Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The original wartime Flying Log Book appertaining to Flight Lieutenant A. Spencer, Royal Air Force, a Flight Engineer in Coastal Command who completed over 800 hours of operational flying in Catalina and Fortress aircraft, comprising Royal Air Force Observer’s and Air Gunner’s Flying Log Book (Form 1767), commencing with training flights at Walney Island in June 1942 and ending with flights in Fortress aircraft of No. 521 Squadron at Langham in October 1945, with extensive operational flying in between, together with two photographs, a copy of H.M.S.O’s illustrated history Coastal Command (1942), and H.M.S.O’s Pilot’s and Flight Engineer’s Notes - Sunderland V, generally in excellent condition (Lot) £200-250

Spencer commenced his training at an Air Gunnery School at Walney Island in June 1942, transferred to No. 4 (Coastal Command) Operational Training Unit (O.T.U.) at Invergordon in the following month and, duly qualified as a Flight Engineer, was posted to No. 270 Squadron, a Catalina unit, in Freetown, West Africa, in November 1942. Completing his first operational sortie - an anti-submarine patrol in early December - he remained actively employed with 270 Squadron until the end of 1943, in which period he completed around another 70 operational sorties, duties including coastal reconnaissance and escort work, in addition to U-Boat patrols. Back in the U.K., Spencer attended another O.T.U. at Alness, where he gained time on Sunderlands, prior to being posted to No. 521 Squadron, a meteorological unit operating in Fortress aircraft out of Langham, in January 1945, and he remained similarly employed until beyond V.E. Day, his operational hours climbing to the 820 mark after a dozen or more “Rhombus” missions.