Squadron, a Spitfire unit based at Gravesend - according to operational demand, the Squadron would subsequently operate from Debden, Tangmere, North Weald and Westhampnett.

Having completed his first sortie over the Channel on 17 August, Murphy flew three further missions on the 19th, the whole in support of the famous Dieppe raid, his log book entry noting, ‘Gigantic Crystal Palace show. Tracer very close ... one continuous dogfight with Fw. 190s ... What a show!!’ And between then and November-December 1942, when he was attached to Boscombe Down, he participated in around a dozen more “Rhubarbs” or “Circuses”.

Back with “Baroda” Squadron by the new year, Murphy flew another sortie to France on 16 February, but was compelled to make a crash-landing near Calais after an engagement with Fw. 190s on the very next day. German troops were quickly detailed to search the relevant area, around the village of Attaques, and Murphy was fortunate indeed to meet-up with a member of the Resistance, who hid him in a duck hide for two days before the “Pat O’Leary Line” could be contacted. A journey by truck to Calais ensued, where he met a member of the famous escape line in a cafe, was given false papers in the name of “Jean David” and moved thence to Lille some 10 days later. But here his onward journey came to a grinding halt, the recent infiltration of the “Pat O’Leary Line” by a traitor - and the arrest of its leader, actually Lieutenant-Commander Albert-Marie Guerisse, G.C., D.S.O. - leading to the Line’s temporary closure. In fact Murphy had to remain hidden in Lille for over four months, the Gestapo raiding numerous addresses and arresting one of his helpers - the latter was tortured over a period of 20 days, but gave away no information. In due course, however, and thanks to the bravery of such resistants as Dedee de Jongh, the Line was re-established, and Murphy was guided onwards to the Pyrenees via Arras, Paris and Bordeaux - most probably by Baron Jean-Francois Nothomb, one of de Jongh’s able assistants. Finally, in early August 1943, after crossing the Pyrenees disguised as a shepherdess - and with a badly infected finger - he reached the British Embassy in Madrid, was smuggled over the border to Gibraltar, and flown home to Hendon in a Hudson a few days later.

Having thus qualified for membership of the R.A.F. Escaping Society - and had his portrait drawn by Orde - he returned to “Baroda” Squadron in December 1943, and completed six “Ramrods” to the Cherbourg, Lille and St. Omer sectors in the same month, an indication of the fast pace of the Squadron’s operational agenda over the coming year. In fact, Murphy went on to complete around a further 50 trips to France, Holland and the Ruhr - including sorties in support of the Arnhem airborne operations - in addition to about 40 more regular patrols and half-a-dozen “Scrambles”. It was a fine operational record, but one that came to a violent end on 29 December 1944:

‘Hit by flak over Cologne - first burst. Turn back. No. 2 engine catches fire. Get stuck baling out but get out somehow. 10/10th fog below. Come down in wood - Hurtgen Forest, 12 miles E.S.E. Aachen in American lines. 2nd degree face and head burns. End of a good kite - “M” - dives-in in flames. Return to England 1 January 1945 after being in hospital in Aachen and Liege.’

Rejoining “Baroda” Squadron on his return to the U.K., as a newly elected member of the Caterpillar Club, Murphy shortly afterwards attended a gunnery course at Catfoss, and did not witness any further operational activity before V.J. Day: given his earlier escape through Occupied Europe back in 1943, and his remarkably long and active career as an operational Spitfire pilot, it seems extraordinary that Murphy’s only reward was a solitary “mention” (London Gazette 14 June 1945 refers).

Qualifying in Meteors in August 1945, he remained with “Baroda” Squadron until the end of the year, before returning to the Central Gunnery School at Catfoss as an instructor, following which, after serving in a Canadian and American tour for “Thor II”, he was finally released from the R.A.F.V.R. in the rank of Squadron Leader in July 1947.

Sold with a large quantity of original documentation, including the recipient’s Flying Log Books ((2), the first a Royal Canadian Air Force edition, covering the period September 1941 to October 1946, and the second a Royal Air Force edition, covering the period October 1946 to June 1947, both of them with assorted inserts, the second with significant water-damage; together with a mass of photographs, loose or in albums, ranging from school days to the immediate post-war period, with plenty of interesting images from his time in “Baroda” Squadron in between, including a rare series of pilot portrait photographs, many of these too with water-damage; a copy of his portrait by Orde, dated November 1943; a photographic reserved design sketch of “Baroda” Squadron’s crest (No. 3652); the recipient’s R.A.F. Service and Release Book and an envelope containing his “Demob” papers; and an old French newspaper cutting entitled “The Odyssey of Basil Murphy”, being an account of his evasion and subsequent career, and in which he is credited with having scored three “kills”.