Orders, Decorations and Medals

Sold by Order of the Recipient’s Family

The outstanding Second World War D.S.O., “Channel Dash” D.F.C. group of six awarded to Wing Commander E. F. K. Campling, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who nursed his crippled aircraft home after a seemingly suicidal daylight attack on the Scharnhorst on 12 February 1942 - an attack carried out from just 700 feet amidst a hail of flak and beneath a canopy of enemy fighters: an hour or two earlier that day Swordfish pilot Lieutenant-Commander Eugene Esmonde won a posthumous V.C. for leading another low-level attack - equally aware of the the ‘desperate enterprise’ he had undertaken

Distinguished Service Order, G.VI.R., the reverse of the suspension bar officially dated ‘1943’, in its Garrard & Co. case of issue; Distinguished Flying Cross, G.VI.R., the reverse officially dated ‘1942’, in its Royal Mint case of issue; 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; Defence and War Medals, extremely fine (6) £5000-7000

D.S.O. London Gazette 27 July 1943. The original recommendation states:

‘Squadron Leader Campling, D.F.C., has now completed a total of 11 operations in his second tour, bringing his total of operations over enemy territory to 47. This officer has at all times displayed a great keenness to operate, pressing home his attacks with determination and skill. During this tour Squadron Leader Campling has operated no less than four times against Berlin and has taken part in a low-level attack on Pilsen. This officer was greatly responsible for the conversion of this squadron, first to Halifaxes and then to Lancasters and has always been able to maintain a very high rate of serviceability in his fight, working unceasingly when called upon to do so and setting a fine example of determination. It is strongly felt that the service rendered by this officer merits the award of the Distinguished Service Order.’

D.F.C. London Gazette 3 March 1942. The original recommendation for an immediate award states:

‘On 12 February 1942, this officer was detailed as leader of a section of two aircraft to attack the German warships Gneisenau, Scharnhorst and Prinz Eugen.

After crossing the coast the aircraft accompanying Flight Lieutenant Campling returned to base with a defective turret, but using cloud cover Flight Lieutenant Campling proceeded to the target area alone. He successfully delivered an attack on the Scharnhorst from a height of 700 feet, having dived from 1200 feet. During the attack severe damage from flak was sustained to the port wing, elevator trimming tabs and the fuselage near the tail plane, causing control temporarily to be lost and the aircraft dived towards the sea. At 300 feet, before control had been fully regained, the aircraft was attacked by two Me. 109s.

The Rear Gunner was unable to retaliate due to damaged hydraulics and only by the greatest piloting skill was Flight Lieutenant Campling able to evade the fighters and keep the aircraft out of the sea. By flying low over the water the pilot prevented further interception and by first class airmanship brought the aircraft to its base where he affected a normal landing with his crew intact and uninjured.

Flight Lieutenant Campling has always shown a magnificent offensive spirit and by his own knowledge, skill and zeal maintains a high morale in his own crew and is an inspiring influence to all crews in the Squadron. His conduct cited above is held in great esteem by me and by his fellow pilots.’

Eric Frank Knowles Campling, who was commissioned in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in November 1939, commenced his first operational tour with No. 142 Squadron, a Wellington unit operating out of Binbrook in Lincolnshire, in July 1941, when he flew a daylight sortie to Brest. Thus ensued a busy tour, totalling 36 sorties and over 200 hours of operational flying time, his targets in France including Boulogne (twice) and Brest (four times), the latter in earlier attacks on enemy battleships pre-Channel Dash, and in Germany, Cologne, Essen, Hamburg (twice) and Wilhelmshaven (thrice), one of these latter in January 1942 witnessing Campling fly over the target on five separate occasions, as a result of being coned by searchlights. But, as cited above, it was for his magnificent bravery in the “Channel Dash” on 12 February 1942 that he won his immediate D.F.C. Of all the aircraft hastily put up by Bomber Command, less than 40 reached the enemy battleships - let alone carry out a convincing attack - and for getting his Wellington to a position of just 700 feet above the Scharnhorst, many would argue with justification that Campling was more worthy of an immediate D.S.O.

On completing his operational tour with No. 142 Squadron in the early summer of 1942, Campling was posted to No. 460 Conversion Unit, but by early 1943 had orchestrated his return to an operational footing as an Acting Squadron Leader with No. 460 (R.A.A.F.) Squadron, then a Halifax unit, but shortly to convert to Lancasters.

Completing his first sortie in mid-January, against Berlin, he re-visited the “Big City” on several occasions during the remainder of his tour, in addition to other heavily defended targets such as Hamburg and Stuttgart, but the award of his D.S.O. was prompted by his leadership and daring in a low-level strike against the Skoda factory at Pilsen on the night of 16-17 April 1943, a costly affair in which over 11 per cent of the attacking force was lost.

Campling, who also received a mention in despatches, remained actively employed with 460 Squadron until the end of 1943, when he was appointed Chief Instructor at No. 1 Lancaster Finishing School at Hemswell in the rank of Acting Wing Commander and, according to one obituary, had by then completed a total of 70 operational sorties. And it was while employed in his new role as Chief Instructor that he was killed in a flying accident on 8 April 1944, his Lancaster crashing at R.A.F. Caistor, that station’s O.R.B. reporting the aircraft as burnt out and all the occupants killed, among them Second Officer Miss I. Whittall of the Air Transport Auxiliary. The gallant Campling was just 23 years of age, and is buried in St. George’s Church in Denbighshire.

Sold with a good array of original documentation, including the recipient’s D.S.O. warrant, dated 27 July 1943, and a congratulatory postagram from “Bomber” Harris on award of the same, dated 16 July 1943; M.I.D. certificate, dated 2 June 1943; Buckingham Palace and Air Ministry condolence slips, the latter in the name of ‘Wing Commander E. F. K. Campling, D.S.O., D.F.C.’; two poignant letters to his mother from R.A.F. Hemswell, April 1944 (’He was a very gallant officer and his loss is acutely felt, not only on this station but throughout the Group’); a letter to her from the R.A.F’s central depository regarding his personal effects, dated 21 June 1944; a letter from the Air Ministry inviting her to attend an investiture at Buckingham Palace to receive her late son’s D.S.O., this dated 5 April 1945; and four wartime photographs depicting the damage sustained by Campling’s Wellington during the attack on the Scharnhorst attack - of interest to potential purchasers will be the understanding that a large section of canvas from the same Wellington is on display at Brooklands Museum in Surrey.