Orders, Decorations and Medals

A fine Second World War D.F.M. awarded to Flying Officer E. Conner, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, a Mid-Upper Gunner and “Battle of Berlin” veteran who had half of his turret demolished by an incendiary dropped from another Lancaster - but who nonetheless remained at his post

Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R. (1523357 F./Sgt. E. Conner, R.A.F.), together with original Buckingham Palace forwarding letter, in the name of ‘Flying Officer Edward Conner, D.F.M.’, and a wartime newspaper cutting, extremely fine £1800-2200

D.F.M. London Gazette 15 September 1944. The original recommendation states:

‘Since commencing his operational tour in November 1943, as Mid-Upper Gunner of a Lancaster bomber, Sergeant Conner has completed 30 operational sorties and has flown 186 hours on operations. These operations have included eight attacks on Berlin as well as attacks on many of the most heavily defended targets in Germany. Sergeant Conner has been attacked on several occasions by enemy fighters, and by his skill he has contributed greatly to the safety of his aircraft and to the many successful attacks made by his Captain. On one occasion, whilst bombing Schweinfurt a 30lb. incendiary from another aircraft tore away half his turret and made a large hole in the fuselage, and in spite of the fact he was sitting almost in the open air, and in spite of suffering from a frost bitten face due to the intense cold thus caused, Sergeant Conner stuck to his post and maintained a vigilant watch until his aircraft was safely back at base. Sergeant Conner’s fortitude and consistent coolness and devotion to duty are a magnificent example to the Squadron and I strongly recommend him for the award of the Distinguished Flying Medal.’

Edward Conner, who was born in Wallsend in 1919, enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in 1942, direct from the his place of work, the North-Eastern Marine Engineering Company. Trained as a Mid-Upper Gunner, he went operational in November 1943 with a brace of trips to Berlin on the 22nd and 30th, most probably in No. 103 Squadron, a Lancaster unit out of which was formed the nucleus of No. 576 Squadron at Elsham Wolds, Lincolnshire in the following month. Remaining actively employed in the latter unit until June 1944, he notched up 34 sorties prior to being “rested” and commissioned as a Pilot Officer in December 1944 - in between lay no less than six more sorties to the “Big City”, four of them in succession, but undoubtedly Conner’s most hair-raising trip was that to Schweinfurt on the night of 24-25 February 1944, when, as cited above, half of his turret was destroyed by a falling 30lb. incendiary from another Lancaster; that said, another close-call was encountered on returning to Elsham Wolds from Rouen in the early morning hours of 19 April 1944, his aircraft being attacked by an enemy night fighter as it circled the airfield before landing - ‘some damage was done to the aircraft but none of the crew were hurt.’

Having then visited more heavily defended German targets, Cologne, Dusseldorf and Essen among them, Conner and his crew turned their attention to a spate of other French targets in support of the forthcoming Allied invasion, attacking enemy communications at Crisbecq on the night of 5-6 June 1944, and Vire on D-Day itself. And it was shortly after these operations that he was recommended for his D.F.M. by Wing Commander G. T. B. Clayton, D.F.C., but four more sorties ensued before he was finally “rested”, the last of them being to Domleger on 29 June 1944. Conner was advanced to Flying Officer in June 1945.