Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria including the collection to Naval Artificers formed by JH Deacon

An early Second World War D.F.M. group of four awarded to Pilot Officer D. A. R. Tallis, Royal Air Force, a veteran of some 40 operational sorties prior to being lost in the first 1000 Bomber Raid on Cologne, including the first ever strike on Berlin and a memorable outing with Leonard Cheshire

Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R. (624867 Sgt. D.A.R. Tallis, R.A.F.), in named card box of issue; 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; War Medal 1939-45, in named card box of issue with condolence slip, virtually as issued (4) £1000-1200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Fine Collection of Awards to the Men of Bomber Command 1939-45.

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D.F.M. London Gazette 9 May 1941. The recommendation states:

‘Sergeant Tallis has completed 31 operational bomber missions and in addition eight convoy patrols involving a total of some 300 hours operational flying. On 5 February 1941, he was the first Wireless Operator of a Whitley aircraft which was running short of petrol in adverse weather. Wireless operating conditions were poor and the skill displayed by Sergeant Tallis in obtaining quick Q.D.Ms from Abingdon were largely responsible for the safe arrival of the aircraft at that aerodrome. In addition to his individual skill this N.C.O. has rendered great service in building up the strength of first Operators within the unit. He has on many occasions flown in the tail turret with a U./T. Operator at the W./T. set, and by careful guidance has enabled doubtful Operators to gain sufficient confidence to qualify as First Operator.’

Pilot Officer Dudley Arthur Ronald Tallis, D.F.M., who was from Shirley, Birmingham, where his father was a local butcher, enlisted in the R.A.F. a year before the outbreak of hostilities because he found life as a chartered accountant’s clerk ‘too humdrum.’ On completion of his training as a Wireless Operator, he joined his first operational posting, No. 102 (Ceylon) Squadron, a Yorkshire-based Whitley unit. Fellow 102 aircrew included Leonard Cheshire, who won a D.S.O. and a D.F.C. during this time, the former for bringing back the horrendously damaged Whitley “N-Nuts” from a raid on Cologne. As confirmed by the Squadron’s Operational Record Book, Tallis flew alongside him on numerous operations, and actually as a member of his crew on at least one occasion.

Tallis’ first sortie was to Sterkrade on the night of 19-20 June, followed by a trip to the marshalling yards at Wedau three nights later. And Frankfurt, Hamburg, Kassel and Mannheim were typical of German targets to be visited over the summer months. On the night of 13-14 August 1940, 102 were detailed to take the fight to Italy, a strike being ordered on Milan. With Squadron Leader P.R. Beare at the helm, Tallis’ Whitley ‘overshot the target and put [its] first stick at 5500 feet on seaplane base two miles to the East of target - excellent results.’

Then on the night of the 24-25 August, in response to the first raid on London, Churchill ordered a strike on the German captial - nine of 102’s Whitleys were among those detailed to attack the Air Ministry in Berlin, Tallis’ aircraft actually attacking a railway junction as the primary target could not be located as a result of thick cloud. Opposition was described as being fairly accurate heavy flak, a reminder of this occurring on the night of 14-15 November, when Tallis’ aircraft received a direct hit on a return visit to the German capital, his Whitley getting back to the U.K. on just one engine, where it crash landed near King’s Lynn - three crew members were wounded, but Tallis remained unscathed.

A few nights earlier, on the 10-11 November, Tallis had flown in the crew of Leonard Cheshire, against Ruhland. Pilot and Navigator were unable to find the intended target, an oil refinery, so instead eight bombs were dropped on a very large factory of ‘doubtful identity.’ Cheshire wrote home proudly to his parents, ‘All our bombs hit the target causing terrific explosions and a fire which we could see twenty minutes later on the way back. It was a lovely night.’

In a trip to Wesseling on the following evening, ‘intense, accurate heavy and light flak and searchlights’ were encountered over the target area, and on the night of 21-22 December, on returning from a strike on Merseburg, Tallis’ Whitley collided with another aircraft on landing. Luckily no one was seriously injured. In between, he had flown against Mannheim on three occasions, and re-visited Berlin. And the German brief continued apace in the new year, Bremen, Cologne, Duisburg and Wilhelmshaven being among the chosen targets. So, too, occupied France, strikes being carried out on Boulogne and the airfield at Merignac.

By the time Tallis has been posted to No. 22 Operational Training Unit for a rest from operations, he had flown nearly 40 sorties. But in May 1942, fate would intervene in the form of “Bomber” Harris’ plan for a 1000 Bomber Raid - the intention was to drop some 1400 tons of bombs on a chosen city centre in 90 minutes, thereby destroying a major industrial target in a single blow. But to assemble such a large armada entailed aircraft being taken from O.T.Us, the unlucky Tallis being mustered aboard a Wellington, “O-Orange”, and among those despatched to the chosen target, Cologne, on the night of 30-31 May.

In the face of intense and accurate flak, and running a strong risk of collision, Harris’ force arrived over the target in carefully planned stages. In a very short period of time the blazing centre of Cologne could be seen by approaching aircraft from many miles away, and the combined effect of the force’s massive bomb tonnage reduced at least half of the city to devastation. Over 40,000 people were made homeless. But the cost was high, 40 aircraft being lost and another 115 damaged. Among the former was “O-Orange”, her crew members subsequently being interred in a collective grave at Rheinburg War Cemetery in the Ruhr Valley. Dudley Tallis was 21 years of age.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including Buckingham Palace letter of condolence; official telegram informing the recipient’s next of kin that he had been reported missing in action, dated 1 June 1942; and letters from the Chaplain of R.A.F. Wellesbourne, the R.A.F. Benevolent Fund and the R.A.F. Records Office, all dated in June or July 1942.