The rare and particularly fine Second War 1944 ‘Photo Reconnaissance Unit’ D.F.C., ‘Malta 1940-41’ D.F.M. group of eight awarded to Maryland and Mosquito navigator, Flight Lieutenant J. H. Spires, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, a Blenheim veteran of the Battle of Britain, who went on to distinguish himself flying with some of the most important Reconnaissance Pilots of the Second World War.

Spires was posted to No. 431 (General Reconnaissance) Flight on Malta immediately after the Battle of Britain, and here he crewed up with the soon-to-become-legendary ‘Six-medal Warburton’ - who was later described as ‘the most important pilot in the R.A.F.’ by Air Marshal Tedder. Together they were to fly ‘in Maryland AR.713 affectionately known as the “Sardine Tin”... shot up in the air, holed by bomb splinters on the ground, in flight it played “Whistlers Mother.”’

Spires and Warburton provided vital reconnaissance for the Taranto Raid - plotting the positions of the Italian battleships mere hours before the Fleet Air Arm carried out their famous Swordfish attack. Warburton made three sweeps over the fleet at 500 feet and lower, even though ‘the weather was so bad that the birds were walking and the fish were at anchor..... we flew around the harbour twice and plotted the ships... when all hell let lose - Flack, tracer the kitchen sink - the lot.... We went in hugging the water, and the “Ities” were ready and tracer bullets poured towards us, I thought how in the hell can they miss us, but they did and we counted the battleships together, one, two, three, four, five.’

This was not the last of Spires’ adventures with Warburton, as the flight were tasked with carrying out the reconnaissance for Operation Colossus - the first British airborne operation of the Second World War. Warburton and crew took photographs of the Tragino viaduct near Calitri in southern Italy, which was to be the target for ‘X’ Troop, from the near-suicidal height of 25 feet!

Having left Malta, Spires then converted to the blue Mosquitos of the P.R.U. and saw out the remainder of the War in the skies above North West Europe. His swan song came when flying with arguably the finest Mosquito and P.R.U. pilot of them all - Wing Commander J. R. H. Merifield, D.S.O., D.F.C. and Bar - when the pair achieved two Atlantic flying records and a trans-Canadian record, flying Mosquito PR34 RG241 'K' in October 1945

Distinguished Flying Cross, G.VI.R., reverse officially dated ‘1944’; Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R. (751252 Sgt. J. H. Spires. R.A.F.); 1939-45 Star, 1 clasp, Battle of Britain; Air Crew Europe Star; Africa Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Air Efficiency Award, G.VI.R., 1st issue (Flt. Lt. J. H. Spires. R.A.F.V.R.) mounted as worn, cleaned, very fine (lot) £10,000-£15,000

D.F.C. London Gazette 7 November 1944. The original recommendation states:

‘This officer has an outstanding record as an operational navigator. Since the award of the D.F.M. he has completed many more operational sorties. He has flown on photographic reconnaissance’s over some of the most heavily defended targets in Germany and occupied Europe and has secured much valuable information. Throughout, Flight Lieutenant Spires has displayed skill, determination and great courage.’

D.F.M. London Gazette 17 June 1941. The original recommendation states:

‘While serving in Blenheims with 235 Squadron in the United Kingdom, Sergeant Spires took part in 55 operational flights which included reconnaissance flights over enemy occupied territory and escort duty. On four occasions, the aircraft met with opposition from German fighters. These flights amounted to a total of 157 hours operational flying. He was then posted to 69 Squadron based at Malta and between 1st November, 1940 and 12th February, 1941, has taken part in 38 reconnaissance flights, 28 of these flights were photographic reconnaissance of enemy territory. On seven occasions, the aircraft met with opposition from Italian fighters. He was also the Observer of the aircraft which successfully carried out the special Air Ministry reconnaissance of Southern Italy on 9th February, 1941 [the Tragino Aqueduct near Calitri, Southern Italy - prior to Operation Colossus being carried out by ‘X’ Troop, 10-11 February 1941, the latter being the first British airborne operation of the War], and again on 12th February, 1941. These flights amounted to a total of 160 hours operational flying. His total operational flying from the United Kingdom and Malta amounts to 317 hours. Without exception, the Captains of the aircraft in which Sergeant Spires has flown have the greatest faith in his abilities, which are definitely above the average. 27th May, 1941.’

John Henry Spires was born in Luton, Bedfordshire, in September 1920, and resided at 13 Montrose Avenue, Luton. He enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (Observer Section) at Luton in May 1939. Spires was mobilised in September 1939, and carried out training at No. 6 Air Observers Navigation School, Cheltenham, and at No. 4 B. & G.S., West Freugh. Spires was posted for operational flying with 235 Squadron (Blenheims) as part of Coastal Command on 9 March 1940. The Squadron was tasked with fighter-reconnaissance duties, flying out of Detling and Bircham Newton. When the German invasion of the Low Countries began in May 1940, the squadron flew patrols over Holland and during the Battle of Britain was engaged in convoy protection and reconnaissance missions over the North Sea. In an interview given after the War, Spires commented on this period:

‘The emotion was unmistakable as John Spires spoke of the many friends who didn’t come home.

“We would all go to the pub after a mission and then someone would say ‘Where’s old Charlie?’

“Someone else would say ‘He never made it today’. You would think ‘that could have been me.’

“I lost a lot of fine friends..... At the time I don’t think it registered. Survival was everything and King and Country meant everything.

We were young, inexperienced and didn’t fully realise the danger,” he said.

During the Battle of Britain, Mr Spires was a navigator in a Blenheim 5 used as a bomber/fighter.

“We had to intercept enemy planes when they were flying back to Europe from England. But you needed a fair amount of luck and if your gunners were killed you were in trouble,” said the man who was shot down three times.

“But it was the ground crew who kept us going,” he said. “We just did what we had to do throughout the war.”

Spires was flying with Pilot Officer E. H. McHardy (of 248 Squadron) and L.A.C. Heaviside as gunner, when they shot down a Me110 three miles off Blankenberge, Belgium 18 May 1940. However, it was subsequently claimed that this may have been a French Potez 631.’

After the “Battle”, new friends in Malta - ‘Warby’ Warburton

Spires continued to serve with the Squadron throughout the Battle of Britain, before being posted to No. 431 (General Reconnaissance) Flight on Malta at the end of October 1940. The latter was equipped with three Martin 167F Maryland light bombers, which were to provide the island with a reconnaissance facility able to operate over defended areas. Spires soon found himself in the ‘mix’ with the Australian pilot and C/O ‘Tich’ Whiteley, and the soon-to-become-legendary ‘Warby’ Warburton (later dubbed ‘the most important pilot in the RAF’ by Air Marshal Tedder, and described as 'Six-medal Warburton'; all of his gallantry awards were earned while operating from Malta).

431 Flight had been sent to Malta following pressure from the Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) Mediterranean, Admiral Cunningham, who wanted ‘eyes’ on the powerful and modern Italian battle fleet. Malta, as Spires described it, was to become ‘the unsinkable aircraft carrier of the Mediterranean.’ Cunningham had a plan to strike a blow at the Italians in their base at Taranto in southern Italy, but he needed up-to-date intelligence first. Flying up to two sorties a day, November was to prove exceptionally busy for Spires as they tracked the comings and goings of the Italian battleships at Taranto and took photographs of the positions of the barrage balloons and anti-torpedo nets.

The most important sorties were flown on 10 and 11 November 1940, and Spires flew with Warburton as his pilot during the second sortie of the day on the latter date. Spires adds the following detail:

‘One of the most outstanding pilots of the Squadron was Pilot Officer Warburton... Warburton was a quiet, unassuming individual and from outward appearance his blue eyes and fair hair deceived his inner emotions. In action he was a cold and calculating machine, with no fear at all, his main purpose was to achieve his objective and no amount of enemy opposition could put him off his set task. Many times in action though his aircraft was shot up by flack and fighter plans he would turn back determined, unshaken, confident that he would have another go at the target. In order to illustrate this point I can vividly recall the time when we were carrying out a series of reconnaissance's to pin-point every capital ship of the Italian navy.

The crew consisted of W.O.P/A.G. Sergeant Paddy Moren, D.F.M. and air navigator Sergeant John Spires, D.F.M., both of whom had been in action since January 1940 in Europe.

The aircraft was a Maryland AR.713 affectionately known as the “Sardine Tin” that had known better days, shot up in the air, holed by bomb splinters on the ground, in flight it played “Whistlers Mother.” This may seem surprising that the R.A.F. allowed such planes to fly - but when one realises the situation at that time in Malta - short of aircraft, and the need to know the position of the enemy forces in a hurry, we had to take the calculated risk.

We flew in any weather, sometimes twice in one day, but slowly and relentlessly the enemy was plotted, whilst day after day as the Italian naval forces steamed towards Taranto the reconnaissance planes were there to take photographs.

One day in November 1940, ‘Warby’, Paddy and myself were briefed to recce Taranto - Brindisi and Messina. The weather was so bad that the birds were walking and the fish were at anchor. “Does the Officer Commanding think we are going to fly in this” - “He must think we are crazy.”

“We’re going at zero feet the whole way, get yourself a sharp pencil and plenty of paper. - If we can’t photograph, you will have to plot them on the harbour map”, Warby remarked [to Spires] quietly. “Paddy, you read the names on the sides of the ship”. We both said “Christ”.

So we navigated on a dead reckoning - Taranto loomed up and with a broken cloud base of 500 feet we set about our task. As luck would have it the balloons were down and the Italians were unprepared, we flew around the harbour twice and plotted the ships in the relative position from the mole - when all hell let lose - Flack, tracer the kitchen sink - the lot. We hit the deck and beetled off out of range.

We then had a meeting to check that we had got all the factual evidence. It didn’t check with the previous day’s report - we had got too many battleships. Warby decided to go in again. “Now, keep your peepers open” said Warby, “We will check the Battle-wagons in the outer harbour.”

We went in hugging the water, and the “Ities” were ready and tracer bullets poured towards us, I thought how in the hell can they miss us, but they did and we counted the battleships together, one, two, three, four, five.

The flight home was uneventful, but in the following day’s Times of Malta the cartoonist depicted Warburton flying low over a battleship and the Captain of the vessel throwing his sword at the aircraft.’ (Typed manuscript included with lot refers)

Despite the intense flak, Warburton’s crew agreed on only five battleships which, along with 14 cruisers and 27 destroyers, tried to shoot the vulnerable Maryland out of the sky. The Fleet Air Arm launched their attack that night, 11-12 November 1940, and what followed became known as the Battle of Taranto.

The Fleet Air Arm’s exploits in their Fairey Swordfish aircraft during the famous raid need no embellishment here; however, Spires et al were there in the aftermath:

‘On November 11th the Fleet Air Arm attacked the Italian fleet and as night follows day, we took off to access the damage. Somehow, from the reception we got the Italians gave the impression that they were a trifle peeved. We made our first run at 6,000 feet, there was no doubt about it the Fleet Air Arm had done a marvellous job, oil was streaming all over the sea, ships were down and there was a couple of large fires burning. The anti-aircraft fire did not trouble us, and we took no avoiding action, but on the fourth run over the target we spotted fighter planes - these were approximately three miles away and slightly below us.

Having obtained all our photographs we climbed into the cloud, changed direction and headed towards home.’ (ibid)

Taranto survived - flying at 25 feet for Operation Colossus!

This was not the last of Spires’ adventures with Warburton, as the Flight were tasked with reconnaissance missions over enemy ports and airfields in Sicily, Italy and Libya. The Flight was re-designated as 69 Squadron in January 1941, and Spires was up in the air again with Warburton carrying out the reconnaissance for Operation Colossus on 9 February 1941. The latter was to be the first airborne operation undertaken by the British during the Second World War. The target was the Tragino viaduct near Calitri, southern Italy, and 38 members of ‘X’ Troop were to be parachuted in to attack the target on 10 and 11 February 1941. Upon arrival at Malta, the troop were briefed with aerial reconnaissance photographs of the objective which showed that there were actually two aqueducts in the area, one larger than the other; after a brief discussion it was decided that the larger of the two would be targeted. Warburton and crew took photographs of the viaduct, and they also followed up the raid the following day - flying over the area to ascertain the results of the raid. Some of the photographs taken before and after the raid were shot from the near-suicidal height of 25 feet!

Blue Mosquitos at the P.R.U.

Spires was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal, and completed his tour in January 1942. He returned to the UK for a ‘rest’, and served as an instructor at No.1 Elementary Air Navigation School, Eastbourne, and then at the Central Navigation School at Cranage. Spires was commissioned in May 1942, converted to Mosquitos, and returned to operational flying as a navigator with the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit at R.A.F. Benson in October 1943. The unit, which became a Wing and ultimately a Group, was assigned to Coastal Command's photo reconnaissance assets, with the whole of Northern Europe as its operational area. Spires flew in operational sorties over France and Germany, notably over marshalling yards, and:

‘Specialising in photographic missions, he flew over Berlin and all over Europe, and even delivered Churchill’s daily paper to him in Italy once when he was there for a conference.’ (Obituary refers)

Spires advanced to Flight Lieutenant, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1944. He remained at Benson after his tour ended in August 1945, and his swan song came when flying a Mosquito with arguably the finest Mosquito and P.R.U. pilot of them all - Wing Commander J. R. H. Merifield, D.S.O., D.F.C. and Bar (his medal group sold in these rooms in January 2021). On 20 October 1945 Merifield and Spires took off in Mosquito PR34 RG241 'K' of 540 Squadron from St. Mawgan, Cornwall and landed at Gander, Newfoundland, 7 hours and 2 minutes later, an East-West record. The return flight, three days later, was accomplished in 5 hours 10 minutes, a record which still stands for a twin piston-engined aircraft crossing the Atlantic. Spires later commented in a newspaper interview:

‘“We didn’t actually intend to break any records,” said Mr Spires.

“I set out in a Mosquito as special navigator with the late Wing Commander Merifield as pilot. I was a Flight Lieutenant then and the R.A.F. was sending us to Canada to show the Canadians how to use a particular kind of radar.

We took off from St. Mawgan, Cornwall, and landed in Newfoundland seven hours and two minutes later - half a minute out of our schedule. It turned out to be a record, and we made the return journey in five hours and ten minutes. But before we came back we had to fly across Canada and back to Newfoundland.

We smashed the trans Canadian record, as well, both ways. Nobody in a propeller driven aircraft has broken those records.

In those days we used to fly at about 36,000 feet and we used to get a good following wind up there.”

The war was just over and John Spires was 25 when “K King” set up those records.’

Spires was released from the R.A.F.V.R. in 1947, and returned to Luton where he was employed by Vauxhall for the next 40 years - rising to the position of Plant Manager. He died in Luton in January 1984, and some of his wartime papers are held by the Imperial War Museum.

Sold with the following original and related items to J. H. Spires: named Buckingham Palace enclosure for the D.F.C.; Buckingham Palace Investiture Ticket dated 19 May 1942; Second War campaign medal enclosure slip; metal Observer’s brevet; R.A.F.V.R. lapel badge, reverse numbered ‘7423’; D.F.C. Royal Mint case of issue; 2 Silk Aircrew Escape Maps of Italy and Sicily; recipient’s pocket edition of The New Testament, with named membership card of the Pocket Testament League inserted; recipient’s pocket edition of The Perfect Ceremonies of Craft Masonry; copy of The Illustrated London News, dated 3 November 1945, in which Merifield and Spires’ record break flight is featured; a short typed manuscript written by recipient about his service with Warburton to be used by Roy Nash in his series of articles on Warburton entitled The Unknown Air Ace, with a letter from the author to Spires returning the manuscript, dated 8 April 1958; with a large glazed and framed caricature of recipient in pastel and ink, dated ‘1942’ and inscribed ‘Johnnie’; glazed and framed photographic image of recipient in later life meeting the late Duke of Edinburgh; photographic images of recipient, other ephemera and a kit model Mosquito painted in Reconnaissance colours and with the markings for RG 241.

Sold together with the following family medals:

Pair: Private H. Simpkins, East Surrey Regiment
British War and Victory Medals (240406 Pte. H. Simpkins. E. Surr. R.) very fine