Orders, Decorations and Medals

A Mosquito night-fighter D.F.C. and bar group awarded to Flying Officer F. C. Bone, Radar Operator to Flying Officer W. H. Miller, who together destroyed 10 enemy aircraft.

DISTINGUISHED FLYING CROSS, G.VI.R., with Second Award Bar, both officially dated '1944'; 1939-45 STAR; AIR CREW EUROPE STAR, clasp, France and Germany; WAR MEDAL; POLICE EXEMPLARY SERVICE MEDAL, E.II.R. (Const.), together with an R.L.S.S. bronze medal, named and dated 'Sept. 1931' and a football prize medal in silver, gilt and enamels, the reverse named 'Birkenhead Police, Midweek Div. I, Runners-up, 1934-5.' The group is accompanied by several original documents including two congratulatory telegrams for the award of the D.F.C. and bar, both signed by AirChief Marshal A. T. 'Bomber' Harris, and a letter from the Dutch family who rescued him when shot down over the Netherlands. Mounted as worn, good very fine (7)

D.F.C. London Gazette, 13 June, 1944 Flying Officer Frederick Charles Bone, No 169 Squadron Flying Officer Wilfred Handel Miller, No. 169 Squadron - 'As observer and pilot respectively, these officers have participated in many sorties. They have displayed a high degree of skill and co-operation, and have destroyed 8 enemy aircraft at night, 3 of them in one sortie in May, 1944. Their achievement on this occasion merited the highest praise. These officers have set a fine example of devotion to duty.'

Bar to D.F.C., London Gazette, 3 October, 1944. Flying Officer Wilfred Handel Miller, D.F.C., R.A.F.V.R., 169 Sqn, Flying Officer Frederick Charles Bone, D.F.C, R.A.F.V.R., 169 Sqn - 'These officers, as pilot and observer repectively, have completed many sorties. They have displayed a high degree of skill and co-operation, and their keenness to engage the enemy has been most evident. They have destroyed 10 hostile aircraft'

MIiller and Bone's greatest success was on 15th May, 1944, when in Mosquito DZ 478 they participated in the mining of the Kid Canal by Mosquitoes of 8 Group. First they claimed a Junkers 88 at 10,000 feet, came down to 2,000 feet and shot down another and then at 10,000 feet again found a Bf 110, which they also shot down. They claimed their last enemy aircraft on 10 August, 1944 and were posted missing over Holland on the night of 13 August, 1944. It would appear from the letter sold with the group that they were turned over to the authorities and interned for the remainder of the war.