Auction Catalogue

4 & 5 December 2008

Starting at 11:00 AM

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Orders, Decorations and Medals

Washington Mayfair Hotel  London  W1J 5HE

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Lot

№ 1202

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5 December 2008

Hammer Price:
£580

Three: Warrant Officer G. E. Hill, Royal Air Force, who completed an operational tour in Lancasters of No. 550 Squadron and No. 582 (P.F.F.) Squadron, the latter posting witnessing his participation in the daylight raid on Gremberg railway yards, Cologne on 23 December 1944: of the 30 aircraft that set out, eight failed to return and the remainder were severely damaged by flak and enemy fighters - “Master of Ceremonies” Squadron Leader R. A. M. Palmer was awarded a posthumous V.C.

1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; War Medal 1939-45,
good very fine (3) £300-400

Hill originally commenced training as an Air Gunner at No. 41 Air School in South Africa in August 1942, but later transferred to an Observer’s course. Embarked for the U.K. at the end of 1943, he attended an O.T.U. and conversion course and was posted to No. 550 Squadron, a Lancaster unit operating out of Killingholme, in August 1944. Completing his first operational sortie in Group Captain McIntyre’s crew - the daylight attack on Troisy St. Maxim on the 3rd - thereafter he flew in Flying Officer Manley’s crew. Thus another nine sorties that month, four at night and the remainder by day, his targets including enemy troop concentrations around Caen and the Falaise Gap, in addition to the rocket site at Agenville and a brace of regular boming runs to Stettin. Having then participated in the attack on the enemy airfield at Gilze-Risen on 3 September, Hill was assigned to four successive daylight strikes against enemy troop concentrations around Calais - the whole carried out in less than a week - prior to volunteering with his crew for the Path Finder Force (P.F.F.) towards the end of the month.

Posted to No. 582 (P.F.F.) Squadron at Little Staughton, they completed their first Pathfinder operation on 6 October, a mission to the Scholven River, additional sorties to Wanne Eickel, Essen, Homberg and Cologne completing that month’s operational agenda, and Hill now acting as Navigator II. November witnessed him participate in four night and two day operations, the former including Dortmund and Dusseldorf, and the latter Julich on the 16th, but it was in December, on the 23rd, after having flown in raids on Essen and Duisberg, that he was assigned to the daring daylight strike on the Gremberg railway yards in Cologne - an occasion that witnessed severe loss to our force of 27 Lancasters, and the extraordinary V.C.-winning exploits of “Master Bomber” Squadron Leader R. A. M. Palmer, already the holder of two D.F.Cs and a veteran of 110 operational sorties.

The attacking force took off from Little Staughton at 10.27 a.m., Palmer leading 27 Lancasters and three Mosquitos in three formations, two of the former quickly being lost as a result of a collision over the Thames Estuary. On nearing the target in Cologne, the predicted 10/10ths cloud cover turned out to be open sky, thereby allowing the ground defences a clear view of the approaching force - and free rein to the enemy fighters that appeared on the scene shortly afterwards. But neither flak or fighter - and the blazing airframe of his Lancaster - would turn Palmer away from his chosen course, his markers falling accurately before his aircraft was seen to spiral earthward. Meanwhile, the remainder of 582’s Lancasters were paying an equally heavy price, the citation for Palmer’s posthumous V.C. stating that ‘such was the strength of the opposition that more than half of his formation failed to return’. Added to which, of the aircraft fortunate enough to get home, all ‘without exception had suffered varying degrees of heavy damage from flak and fighter cannon’ (see For Valour, The Air V.Cs, by Chaz Bowyer, for further details): on learning of the award of Palmer’s posthumous award, Hill added the following to his relevant Flying Log Book entry - ‘Palmer, V.C.’

In lieu of the losses sustained on the 23rd, it seems extraordinary that No. 582 was ordered to attack Cologne the very next night, but so it was, and again at the end of the month, in addition to a trip to Munchen Gladbach. And in January 1945, after sorties to Dortmund and Nuremburg, Hill was posted to R.A.F. Manby “tour expired”.

Sold with the recipient’s original Observer’s and Air Gunner’s Flying Log Book (Form D.D. 461 A), covering the period August 1942 to January 1946, together with a series of target photographs (9), the whole pertinent to his operational career, and a picture of him and his crew standing in front of their Lancaster, “Bad Penny II”.