Orders, Decorations and Medals

Three: Sergeant (Air Gunner) A. S. W. Orchard, Nos. 156 and 35 (Path Finder) Squadrons, Royal Air Force

1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star, clasp, France and Germany; War Medal; together with his Path Finder Force Badge and named certificate granting award of badge, dated 10 January 1945; a large and interesting quantity of original documentation and photographs, including: Navigator’s, Air Bomber’s and Air Gunner’s Flying Log Book, for period March 1943-August 1946, detailing all of his 39 operations; letter from Commanding Officer of No. 156 Squadron, dated 2 October 1943, to recipients father, stating ‘I have to inform you that your son was injured when the aircraft in which he was flying as rear gunner crashed when returning from an operational flight on the night of 30th September/1st October. He has been admitted to R.A.F. Hospital, Ely, suffering from a fractured leg which will be in plaster for some time.’; R.A.F. Service and Release Book; two recently collated sets of notes written by the recipient, the first being an account of his maiden operational flight against Peenemunde, and the second giving details of the operation and subsequent crash in which he was injured and the rest of his crew killed; also included with the lot are a large quantity of original newspaper cuttings and numerous original photographs; as well as a number of relics recovered from the crash site of his Lancaster, including a fragment of the canopy, extremely fine (3) £250-300

Operations detailed in his Log Book include the following: 17.8.1943, Peenemunde, ‘bombing 8000! Sharp attack’; 27.9.1943, Hanover, ‘heavy flack’; 29.9.1943, Bocham, ‘shot up by flack. Instruments u/s, crashed Downham Market. rest of crew killed. Sustained broken leg and concussion. Target fairly concentrated’; 14.10.1944, Duisburg, ‘blind sky marker, Garrison Town’; 6.11.1944, Gelsenkirchen, ‘Rhur Industry, Synth oil’; 16.11.1944, Duren, ‘troops concentration’; 3.12.1944, Urft Dam, ‘Siegfried Line Power, mission abandoned’; 8.2.1945, Politz, ‘blind ill. nr. Stettin oil refinery. M/U turret u/s, photo, 10 flares, 31000LBS, good prang’; 13.2.1945, Dresden, ‘blind ill. nr. Russian Front. Centre of arms and legs, good prang’; 8.3.1945, Hamburg, ‘Blind ill., submarine pens, set course 20 mins. late’; 18.3.1945, Hanau, nr. Frankfurt, ‘blind ill., port out feathered, r/turret u/s’; 31.3.1945, Hamburg, ‘U-Boat pens’.