Auction Catalogue

8 September 2015

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Orders, Decorations and Medals

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Lot

№ 43

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8 September 2015

Hammer Price:
£2,000

A fine Second World War D.F.M. group of five awarded to Flight Sergeant N. Moffat, Royal Air Force, a veteran of 47 operational sorties in Halifaxes and Lancasters of No. 35 Squadron (P.F.F.), among them no less than eight trips to the “Big City”, the Hamburg firestorm raids of July 1943 and the costly strike on Nuremburg in March 1944

Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R. (1105606 F./Sgt. N. Moffat, R.A.F.); 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, generally good very fine (5) £1700-1900

D.F.M. London Gazette 16 February 1945. The original recommendation states:

‘Flight Sergeant Moffat is an extremely capable Air Gunner who has completed two tours of operations, the large majority of his sorties being against heavily defended targets in Germany, including Berlin eight times, Nuremburg, Hamburg and the Ruhr.

His crew was engaged in vital marking duties using special equipment and there can be little doubt that the vigilance displayed by Flight Sergeant Moffat contributed largely to their very successful results.

At all times, this N.C.O. displayed the most praiseworthy determination on operations and by his keenness to fly against the enemy, set a fine example to his fellow air gunners. In recognition of Flight Sergeant Moffat’s fine record of service, he is recommended for the non-immediate award of the Distinguished Flying Medal.’

Norman Moffat commenced his operational career as a Mid-Upper Gunner in Halifaxes of the elite P.F.F. unit, No. 35 Squadron, in July 1943. He remained similarly employed - without respite - until May 1944, notching up a total of 47 sorties, and latterly operating in Lancasters.

As stated, no less than eight of his sorties were to the “Big City”, in addition to which he was three times assigned to target Frankfurt, Mannheim and Stuttgart; his aircraft’s ‘vital marking duties’ also included the Hamburg ‘firestorm’ raids of July 1943 (on the 24th and 27th), and the extremely costly Nuremburg raid on 30 March 1944, when 106 of our bombers were downed by flak and night fighters with a resultant loss of 545 members of aircrew. Over Bremen, on the night of 8-9 October 1943, his aircraft was coned by searchlights and damaged by flak.

He ended his second tour of duty with several attacks on French targets in the period leading up to the Normandy landings.