Orders, Decorations and Medals

A well-documented Second World War campaign group of three awarded to Sergeant W. Allen, Royal Air Force, who was killed in action on a sortie to Berlin in November 1943, while serving as an Air Gunner in No. 77 Squadron

1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; War Medal 1939-45, in their original addressed card forwarding box to ‘Mrs. E.A. Allen, Queen’s Lodge, Windermere Road, Thundersley, Essex’, virtually as issued (3) £300-350

William Allen, who was born in November 1922, enlisted in the Royal Air Force in July 1942, and qualified as an Air Gunner in October of the same year. Advanced to Sergeant in July 1943, he shortly afterwards commenced his operational career in No. 77 Squadron, a Halifax unit operating out of Elvington, Yorkshire. Taking-off for a raid on Berlin at 1712 hours on 22 November, his aircraft, Halifax LW 290 KN-U, was later reported as having crashed at Kloster Zinna, some 30 miles from Berlin - the only survivor, Flight Sergeant E. A. Davies, was taken P.O.W.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, comprising the recipient’s R.A.F. Airman’s Service and Pay Book, including his completed Will, dated 14 June 1943; Buckingham Palace condolence letter, addressed to his mother, Mrs. E. A. Allen, as is the following poignant correspondence: official telegram reporting him missing in action, dated 23 November 1943; similarly dated letter from the C.O. of No. 77; letter regarding the recipient’s personal effects, dated 29 November, with subsequent typed list of possessions and receipt for railway delivery, dated 11 January 1944; Air Ministry casualty branch communication, dated 30 November, reporting that efforts were being made to establish his fate via the International Red Cross; Air Ministry and R.A.F. Benevolent Fund letters, dated in December 1943, regarding on going salary payments; telegram reporting that the International Red Cross had found information confirming his fate, dated 8 January 1944, and related Air Ministry casualty branch letter, dated on the 13th, this latter also stating that another member of crew had survived; subsequent Air Ministry letter, dated 23 March 1944, confirming his place of burial in the local cemetery at Kloster Zinna, and other official communications regarding his Will and outstanding pay, together with a letter from the London and Manchester Assurance Co. Ltd. in respect of a policy; and closing Air Ministry communications, dated 10 March 1948, regarding the transferral of his remains, and those of his crew, to the British Military Cemetery in Berlin, and a receipt for a photograph of the relevant headstone, dated 13 June 1949; and two wartime portrait photographs, one taken at Bournemouth on 24 September 1943, shortly before his death in action.

For other medals to the ‘Allen’ family see lots 952 and 1032.