Orders, Decorations and Medals

A fine Second World War Bomber Command operations D.F.C., D.F.M. group of six awarded to Flight Lieutenant R. E. Manvell, Royal Air Force, a Flight Engineer who completed a tour of duty in Lancasters of 97 Squadron before joining Pathfinders and participating in the Hamburg “firestorm” and Peenemunde raids: he was killed in action in June 1944

Distinguished Flying Cross, G.VI.R., reverse officially dated ‘1944’; Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R. (569921 Sgt. R. E. Manvell, R.A.F.); 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; Defence and War Medals, generally good very fine (6) £2500-3000

D.F.C. London Gazette 6 June 1944. The original recommendation states:
‘Flight Lieutenant Manvell is the Squadron Flight Engineer Leader and has a fine operational record. He has completed 51 operational sorties, 21 of which have been with the Path Finder Force, against the most heavily defended targets in Germany. Apart from his duties as Engineer Leader, which he has carried out with zeal and efficiency, he has shown outstanding keenness to fly on operations on every possible occasion. His enthusiasm to undertake operational work has been an inspiration and, in particular, an example to the Flight Engineers entrusted to his care. His ability for training and instructing Flight Engineers, and his high sense of devotion to duty and his work on this squadron make him very worthy of the award of the Distinguished Flying Cross.’

D.F.M. London Gazette 14 May 1943. The original recommendation states:
‘This airman has participated very successfully in numerous operational sorties. His targets have included Essen and other strongly defended industrial centres in the Ruhr. He also took part in raids on Berlin and Italy and with good effect. In daylight, he has attacked Milan, Le Creusot and Danzig. His skill and courage have been an example to all.’

Robert Edward Manvell, a native of New Eltham in London, commenced his operational career as a Flight Engineer in No. 97 (Straits Settlement) Squadron, a Lancaster unit operating out of Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire, in June 1942, with three successive trips to Bremen, the first of them a “Thousand Bomber Raid”. Thus ensued a busy tour of operations, undoubtedly to targets of the heavily defended kind, including Berlin, Cologne, Duisberg (thrice), Dusseldorf (twice), Essen, Hamburg, Milan (thrice), Nuremburg and Saarbrucken, in addition to three daylight raids: Danzig on 11-12 July, a Bomber Command “first” involving 44 Lancasters and a 1,500 mile round trip, Le Creusot on 17 October, No. 5 Group’s famous dusk attack on the Schneider locomotive and armaments works, and Milan on 24 October, another risky enterprise with 88 Lancasters.

Manvell was recommended for his D.F.M. in March 1943, having completed 30 sorties and 170 hours of operational flying, and was commissioned as a Pilot Officer in the following month.

Returning to the operational scene with No. 156 Squadron in June 1943 - a Path Finder Force unit operating in Lancasters out of Alconbury, Huntingdonshire, and later from Warboys - Manvell quickly carried out a brace of trips to Cologne. So, too, in July, four successive strikes against Hamburg, strikes that culminated in the famous “firestorms”. Having then flown sorties to Mannheim, Nuremburg and Milan - the latter on three occasions - he participated in the famous Peenemunde raid on 17 August 1943, in Lancaster EE-926, piloted by Flying Officer A. M. Lutz.

His very next raid proved to be the costliest of the War so far, a strike against Berlin on the night of 23rd-24th, in which nearly 60 aircraft were lost. Trips to Nuremburg, Modane and Hanover followed, but he remained grounded in the months of October and November, quite probably to attend a Squadron Flight Engineer Leader’s course - certainly he was advanced to Flying Officer in the former month. A return trip to the “big city” in December, and strikes against Frankfurt, Leipzig and Stuttgart in February-March raised his operational sorties to the 50-mark - and 307 hours of operational flying - and he was recommended for the D.F.C.

Sadly, however, on the night of 23-24 June 1944, in Lancaster JB230 GT-S, captained by Pilot Officer D. Langford, D.F.C., he was killed in action in a marker operation for a flying-bomb site at Coubronne. His aircraft crashed at Zuytpeene, four kilometres from Cassel, only one member of crew surviving to be taken P.O.W., the remainder being buried in the local churchyard.