Auction Catalogue

4 December 2002

Starting at 12:00 PM

.

Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

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

Lot

№ 1157

.

4 December 2002

Estimate: £2,000–£2,500

An rare 1940 Hampden pilot’s immediate D.F.C. group of four awarded to Flight Lieutenant C. P. D. Price, Royal Air Force, who was posted missing on a search mission in a Manchester bomber in November 1941 after completing in excess of 40 operational sorties

Distinguished Flying Cross, G.VI.R., the reverse dated 1940, in its Royal Mint case of issue; 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; War Medal 1939-45 extremely fine (4) £2000-2500

D.F.C. London Gazette 26 July 1940. The immediate recommendation states:

‘During a night in July 1940, this Officer was pilot of an aircraft engaged in a bombing raid on an aircraft factory at Bremen. In spite of extremely difficult conditions, he successfully located his target and carried out a determined attack, at an altitude of 500 feet, in the face of anti-aircraft fire. On the return journey Pilot Officer Price engaged three Messerschmitt 110s which he had observed flying above the aerodrome at Borkum. By skilful manoeuvring he enabled his Rear-Gunner to fire bursts at one of the enemy aircraft, which appeared to be hit, and then engaged a second fighter which was shot down into the sea with its port engine on fire. Pilot Officer Price displayed great courage, initiative and determination throughout the operation.’

Charles Peter Dovey Price, who was originally from Thames Ditton, Surrey, was a pre-war regular who commenced pilot training in December 1938, and completed his first solo flight, in a D.H. 82, in January of the following year. Shortly after the outbreak of hostilities, he was posted to No. 7 Squadron, a Hampden unit based at Upper Heyford, but in the new year he attended a Short Navigation War Instructors Course and was posted to No. 44 Squadron, another Hampden unit, operating out of Waddington. And on 29 February 1940, he flew his first operational sortie to Hamburg, acting as a Navigator. Thus ensued a lengthy tour of operations in ‘the flying glasshouse’, one of the most obsolete aircraft in the Royal Air Force’s stable.

April witnessed an abandoned strike against German capital ships at Bergen, three “Gardening” runs and a similar amount of outings over the North Sea in sweeps for missing aircraft; May six bombing strikes and another “Gardening” run to Kiel; and June four more bombing sorties and three “Gardening” runs, Hanover and Hamburg being among the former. Then in July, Price returned to the role of 1st Pilot, taking his crew on five missions to Dortmund, Duisberg, Essen, Hamburg and Hanover, in addition to a “Gardening” run to Frederickshaven, and in August finished his tour with No. 44 with four bombing strikes, including Berlin on the 28th, three “Gardening” trips and a photographic mission to the Dortmund Ems Canal.

Price next joined No. 106 Squadron, flying a “Gardening” run to the Copenhagen area on 29 October, when his aircraft’s port engine was rendered u/s on the return trip. But it was his appointment to No. 97 Squadron in March 1941, a Manchester unit based at Coningsby, in March 1941, that marked the commencement of his second tour. That month two operational sorties were completed, and in April a visit to the docks at Brest. May included a raid on Hamburg, but thereafter the Squadron withdrew from the operational scene to iron out the ever increasing list of problems with their newly delivered Manchesters. Indeed it would not be until mid-August that Price completed his next sorties. Then, tragically, on a search mission on 8 November 1941, he and his crew were posted missing. Aged just 20 years, Price had no known grave and is now commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial, Surrey.

Sold with the recipient’s original Flying Log Book, covering the period December 1938 until November 1941, the first and last pages being officially stamped ‘Death Presumed’ and ‘Central Depository, Royal Air Force, Apr. 1946’.