Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Sergeant V. Gledhill, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who was killed in action in a strike on the oil plant at Sterkrade while serving as a Flight Engineer in a Halifax of No. 77 Squadron in June 1944 - his aircraft was seen to blow up mid-air after falling victim to an enemy night fighter

1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; War Medal 1939-45, in their original card forwarding box addressed to ‘G. V. Gledhill, Esq., 48 Carrstreet Marsh, Huddersfield, Yorks’, together with Air Council condolence slip in the name of ‘Sergeant V. Gledhill’, and a wartime portrait photograph, extremely fine (3) £180-220

Victor Gledhill served as a Flight Engineer in No. 77 Squadron, a Halifax unit operating out of Full Sutton in the East Riding, Yorkshire.

On the night of 16-17 June 1944, his Halifax, piloted by Pilot Officer A. I. Crain, R.A.A.F., was detailed to attack the oil plant at Sterkrade. It proved to be a disastrous night, the route of the bomber stream passing near a German night fighter beacon at Bocholt, only 30 miles from Sterkrade. As a consequence, 21 of our bombers were shot down by fighters and another ten by flak, seven of them out of 77’s force of 23 Halifaxes.

Gledhill’s aircraft was seen to blow up mid-air at 4.10 a.m. after being attacked by an enemy night fighter operating out of Fliegerhorst, near Venlo, debris being scattered between Ochten and Dodewaard, two small villages on the north bank of the Waal. Only one member of crew survived, Warrant Officer A. J. Owen, who was thrown clear of the aircraft when it exploded mid-air. He was taken in by a family in Dreef but was taken prisoner of war the following day and moved to a hospital at Arnhem.

The son of George Victor and Florence Gledhill of Marsh, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, he was just 19 years of age, and is buried in the Uden War Cemetery, Netherlands; sold with copied research.