The 1939-45 campaign group of three awarded to Flight Lieutenant G. W. Puttick, D.F.C., Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, a Spitfire P.R.U. pilot who was shot down and taken P.O.W. in May 1944

1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; War Medal 1939-45, in their original Air Ministry card forwarding box addressed to ‘F./Lt. G. W. Puttick, Slype Cottages, High Street, Milton, Cambridge’, with Air Council forwarding slip, entirely as issued to the recipient, extremely fine (3) £300-350

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Small Collection of Medals to the R.F.C., R.N.A.S., R.A.F. and F.A.A..

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Gordon William Puttick, who was born in March 1921 and enlisted in the Royal Air Force in March 1941, was shot down and taken P.O.W. on a P.R.U. mission to Germany on 13 May 1944, while flying a Spitfire of No. 542 Squadron. Edward Leaf’s Above All Unseen takes up the story:

‘Soon Rhine airfield came into view. I was flying at about 31,000 feet and begun my turn over the target ready to start my level run over the airfield. At that moment I was thrown sideways and a very large hole appeared in the centre of my starboard wing. By holding full left stick and full left rudder I managed to maintain level flight. I quickly turned westwards, hoping to make it back to England. However this was not to be. Other pieces of flak must have hit the engine. Soon all the instruments had gone haywire and flames started shooting out of the engine cowling. Having decided to bail out I tried to jettison the canopy but to no avail. Eventually I succeeded in sliding back the hood which was very difficult especially as I was trying to keep the aircraft straight and level. I carefully released the seat straps, taking care not to bang the parachute release mechanism and got to my feet and dived out. As I landed five or six German soldiers were waiting with their guns pointed at me and that was the beginning of my year as a P.O.W.’

Puttick was awarded the D.F.C. with effect from May 1944 (London Gazette 17 October 1944 refers):

‘This officer has completed a large number of operational sorties. He has obtained many excellent photographs over Germany and enemy occupied territory, including some damage assessment photographs of strongly defended targets. On one occasion he flew to Stuttgart, Regensburg and Nuremburg. At each objective he was subjected to heavy and accurate anti-aircraft fire. He flew his aircraft to the limit of its petrol endurance and was forced to make a crash landing on reaching Great Britain.’

Held in Stalag Luft III at Sagan from June 1944 until January 1945, and then at Stalag IIIA at Luckenwalde until the War’s end, Puttick’s P.O.W. debrief also reveals that he was threatened in transit to Sagan with ‘shooting, Gestapo, concentration camps and injections’.

He died in 2002 and is believed to have left his D.F.C. and Flying Log Book for display at R.A.F. Benson; sold with a file of research and copies of the R.A.F. Historical Society Proceedings (No. 10) and Edward Leaf’s Above All Unseen, in both of which Puttick is mentioned, together with original edition of The Lens, 15 November 1944.