Orders, Decorations and Medals

A rare Second World War D.F.M. and Bar group of five awarded to Flying Officer C. E. Franklin, Nos. 49 and 617 Squadrons, Royal Air Force, Bomb-Aimer in Townsend’s Lancaster on the legendary Dambuster Raid in May 1943, for which his Immediate Bar is a unique award

Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R., with Second Award Bar, the reverse officially dated 1943 (165320 Sgt., R.A.F.); 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star, clasp, France & Germany; Defence & War Medals, together with his R.A.F. Service and Release Book and Buckingham Palace Investiture ticket, very fine and better (5) £9000-12000

See Colour Plate VI

D.F.M. London Gazette 18 May 1943. The recommendation states: ‘This N.C.O. has completed 26 sorties of 161.30 hours operational flying as an Air Bomber. His work on the ground and in the air has consistently been of the highest standard, and his great skill and determination in searching for and locating his target has resulted in a very high proportion of most successful sorties. Often hampered by bad weather and menaced by fighters and enemy defences, this N.C.O. has displayed a marked singleness of purpose in his determination only to bomb the correct target, involving as it frequently has done several runs to identify it positively before releasing his bombs. By his quiet efficiency he has gained the complete confidence of his crew and set an example to all, and I most strongly recommend the award of the Distinguished Flying Medal.

Bar to D.F.M. London Gazette 28 May 1943: Joint citation with Flight Sergeant W. C. Townsend, D.F.M., and Pilot Officer C. L. Howard. ‘Flight Sergeant Townsend was Captain, Pilot Officer Howard Navigator and Sergeant Franklin Air Bomber of an aircraft detailed to attack the Ennepe Dam. By displaying a very high degree of skill and judgement, Flight Sergeant Townsend brought his aircraft to a position from which Sergeant Franklin could hardly miss. On the way from the target much opposition was encountered, but by the display of great determination on the part of Pilot Officer Howard, their aircraft returned safely to base. I strongly recommend that this outstanding achievement of this crew be recognised by the immediate award of the C.G.M. to Flight Sergeant Townsend, the D.F.C. to Pilot Officer Howard and the first Bar to the D.F.M. to Sergeant Franklin.’

Only 60 Bars to the D.F.M. were awarded during the Second World War, this example being unique for the Dambuster Raid. Nineteen Lancasters took part in Operation Chastise with pilots and crews totalling 133 persons. Eight aircraft failed to return and, of those that did return, eight had attacked a dam. Thirty-four of the survivors were decorated, but only one complete crew (Gibson’s), although six of the last aircraft to return (Townsend’s) received an award. Gibson, himself, received the Victoria Cross to add to his two D.S.O’s and two D.F.C’s.

Charles Ernest Franklin was born in London on 12 November 1915 and entered the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in 1940. Between June 1940 and April 1942, he attended a number of training establishments prior to being posted to No. 44 Squadron. On 21 April 1942, he transferred to No. 49 Squadron, commencing his first operational tour that June. He subsequently completed 28 operations, the majority of them against German and Italian targets, and was gazetted for the D.F.M. in May 1943.

Along with several other members of 49 Squadron, he was transferred in March 1943 to the newly established 617 Squadron and began training for the top secret project detailing a spectacular attack on the great dams of Northern Germany, code-named ‘Operation Chastise’. By late April twenty Lancasters had been assembled at R.A.F. Scampton under the command of Wing Commander Guy Gibson, D.S.O., D.F.C. The training was intense and entailed very low flying at night, down to as little as 60 feet. Added pressures were a steady speed of 250mph and the complexities of a double spotlight mechanism to attain the exact required height, an item of particular interest to Franklin who would be acting as Bomb-Aimer in O-for-Orange, the Lancaster flown by Flight Sergeant Bill Townsend.

The attack was ultimately carried out in three waves, HQ having opted for the Mohne and Eder Dams as their priority targets, and the Sorpe and Ennepe Dams as secondary targets for any surviving aircraft still carrying their ‘bouncing bomb’. Townsend was appointed Flight Commander of the third wave and would take a southerly route out to the dams before being assigned his target following the results of the first and second wave attacks. In the event, he was ordered to the Ennepe Dam on the river Schwelme.

On the night of 16/17 May 1943, shortly after midnight, Townsend lifted O-Orange off Scampton’s runway, painfully aware that his third wave would be at a tremendous disadvantage, the enemy undoubtedly having been alerted by the forces under Gibson and McCarthy, which had taken off around 9.30pm. Such opposition aside, Townsend’s wave had the added complication of the early morning mist now settling in the valleys of northern Germany. O-Orange raced over the Dutch coast shortly after 1.30am, subsequently receiving confirmation of her target allocation, the Ennepe Dam. Innevitably her course was picked up by enemy searchlights, somewhere over Haltern, and in the face of tremendous flak, Townsend “threw the heavy laden Lancaster around like a Tiger Moth”, skilfully evading the heaviest fire.

Quickly amending O-Orange’s course in an effort to avoid any similar episodes, Townsend took her down to 100 feet, racing onward to the Ennepe. The gathering mist made locating the dam extremely difficult but at length a fix was taken from some hills about three quarters of a mile away. Circling several times, Townsend finally brought the Lancaster down to 60 feet above the mist strewn water. Franklin was not to be rushed. Displaying his usual “marked singleness of purpose” in obtaining accurate results, he coolly asked Townsend to make three runs over the dam before releasing their bomb at 3.37am. It bounced once and exploded about thirty seconds later, sending up a huge column of dirt and water. No damage was observed and O-Orange signalled Scampton, “Goner 58E”.

The attack complete, Townsend wasted no time in turning O-Orange onto her return course for Scampton. As the last of 617’s force to head home on that memorable night, she found herself caught up in the bright rays of dawn. In an effort to lessen the danger of this unwanted exposure, Townsend once more brought the Lancaster down to minimum altitude, skimming over the roof-tops of occupied Europe at 250mph, miraculously avoiding high tension wires and other obstacles. En route, in a momentary lapse of concentration, both Townsend and Franklin stared in awe at the devastation caused by Gibson’s earlier visit to the Mohne Dam, afterwards reporting to the Intelligence Officer at Scampton that they had seen the roofs of houses sticking up above the deluge. After what seemed an intolerable period of tension, O-Orange roared out over the Dutch coast, between Texel and Vlieland, through another blanket of flak thrown up by the coastal defences. Once again Townsend’s superb skill brought the Lancaster through unscathed. Thereafter it was flat out across the waves to Scampton, O-Orange finally touching down at 6.15am, the last of the ‘Dambusters’ to return.

On 28 May, Franklin was gazetted for a Bar to his D.F.M., the only member of 617 Squadron so honoured throughout the War. Having attended the “Dambuster” investiture at Buckingham Palace, he was commissioned into No. 83 Squadron, receiving promotion to Flying Officer on 4 November 1944.

After the War, Franklin moved to Birmingham and with his parents set up a successful catering business. He was the first Birmingham caterer to be given a periphery license to operate outside Birmingham. In 1955 he became Birmingham’s ‘Forgotten Dambuster’ when his name was omitted from the guest list of the Royal Premier for the film The Dam Busters, but after publicity regarding the omission an invitation was received in time for him to attend and meet his fellow airmen. He died on 25 January 1975, his funeral being attended by more than 200 mourners, including crew members of O-Orange and its ground crew and representatives from 617 Squadron. Sir Barnes Wallis, inventor of the bouncing bomb, was represented by his daughter. The coffin was draped with the Union flag and Franklin received a fitting sending off in keeping with his past. Franklin’s original group of medals, as listed above, was put up for sale at Glendining’s by his descendants in November 1994, they having been issued with a duplicate D.F.M. and Bar in March 1975 which has been retained within his family.