Orders, Decorations and Medals

A New Zealand pilot’s D.F.C. and Bar group of five awarded to Flight Lieutenant W. M. Strathern, who flew 36 clandestine sorties, dropping S.O.E. supplies and agents into enemy occupied territory, with No. 138 (Special Duties) Squadron

Distinguished Flying Cross, G.VI.R., the reverse officially dated ‘1944’, with Second Award Bar, the reverse officially dated ‘1945’; 1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; War Medal; New Zealand War Service Medal, together with the recipient’s two original Pilot’s Flying Log Books, two congratulatory letters from the N.Z. High Commissioner, news cuttings with portrait, and a Postagram signed by Air Chief Marshal ‘Bomber’ Harris, good very fine (5)

D.F.C. London Gazette 9 December 1944. The following recommendation was extracted from official records: ‘F/Lt Strathern has now completed 28 sorties, all of a special nature. Throughout he has shown the greatest enthusiasm for operational flying and a determination to press on to his target at times in adverse weather conditions. On two occasions his aircraft has been attacked by two enemy fighters simultaneously, but each time, by carrying out the correct combat manoeuvres, he has evaded them without any hits being sustained by his aircraft. At the same time the enemy aircraft have not escaped unscathed which is a fine tribute to F/Lt Strathern and to the excellent crew co-operation he has instilled into his crew.’

Bar to D.F.C. London Gazette 29 January 1945 (Immediate Award): ‘This officer was the captain of an aircraft detailed for an operational sortie one night in December, 1944. For his crew, this was their first sortie. During the operation the aircraft was attacked by a fighter, from which a burst of machine-gun fire caused much damage. The rear gunner was badly wounded and his gun turret was rendered unserviceable. The port elevator was shot away and the fuselage was hit by bullets in many places. Flight Lieutenant Strathern, from his position in the second pilot’s seat, immediately took control. By skillful manoeuvring, he succeeded in finally evading the attacker. The starboard inner engine was now out of action and the aircraft had become exceedingly difficult to control. Nevertheless, by a superb display of airmanship, Flt. Lt. Strathern flew the badly damaged aircraft back to base. In most harassing circumstances this officer displayed outstanding coolness, great courage and model captaincy.’

William ‘Bill’ Makepeace Strathern was born in Invercargill, New Zealand, and educated at Southland Technical College. He worked as an electrician before entering the Royal New Zealand Air Force in 1942. Qualifying as a Service Pilot on 19 December 1942, he left New Zealand for England in January 1943 as a Flight Sergeant. His first wartime work was at an advanced training unit, where he flew Oxfords. Three months later, operational training on “Wimpies” (Wellington bombers) paved the way for the first operational sortie over Sylt to create a major diversion for Bomber Command. A conversion course on four-engined Stirlings was the immediate prelude to his posting to the now famous 138 Squadron at Tempsford, which was equipped with Halifax bombers. His first operational work in this new role began on May 26, 1944 - work that was to carry him over France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Norway and Denmark.

The men of Tempsford were “lone wolves.” They had no fighter escort and flew in over the Continent at low levels in the most hazardous conditions, contending with walls of enemy flak and a harrying fighter defence. Tempsford men worked on moonless nights, which made the work all the more exacting when it is considered that pin-point navigation had to be used. In one of the accompanying news cuttings Bill Strathern paid tribute to the men and women who dropped down into occupied territory: “They had all the nerve in the world to drop into a black hole, not knowing what was down below them, at a mere 600 feet above ground. There were old men, young men, all types. Once we dropped a girl of 16 into Paris. There was one for you. She was calm and keen and eager to get on with the job.”

The group is accompanied by copies from the Squadron Operations Record Book detailing the greater number of Strathern’s sorties. On the night of 28 August, 1944, his sortie involved the “Blind” dropping of three agent in the Netherlands, near the town of Voorthuizen, on the “Appelse Heide.” Two of these agents, Joop Kuylenaar and Jaap Hindrick were caught by the Germans and shot.

Strathern’s last operational sortie was on the last night of December 1944, when his Stirling was attacked by a Me-210 whilst on a sortie to Norway carrying 15 containers and 4 packages. The rear gunner suffered severe head injuries in the first burst from the enemy aircraft, which made four attacks in all. With his tail plane riddled, starboard elevator shot off and starboard inner engine shot out, Strathern nevertheless managed to pilot his plane safely back to England where he landed at Peterhead. It was this incident that brought him the well earned award of a bar to his D.F.C.

Much of 1945 was spent with No. 1667 Bomber Defence Training Unit at Lindholme in Yorkshire, where Strathern spent many hours flying predominantly Hurricanes before joining No. 511 Squadron Transport Command. He remained in the R.A.F. after the war with Transport Command and flew passengers in York aircraft between England and Singapore, and was engaged in the Berlin Airlift. He was killed in May 1950 in a flying accident whilst stationed at Manston, Kent, whilst out testing a Vampire jet when it blew up over Istres in France.