A Second World War D.F.M. group of five awarded to Warrant Officer J. Bell, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who was decorated for his gallantry as a Navigator in Lancasters of No. 622 Squadron

Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R. (1511709 F./Sgt. J. Bell, R.A.F.); 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star, clasp, France and Germany; Defence and War Medals; General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, S.E. Asia 1945-46, unnamed, as presumably issued to his next of kin, generally extremely fine (5) £1600-1800

D.F.M. London Gazette 14 November 1944. The original recommendation states:

‘This Non-Commissioned Officer is nearing the completion of his first operational tour, throughout which he has performed his duties as a Navigator with brilliant success.

Joining the Squadron in March of this year, he has been called upon to engage the enemy over his heavily defended targets, including Dusseldorf, Essen and Kiel, and the manner in which he has demonstrated and applied his navigational skill has been an outstanding feature of the operational success of his crew.

Flight Sergeant Bell has an impressive record and has inspired confidence in everyone with whom he comes in contact by his ready willingness to accept responsibility - indeed, his powers of judgment in a crisis revealed him an outstanding member of a well organised crew.

This tour is an undoubted success, performed throughout in the best traditions of the Service, and worthy of the highest praise. I strongly recommend an award of the Distinguished Flying Medal.’

James Bell, a native of Bellingham, Northumberland, commenced his operational career as a Navigator with No. 622 Squadron, a Lancaster unit operating out of Mildenhall, Suffolk in April 1944, when assigned to a strike against the railway yards at Laon on the night of the 10th - his aircraft was badly damaged by ground fire near Dieppe and crash-landed at Woodbridge as the hydraulics were shot away. Notwithstanding this sharp introduction to the perils of bomber operations, he was next engaged in a strike against the marshalling yards at Rouen a week later, followed by raids on Dusseldorf, Essen and Karlsruhe before the month’s end.

With the pending Normandy landings, May found 622 assigned to a number of French targets, Bell operating against railway yards and communications in Chambly, Courtrai, Boulogne, Angers and Trappes, in addition to more regular attacks on Aachen, Dortmund and Duisburg, while in June, on the night of 5th-6th, he was assigned to attack enemy guns batteries at Ouistreham, and on D-Day itself to Lisieux - targets at Valenciennes and Villers Bocage (daytime) followed before the month’s end. Then in July, in addition to strikes against Homberg, Kiel and Stuttgart (twice), he and his crew attacked flying bomb sites in Beauvoir and Linzeux, enemy communications around Caen in support of the Allied armoured push “Operation Goodwood”, while in August the Squadron’s agenda was of a purely French nature, namely another flying bomb site at Bois de Cassen, the oil depot at Bec D’Ambes, enemy troops and communications around Mare de Magny, and enemy night fighter airfields in St. Trond: a few days later, Bell was recommended for his D.F.M.

Sometime thereafter, he was posted to No. 48 Squadron, a Dakota unit based in recently liberated Singapore, but sadly, in the course of a routine flight in poor weather in February 1947, his aircraft was lost without trace. He was 26 years of age and is commemorated on the Singapore Memorial; sold with an original wartime crew photograph, together with an extensive file of research.