Orders, Decorations and Medals

A ‘Burma Front’ Supply Pilot’s A.F.C. group of five awarded to Warrant Officer H. E. Marsh, No. 117 Squadron, Royal Air Force

Air Force Cross, G.VI.R., the reverse officially dated ‘1945’; 1939-45 Star; Burma Star; Defence and War Medals, together with his R.A.F. Pilot’s Flying Log Book for the period January 1942 to June 1944, his Air Forces in India Pilot’s Flying Log Book for the period July 1944 to February 1946, a leather document case and various documents, good very fine and a scarce award to a junior officer (5)

A.F.C. London Gazette 7 September 1945. Warrant Officer Harold Ernest Marsh, R.A.F.V.R. The following recommendation was extracted from official records: ‘This Warrant Officer is a pilot who has been employed on a large number of supply dropping and troop carrying missions on the Burma front, the majority of which were flow during the monsoon season. His fine personal example set a very high standard and has been an inspiration to new crews. He has at all times displayed great keenness, determination and devotion to duty. Much credit for the success of the unit in recent months can be attributed to the high standard set by Warrant Officer Marsh.’

Harold Marsh underwent the majority of his flying training in Canada during 1942 and 1943, returning briefly to England at the end of that year before being posted to No. 31 Squadron in India in April 1944, and OTU Chaklala at Rawalpindi in June 1944. Now fully qualified as an experienced Dakota C47 pilot, he was, in July 1944, posted to No. 117 Squadron to begin a long period of supply dropping on the Burma Front. During the next twelve months he completed two Operational Tours comprising a total of 228 sorties and 1,000 operational hours. In June 1945 he was posted to HQ 229 Group at New Delhi and received subsequent postings to 52 Squadron at Calcutta and 353 Squadron at Delhi, where he served until early March 1945. He arrived back in England at the end of that month and was demobbed at Hednesford on 30 March 1946. His Flying Log Books record at total flying time of 1944 hours. The group is sold with extracts from the Squadron Operations Record Book for July and September 1944 describing the work carried out by 117 Squadron in Burma.