Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Caterpillar Club Badge awarded to Lieutenant M. E. S. Robinson, D.F.C., South African Air Force, who became a fighter ace in Spitfires of No. 1 (S.A.A.F.) Squadron in the Middle East in 1943

Caterpillar Club Badge, gold caterpillar with ruby eyes, the reverse officially inscribed, ‘Lt. M. E. Robinson’, extremely fine £300-350

McClellan Eric Sutton Robinson, who was born in Johannesburg in February 1919, was originally allocated to a gunner’s course on entering the South African Air Force after the outbreak of hostilities in September 1939, but was later transferred to a pilot’s course.

Duly qualified, he was posted to No. 1 (S.A.A.F.) Squadron, a Hurricane unit, in August 1942, and quickly went into action over the Western Desert, claiming a half-share in a Ju. 87 over El Alamein on 2 November. The Squadron having meanwhile been re-equipped with Spitfires, Robinson claimed a Me. 109 destroyed south-west of Tamet on 14 January 1943 and, on 25 March, over the Gabes sector, a confirmed Me. 210 and another 109 damaged. He then raised his status to fighter ace with a 109 destroyed over Tunisia on 2 April, another in the Cap Bon area on the 21st, and two more in a celebrated action on the following day, when both of his victims dived into the sea in balls of fire, while fellow pilots picked-off several giant Me. 323 transports above him.

It was about this time that Robinson won acclaim for informing the unit’s Intelligence Officer that “when I saw the 109s I peeled off onto them. Mind you, I was below the telegraph wires myself at the time.” Quite what he reported to the I.O. following events on 14 July remains unknown, but we may be confident the “Warrior” Squadron’s line-book contained some colourful language: he was shot down by an American P-38 and obliged to take to his parachute over the sea off Sicily - and was fortunate indeed to be picked up by a passing Greek destroyer.

Tour expired, and a newly elected member of the Caterpillar Club, Robinson was awarded the D.F.C. (London Gazette 28 September 1943 refers), and returned to the Union to take up employment as a flying instructor at 11 O.T.U., Waterkloof. Tragically, however, he was killed on 14 November 1944, when one of his pupils collided with his Kittyhawk. The husband of Mary Robinson of Johannesburg, he was 25 years of age, and was buried in the Thaba Tshwane (New) Military Cemetery.