Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Second World War D.F.C. group of four awarded to Flying Officer A. E. Parker, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who was decorated for his gallantry as a Navigator in Lancasters of No. 49 Squadron in 1944-45

Distinguished Flying Cross, G.VI.R., the reverse officially dated ‘1945’, in its Royal Mint case of issue; 1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; War Medal 1939-45, extremely fine (4) £1600-1800

D.F.C. London Gazette 24 May 1945.

Albert Edward “Ted” Parker, who was born in January 1917, enlisted in the Royal Air Force in September 1939. Appointed a Flight Sergeant on qualifying as a Navigator in in Canada in September 1943, he was posted to No. 49 Squadron, a Lancaster unit, in August 1944.

Teaming up with Flying Officer N. H. Alty’s crew, he flew his first operational sortie on the 3rd, namely the daylight strike against Trossy St. Maximin. And his crew attacked five further targets in France over the coming weeks, prior to participating in sorties against Darmstadt and Stuttgart on 11-12 September - the latter outing resulting in a combat with an enemy night fighter. Four more German targets having been attacked in the same month, his crew carried out sorties against Wilhelmshaven, Bremen, Walcheren and Bergen in October.

In November, Parker was commissioned as a Pilot Officer, and completed six further operations, including attacks on Dusseldorf and Munich, and a return trip to Norway, this time to Trondheim - and his Lancaster was damaged by flak on a trip to Homberg in the same month. Having then made a return trip to Munich, and attacked targets in Gdynia and Houffaliz in December, he ended his operational tour in the new year, with a third strike against Munich and a trip to Royon in France.

He was awarded the D.F.C. and advanced to Flying Officer in May 1945.

Sold with a large quantity of original documentation, including the recipient’s Buckingham Palace investiture letter; R.C.A.F. Observer’s and Air Gunner’s Flying Log Book, covering the period May 1943 to November 1945; a number of notebooks with his Navigator’s training notes; several photographs, including crew line-up and target images; a No. 49 Squadron shield, and much besides, the whole contained in an old leather suitcase.