Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A rare Berlin Airlift A.F.M. awarded to Navigator II J. Mortimer, Royal Air Force

Air Force Medal, G.VI.R., 2nd issue (1423760 Nav. II J. Mortimer, R.A.F.), good very fine £2000-2500

A.F.M. London Gazette 9 June 1949.

John Mortimer was one of 13 men from R.A.F. Wunstorf, West Germany, whose awards for the Berlin Airlift were announced in the King’s Birthday Honours List on 9 June 1949 - a month after the lifting of the blockade.

The Soviet blockade of Berlin lasted from June 1948 until May 1949 and was one of the first major crises of the ”Cold War”, the Russians having closed all railway and road access to the Western Allies, thereby anticipating complete control over the city. But the Western Allies responded with Operation “Plainfare”, a remarkable mass airlift of supplies to the stranded Berliners, who required at least 4,000 tons of food and other essentials each day. In total, the Royal Air Force, and Commonwealth and American Air Forces, flew over 200,000 flights during the period in question, and by May 1949 the humiliated Soviets lifted their blockade.

Mortimer served as a Navigator II in Avro Yorks of No. 99 Squadron, which aircraft type made 29,000 flights in the airlift and contributed 239,000 tons of supplies - nearly half of the total contribution made by the Royal Air Force. And as verified by several authors, the greatest pressure was exerted on the Navigators, the utmost accuracy being required to remain in streams of aircraft day and night, with exact arrival times at the Frohnau navigation beacon.

Sold with copied Operational Record Book entries for 99 Squadron, detailing some of the recipient’s Operation “Plainfare” flights,together with three Berlin Airlift histories by Robert Rodrigo, Robert Jackson, and Arthur Pearcy.