Auction Catalogue

22 September 2000

Starting at 12:00 PM

.

Orders, Decorations and Medals

Grand Connaught Rooms  61 - 65 Great Queen St  London  WC2B 5DA

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Lot

№ 711

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22 September 2000

Hammer Price:
£550

A family group to Brothers:

Three: Sergeant David Good, No. 50 Squadron, Royal Air Force, a Hampden Pilot shot down in September 1941 and taken P.O.W.

1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; War Medal, with named card box of issue and the recipient’s Pilot’s Flying Log Book for the period June 1939 to September 1941, including several good photographs of him in his Hampden and with his brother

Three: Sergeant Kenneth Good, No. 106 Squadron, Royal Air Force, also a Hampden Pilot who was shot down and killed in March 1941

1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; War Medal, with named condolence slip (Sergeant K. Good) extremely fine (6) £500-600

After completing his flying training, Sergeant (Pilot) David Good was posted to No. 50 Squadron at Lindholme in April 1941. He flew his first operation on the 24th of that month against Le Havre. On the 29th April, in addition to the usual four 500lb bombs, his Hampden was loaded with a quantity of tea, a gift from the Dutch East Indies, to be dropped over Holland en route to their target, Rotterdam. The tea was contained in small cotton bags, each weighing two-thirds of an ounce, attached to a label with the message in Dutch, ‘Holland will rise again. Greetings from the Free Netherlands Indies. Keep a good heart.’ The reaction of the Dutch people to the gift, as reported by their Naval Attaché in London, was - ‘Why not bombs?’ The Free French, however, were more impressed, and asked for coffee to be dropped over France! (See Lot 486 for a rare example of these tea bags).

By the end of August 1941, David Good had completed his 1st Pilot’s course at 25 OTU and a total of 16 operational missions. On September 7th he was pilot of Hampden AD318 detailed for an operation against Keil. His aircraft was coned by searchlights over the target, badly hit and set of fire. After ordering the crew to bale out, Good then tried to bale out himself but was forced back by the wind blast. By crawling out over the wing he succeeded in dropping off the trailing edge and was lucky not to be hit by the tail plane. He landed safely in a ploughed field and within the hour he, and his three crewmen, were all in a Luftwaffe prison. He was subsequently held prisoner at Stalug Luft VI at Heydekrug.

Sergeant (Pilot) Kenneth Good was the pilot of Hampden X3002 on the night of 3/4 March 1941, detailed for operations against Cologne, with his three-man crew, all on their first operation. Their aircraft crashedover Belgium and all four men were buried in Schoonselhof Cemetery, Antwerp.