Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine Second World War Pathfinder’s D.F.M. group of eight awarded to Master Engineer A. J. White, Royal Air Force, who completed over 50 operational sorties in Halifaxes and Lancasters of No. 35 and No. 635 Squadrons, often as a member of the Master Bomber’s crew, before notching up many hours in the Berlin Airlift and seeing further active service in Cyprus and Borneo

Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R. (1403524 F./Sgt. A. J. White, R.A.F.); 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star, clasp, France and Germany; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Cyprus (M. Eng. A. J. White (1403524) R.A.F.); General Service 1962, 1 clasp, Borneo (M. Eng. A. J. White (1403524) R.A.F.); Royal Air Force L.S. & G.C., E.II.R. (M. Eng. A. J. White (1403524) R.A.F.), together with metalled Path Finder Force Badges (2), and Warrant Officer’s Crown rank insignia, one or two edge bruises, otherwise generally very fine or better (11) £1800-2200

D.F.M. London Gazette 27 March 1945. The original recommendation states:

‘This N.C.O. has participated in many attacks against heavily defended enemy objectives, including Berlin. His cheerfulness, courage and confidence, coupled with his sound knowledge of his own particular role, have been most inspiring.’

Alan John White commenced his training as a Flight Engineer in summer of 1943 and, having converted to Halifaxes, joined No. 35 (Path Finder Force) Squadron at Graveley, Huntingdonshire, at the year’s end.

Having then participated in strikes against Berlin and Schweinfurt, he joined the crew of Squadron Leader E. K. Creswell, D.F.C., in March 1944, when the unit was re-equipped with Lancasters and, over the coming six months acted as the latter’s Flight Engineer in a flurry of operations, often as Deputy or Master Bomber - Creswell would add a D.S.O. and Bar to his accolades in the same period.

Completing their first sortie together on 18 March, when they were compelled to return early from Frankfurt owing to a fire in the port outer engine, they acted as Primary Visual Marker in a return trip to the same city a few nights later, and in a similar capacity in strikes against Berlin and Nurnburg before the month’s end, the latter trip resulting in an emergency landing at Ford owing to ‘petrol shortage and enemy action’.

In the last week of April, Creswell’s crew flew no less than five sorties, one of them as Primary Visual Marker to Karlsruhe, another as Deputy Master Bomber to Laon, and the others as Master Bomber to Villenouve, Friedrichshaven and Acheres - thereafter, with one exception, it was always as Master Bomber until White’s transfer to No. 635 Squadron in August. Thus four such sorties against French targets in May, including Boulogne, and three more in June, including Rennes. Indeed targets in support of the Normandy landings were very much on the agenda throughout this period, including two daylight strikes in the Caen battle area on 7 July and a night operation against Tours on the 12th, from which White’s Lancaster returned on three engines; for further details see Creswell’s manuscript in the archive collection of the Imperial War Museum (Catalogue No. 8286), in which he describes his time in No. 35 Squadron in the period March-July 1944.

This latter operation having marked the end of Creswell’s tour of operations, White flew two more sorties to France with different pilots before being posted to newly formed No. 635 Squadron, another Lancaster and Path Finder Force unit, at Downham Market, Norfolk. Here, having flown sorties against Le Havre, Gelsenkirchen and Kiel, he joined the crew of Wing Commander H. J. F. Le Good, A.F.C., in mid-September - another distinguished Path Finder Force C.O. who would add the D.S.O. and D.F.C. to his accolades before the War’s end.

Opening their account with a strike against Calais as ‘Supporter’ on 20 September, White and his crew went on to share in the trial and tribulations of at least 25 sorties before the year’s end, several of them of a daytime nature and latterly in the role of ‘Visual Backer Up’, including strikes against Cologne and Duisburg on three occasions, and Gelsenkirchen and Sterkrade on two occasions. White was recommended for his D.F.M. on 20 December 1944, by which date he had flown 49 sorties, but he added further operations against Cologne, St. Vith, Troisdorf, Hanau and Gelsenkirchen to his tally before being grounded and ‘rested’ in January 1945.

Post-war, White attended a conversion unit at Dishforth in September 1948, prior to attending a Long Range Course and being posted to No. 59 Squadron in January 1949, and between then and September he completed numerous trips as Flight Engineer in the unit’s Yorks during the Berlin Airlift. And he witnessed further active service in Shackletons of No. 37 Squadron in Cyprus in the mid-1950s and in Argosy aircraft of No. 215 Squadron in Borneo in the early 1960s, prior to his retirement in May 1966.

Sold with a complete run of the recipient’s original R.A.F. Flying Log Books, comprising Navigator’s, Air Bomber’s and Air Gunner’s, Form 1767 types (3), with entries covering the periods October 1943 to July 1950, August 1950 to March 1957, and April 1957 to September 1962, together with Aircrew Flying Log Books, Form 1767 Types, covering the periods September 1962 to September 1965 and October 1965 to May 1966, a letter confirming his qualification for the Path Finder Force Badge, dated 6 July 1944 and one or two career photographs.