An exceptional Second World War Rear Gunner’s immediate D.F.M. group of four awarded to Flight Sergeant R. H. Payne, No. 227 Squadron, Royal Air Force, who, in the process of abandoning his crippled aircraft one night in in November 1944, saw an enemy fighter moving in for the final kill - ‘although the perspex on both sides of his turret was being smashed and bullets were hitting the door at the back of his turret, Sergeant Payne very gallantly climbed back into his seat and opened fire on the enemy aircraft. He did not cease firing until the enemy aircraft had been shot down’

The last member of his crew to take to his parachute, with a bullet wound and burns, he evaded capture with the assistance of the Dutch Underground and hitched a lift home in an American General’s Dakota

Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R. (1897544 Sgt. R. H. Payne, R.A.F.); 1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; War Medal 1939-45, together with the recipient’s Caterpillar Club brooch, with ruby eyes, reverse inscribed ‘Sgt. R. H. Payne’, nearly extremely fine (5) £2400-2800

D.F.M. London Gazette 13 February 1945. The original recommendation - for an immediate award - states:

‘On the night of 2 November 1944, Lancaster 227/D had successfully attacked Dusseldorf, except for a bomb hang-up. After leaving the target area, the Bomb Aimer and Flight Engineer were endeavouring to release the bomb and the aircraft was being flown straight and level.

Without warning, from immediately below, the aircraft was attacked by a Ju. 88 which succeeded on its first attack in setting fire to the starboard inner engine. The pilot and engineer endeavoured to put out the fire but were unsuccessful so the pilot ordered the crew to put on parachutes as a preliminary to giving the order to abandon the aircraft.

As the Rear Gunner, Sergeant Payne was leaving his seat and endeavouring to open the door, quite unaware of the cause of the fire, he observed the enemy aircraft at quite close range firing from the forward firing guns. Although the perspex on both sides of his turret was being smashed and bullets were hitting the door at the back of his turret, Sergeant Payne very gallantly climbed back into his seat and opened fire on the enemy aircraft. He did not cease firing until the enemy aircraft had been shot down.

He then proceeded to carry out his captain’s instructions and abandon aircraft. Had it not been for the initiative, courage and gallantry of Sergeant Payne, the Lancaster, already on fire, would have been a very easy target for the enemy aircraft on its second attack and it is very unlikely that any member of the crew would have got away with his life.

Sergeant Payne, together with all members of his crew, evaded capture and made his way through the enemy lines and returned to this country on 5 November 1944.’

Ronald Hubert Payne, who was born at Great Haseley, Oxfordshire in May 1923, enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in July 1943.

Qualifying as an Air Gunner, he joined No. 227 Squadron, a Lancaster unit operating out of R.A.F. Balderton, in early October 1944, when he was appointed Rear Gunner in Flying Officer C. J. Croskell’s crew. At the time of being recommended for his D.F.M. a month later, he had completed 12 sorties, so some of these operations must have been undertaken in his previous unit, No. 207 Squadron, which he had joined in August 1944.

After baling out of his stricken aircraft on the night of 2 November, Payne landed near a fellow member of crew, Philip Orrey, and the pair of them walked through the night before meeting members of the Dutch Underground. Safely delivered to an Allied base just 48 hours after setting out on their fateful mission to Dusseldorf, they were offered a lift home by an American General who was bound for London in a Dakota.

Payne was released from service as a Flight Sergeant in January 1946, when his discharge papers described his as being scarred from multiple burns and a ‘gunshot wound’. He died in Oxford in September 2006.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including Buckingham Palace forwarding letter for his D.F.M. and related congratulatory postagram from ‘Bomber’ Harris; a letter from the O.C. 227 Squadron informing the recipient’s father that his son had been reported missing, dated 3 November 1944, with related Air Ministry telegram, followed, happily, on the 5th, by a second letter with news that he was ‘safe and well’; Air Passage Authority (Transport Command), for the recipient’s flight to the U.K. after his evasion, dated 4 November 1944; his named Caterpillar Club membership card; R.A.F. Service and Release Book and three wartime photographs, including two portraits in uniform, together with copied research.