Auction Catalogue

20 September 2002

Starting at 10:00 AM

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Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria to coincide with the OMRS Convention

Grand Connaught Rooms  61 - 65 Great Queen St  London  WC2B 5DA

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Lot

№ 1437

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20 September 2002

Hammer Price:
£2,200

A fine Second World War Blenheim and Boston pilot’s D.F.C., immediate anti-U-Boat operations D.F.M. group of six awarded to Squadron Leader R. S. “Dickie” Gunning, Royal Air Force, a low-level specialist who flew as a Deputy Leader in the famous strike against the Philips radio factory at Eindhoven in December 1942

Distinguished Flying Cross, G.VI.R., reverse officially dated 1943 and additionally engraved ‘S./ Ldr. R. S. Gunning’; Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R. (580132 Sgt. R. S. Gunning, R.A.F.), an early award correctly impressed in small capitals; 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; Defence and War Medals nearly very fine (6) £2400-2800

D.F.M. London Gazette 2 April 1940. The immediate award recommendation states:

‘During March 1940, this airman was the pilot of an aircraft engaged on a reconnaissance flight over a strongly defended area of the Heligoland Bight. When coming through the clouds at 2,500 feet a submarine was sighted on the surface. Sergeant Gunning at once dived and attacked giving the submarine no chance to submerge. Four bombs were dropped, the submarine being hit between the stern and conning tower.’

D.F.C.
London Gazette 26 October 1943. The recommendation states:

‘This Officer has participated in many daylight sorties during which important targets have been attacked from a low level. He has displayed outstanding determination and faultless leadership, qualities which have contributed in a large measure to the success obtained. He has set a splendid example of courage and devotion to duty.’

Richard Samuel “Dickie” Gunning was born at Muswell Hill, London in April 1912, and enlisted in the Royal Air Force in February 1936, having served as a Gunner in the City of London Yeomanry from April 1933. Selected for pilot training, he qualified at No. 7 F.T.S. and was posted as a Sergeant to No. 49 Squadron at Worthy Down.

By the outbreak of hostilities, however, he was an experienced pilot serving in No. 107 Squadron, a Blenheim unit operating out of Wattisham, shortly to be commanded by the dynamic Wing Commander Basil Embry, afterwards the most decorated low-level specialist of them all. Gunning flew his first operational sortie, an uneventful sweep over the North Sea, on New Year’s Day 1940, but on his very next mission, in early March, he accomplished one of the Squadron’s first great victories. Graham Pitchfork takes up the story in his title
Men Behind the Medals:

‘On 4 March, Gunning and his crew of Sergeant W. Brinn and L.A.C. J. Bartley were on standby for strike and reconnaissance duties when his one of two aircraft was ordered to take off at 1300 hours to search for flak ships. Flying N 6183 again, he arrived off the Schilling Roads one-and-a-half hours later and sighted a number of merchant ships. Shortly afterwards he was leaving a bank of cloud at 2,500 feet when he sighted a U-Boat on the surface. He immediately set up an attack from directly astern and dived to 1,400 feet before dropping four 250lb. bombs. The Air Gunner observed the last bomb hit the submarine between the stern and the conning tower and, as Gunning turned his aircraft to starboard, the crew saw an explosion and a ‘mass of seething foam’ around the conning tower as the U-Boat crash dived. A reconnaissance sortie by an aircraft of 82 Squadron later confirmed that the Germans had placed four wreck buoys at the estimated position.

Basil Embry commented on the valuable effect this attack had on the morale of the Squadron and, within days, Air Chief Marshal Sir Edgar Ludlow-Hewitt, the Commander-in-Chief of Bomber Command, approved the immediate award of the Distinguished Flying Medal to Sergeant Gunning. Post-war analysis shows that the same submarine was sunk by Squadron Leader M. V. Delap of 82 Squadron on 11 March, the day after the wreck markers had been seen. It is possible that the submarine had been salvaged or was badly damaged and was on its way back to Wilhelmshaven ...’

By mid-April, No. 107 had been deployed to Lossiemouth to support the Norwegian operations, not least with strikes against the enemy airfield at Stavanger, in the south. Gunning thus piloted one of the 12 Blenheims assigned to attack that place on the 17 April, the whole led by the ever-daring Basil Embry. Me. 110s were quick to intervene over the target area and two of the Blenheims were brought down, while a third made it back with over 50 hits on its airframe. But woefully under-armed Blenheims continued to fly some of the most murderous operations of the War, Gunning and No. 107 making two return visits to Stavanger over the next week or two.

The Squadron moved back to Wattisham in early May to participate in operations over Holland and France, Gunning flying a reconnaissance on the 11th and a strike against the bridge-head at Sedan a few days later. Numerous sorties were subsquently flown against enemy troop concentrations, crossroads and railway lines, Gunning participating in 17 sorties over a 21 day period, as a maximum effort was directed at the advancing German army - “Attack everything” was very much the order of the day and, under Basil Embry, No. 107 responded in kind. Embry himself was shot down on 27 May, but managed to bale out and make it home after a few weeks on the run.

By the climax of the Dunkirk evacuation, Gunning was bombing such targets as enemy transports near Ypres, No. 107’s casualties continually mounting under intense flak and attacks by enemy fighters - on one occasion Gunning’s Blenheim N 6237 was so badly damaged that he had to carry out a wheels-up landing back at Wattisham. Fortunately, the crew only suffered minor injuries and were back on operations five days later. On 7 June, in a low-level reconnaissance of the Abbeville-Hesdin area, Gunning flew in at 100 feet with two other Squadron Blenheims, the whole being jumped by three 109s. One of the Blenheims was shot down and the other two damaged, Gunning making his escape at tree-top height. And two days later, in an attack on enemy transports near Poix, three more of 107’s Blenheims were brought down by intense flak.

Luckily for Gunning, however, he was nearing the end of his first tour of operations, and on the 3 July he flew his 30th and final sortie, against the marshalling yards at Hamm. Posted for a period of rest at No. 17 O.T.U., where he was commissioned, Gunning returned to the operational scene in July 1942 as a Flight Commander with No. 88 Squadron, a Boston unit based at Attlebridge. Over the coming months, he would participate in many memorable low-level strikes, the Squadron and No. 2 Group having been assigned an offensive, mainly daylight role against key industrial targets.

Completing his first sortie against an enemy airfield in Holland, at night, from 900 feet, Gunning was quickly re-employed on three daylight operations against the docks at St. Malo, the wharves at Ostend and the power station at Mazingbore. And operating out of a new base at Oulton, in November, No. 88 next turned its attention to practising for the famous strike against the Philips factory at Eindhoven (a.k.a. “Operation Oyster”), a raid that was carried out by 36 Bostons, 47 Venturas and 10 Mosquitos, the latter led by Wing Commander “Hughie” Edwards, V.C. The whole, however, was placed under the Command of Wing Commander J. Pelly-Fry, C.O. of No. 88, and Gunning was selected as his Deputy Leader. Graham Pitchfork takes up the story:

‘The large formation crossed the North Sea at less than one hundred feet and made a pinpoint landfall on the Dutch coast. This stirred the wild geese and a number of aircraft were damaged by birdstrikes. Enemy defences were soon alerted and heavy ground fire was directed at the low-flying bombers and, as the large formation approached the target area, FW 190 and Me. 109 fighters engaged the bombers. The leader’s navigation and timing was faultless as they approached Eindhoven. The first two aircraft bombed from very low level with eleven-second delay-fused 250lb. bombs as Gunning led the remainder in a climb to 1,500 feet. He attacked the large primary target and saw his leader’s bombs strike the key valve factory. With all defences alerted, a speedy withdrawal to the fighter escort waiting at the Dutch coast was essential and Gunning routed north of Rotterdam to make a rendezvous. He landed back at Oulton two-and-a-half hours after taking off ...’

The raid proved to be an outstanding success, the Philips factory being so badly damaged that it took six months to get back into proper production. But the cost was high, with fourteen aircraft lost, including that of one of the Ventura Squadron Commanders.

Towards the end of December, and by now a Squadron Leader, Gunning took six Bostons to Exeter in readiness for a strike against the lock gates to the inner harbour of St. Malo, which target he visited again in the same month, in addition to leading another six aircraft against a 12,000 ton ship at Cherbourg. The latter was the last major attack of the Squadron for a few months, March 1943 witnessing its move to Swanton Morley, where it awaited the arrival of new Boston IIIs.

Early in August the Squadron resumed low-level operations against major targets, Gunning’s old C.O., Basil Embry, having taken command of No. 2 Group. Typically, although there was no requirement for him to take part in operations, Embry continued to fly with his men under the pseudonym of ‘Wing Commander Smith’. Gunning led a flight of Bostons in a strike on an enemy Naval store at Rennes on the 8th, attacking from a height of 1,500 feet, photographic evidence showing the target was ‘well and truly plastered’.

A week later, on the 16th, while leading another Squadron formation against the Denain Steel Works in Northern France, Gunning’s luck ran out, his Boston being shot down. One crew member was killed, but the remainder managed to bale out, one of them successfully evading. For his own part, Gunning was captured and spent the remainder of the War as a P.O.W. at Stulag Luft III at Sagan, scene of the “Great Escape”. Little is known of his time behind wire, although a fellow Officer indicated that there was never a dull moment when he was around, and that he was ‘a model of the tough, intelligent and belligerent regular who was always the ring-leader at off-duty times.’

Two months after his capture, Gunning was gazetted for his D.F.C., the recommendation being strongly endorsed by his Station Master who described him as having displayed ‘outstanding determination and faultless leadership’ and having set ‘a splendid example of courage and determination.’ And greater honour could not be bestowed by his Group C.O., Basil Embry, one of the toughest in the business:

‘I have known Squadron Leader Gunning since the beginning of the War and can vouch for all of his outstanding merit, as he has served in a Squadron I commanded for nearly a year. In his second tour of operations he has set a most courageous example as a leader and has been chiefly responsible for the success of his squadron. In low level attacks, he has shown brilliant leadership, great courage and high skill. He richly deserves the award of the D.F.C.’

Gunning remained a Regular Officer after the War, converted to jet aircraft and served as a Squadron Commander at 201 Advanced Flying School before retiring at the end of 1954. He died in early 1988; see Graham Pitchfork’s
Men Behind the Medals for further career details and photographs.