Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A post-war M.B.E. group of seven awarded to Wing Commander E. A. H. Hines, Royal Air Force, who flew operationally in Sunderlands during the Korean War and Malayan Emergency

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, M.B.E. (Military) Member’s 2nd type breast badge; Burma Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Malaya (1715053 F. Sgt. E. A. H. Hines, R.A.F.); Korea 1950-53 (1715053 F. Sgt. E. A. H. Hines, R.A.F.); U.N. Korea 1950-54, mounted court-style as worn, good very fine (7)
£1200-1400

M.B.E. London Gazette 13 June 1970.

Edward Albert Henry Hines was born in Camberwell in June 1924 and enlisted in the Royal Air Force during the 1939-45 War, seeing service in Burma. By the outbreak of hostilities in Korea in 1950, he was serving as a Flight Sergeant and Air Engineer in No. 205 Squadron, a Sunderland unit, and it was in that capacity that he flew numerous anti-submarine and A.S.R. sorties over Korean waters, the Squadron operating out of Iwakuni, Japan:

‘At the commencement of hostilities in Korea the R.A.F.'s Far East Flying Boat Wing was made up of three squadrons of Sunderland Mark V Flying Boats, the squadrons being numbers 88, 205 and 209. The Wings task in Korea was the offensive blockade of the Korean coastline and this was achieved by round the clock reconnaissance in conjunction with the United States Navy, flying Martin Mariners. Three main areas were covered. Firstly, to the West over the Yellow Sea towards Shanghai, then North to the East of the Shantung Peninsula and down the West coast of Korea. Secondly, the Tshushima Straits between Korea and Japan, and finally the East side of Korea as far as the U.S.S.R. and then back to Iwakuni across the Sea of Japan.

These patrols, normally flown at a height of one thousand feet, were often up to fifteen hours and watch was both visual and by radar with turrets manned and each and every contact carefully logged. The biggest enemy was the weather. In the winter months it was not unusual to experience temperatures of minus twenty degrees Centigrade which, in a draughty, unheated Sunderland, was no joke. Coffee often froze solid in the cup and incredible feats of navigation were performed in blinding blizzards. Acute icing problems and low ceilings were a particular hazard off the Korean coast where the terrain was one of peaks and off-shore islands which rose sharply from the sea.

The endeavours of the Far East Wing and the gallant crews of the Sunderland aircraft contributed in no small way to the success of a blockade which meant that by the end of the war, unfriendly shipping movements in the area had been brought to a complete standstill. Constant vigilance ensured that the enemy could not deny to the United Nations the freedom of the seas. Thus the vital supply lines were kept open.’

The Korean conflict aside, No. 205 Squadron also flew operational sorties over Malaya in the same period, while based at Seletar.

Hines was posted back to the Home Establishment in July 1951, where he undertook pilot training and was commissioned Pilot Officer in April 1953. He was finally placed on the Retired List as a Wing Commander in May 1975, having earlier been awarded the M.B.E. for his services at the Central Flying School at R.A.F. Little Rissington. He died in Gloucestershire in 1983, aged 59; sold with copied research.