Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A good Second World War D.F.M. awarded to Flight Sergeant J. Blakeley, Royal Air Force, who completed at least 37 operational sorties as an Air Gunner in Halifaxes of No. 578 Squadron: ‘his consistently successful lookout combined with a first class running commentary have enabled his captains on five occasions to outmanoeuvre German fighters’

Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R. (1523075 F./Sgt. J. Blakeley, R.A.F.), good very fine £1700-1900

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

‘Flight Sergeant Blakeley has carried out 37 operations totalling 182 hours including attacks on Berlin, Hanover, Frankfurt and Munster. He has been on operations since September 1943 and in the course of his long tour has flown with seventeen different captains and in 26 out of his 37 trips he has been flying as a spare gunner. His keenness to operate has been a splendid example to all gunners in the squadron. His consistently successful lookout combined with a first class running commentary have enabled his captains on five occasions to outmanoeuvre German fighters, thus avoiding combat with them. He has thus proved himself on operations to be a gunner of a very high standard who was most reluctant to be screened. It is recommended that Flight Sergeant Blakeley’s tenacity, endurance and fine offensive spirit be recognised by the award of the Distinguished Flying Medal.’

John Blakeley commenced his operational tour in No. 578 Squadron, a Halifax unit operating out of Burn in North Yorkshire, in September 1943, with a strike on Hanover. Of his subsequent tally of 36 more sorties, ten were of a daylight nature, including a brace of attacks on St. Martin L’Hortier in July 1944. His role as a spare gunner in the Squadron prompts speculation as to whether he ever flew in Pilot Officer C. J. Barton’s crew in the period in question: the latter was awarded a posthumous V.C. for bringing home a crippled aircraft from Nuremburg on the night of 30-31 March 1944.