Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Pilot Officer (Wireless Operator) F. S. Ralph, 460 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who was killed in action when his Lancaster was shot down by the night fighter ace Hauptmann Egmont Prinz zur Lippe-Weissenfeld, whilst on the Firestorm raid to Hamburg, Operation Gomorrah, on 29-30 July 1943

1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; War Medal 1939-45, with named Air Council enclosure, in card box of issue, addressed to ‘Mrs. J. M. Ralph, 4 Charles Crescent, Harrow, Middlesex.’, extremely fine (3) £400-£500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to Second World War Royal Air Force Casualties.

View
Collection

Frederick Sydney Ralph was commissioned Pilot Officer and served during the Second World War as a Wireless Operator with 460 Squadron from February 1943. He flew his first operational sortie in a raid on Hamburg on 3 February 1943. During his tour with 460 Squadron he took part in 20 operations between February to July 1943, mostly flying with Squadron Leader Speare D.F.C. These included Hamburg three times, Lorient U Boat Pens, an all incendiary attack, and Bremen, flying in ‘G’ for George (one of the few Lancasters to complete over 100 sorties and which is now part of the Australian War Memorial). Other targets included Nuremberg, Munich, Stettin, and Duisberg. On 29 April, after a failed attack on Berlin, the Gestapo investigated a report that signals were sent from a house near to a secret Luftwaffe depot in woods at Teltow, 11 miles south of Berlin, which had been completely destroyed and with it a large quantity of radar, radio and technical stores (in fact it turned out to have been hit by total luck).

Ralph was killed in action when Lancaster ED535, piloted by Flying Officer A. J. Johnson, was shot down by the night fighter ace Hauptmann Egmont Prinz zur Lippe-Weissenfeld whilst on Operation Gomorrah, the Firestorm raid against Hamburg, on 29-30 July. All the crew were killed.

This was Hauptmann Egmont Prinz zur Lippe-Weissenfeld’s 43rd vvictory of the War, and he was awarded Oak Leaves to his Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross a few days later on completion of his 45th victory. His observer later described the fate of Ralph’s Lancaster thus:
‘After a further long zigzag flight, with the ground-control officer giving details of the bomber-stream and being told of bombers here and there, the pilot suddenly spotted a four-engine aircraft against the northerly twilight at a height of 6,800 metres and about 150 metres in front and above us to the right. It was a visual sighting with no radar. The eight exhaust flames were, in comparison to the ones I had seen earlier, so small and weak in intensity as to be like 3-mm wireless sparks.
The pilot flew after it straight away, positioned himself about eighty metres underneath and matched his speed to that of the bomber. The dark shape of the four-engine aircraft was clearly visible against the sky above us. It was a Lancaster.
The pilot hit its left wing with his first attack and burning pieces of it flew off. The pilot was a little disappointed that the bomber wasn't shot down by this first attack; he had wanted to show me how to hit it between the two engines and finish it off quickly. The Lancaster kept straight and level all the time, without any evasive action.
On his second attack, Prinz zur Lippe used his special method. He slid under the bomber, pulled up the nose suddenly, fired a burst and dropped away quickly in case the bomber blew up. It didn't, although pieces were still falling off it. We attacked again. The bomber still didn't explode; its pilot was trying to reach some low-lying clouds. I didn't see any return fire but we found four bullet holes in one rudder after we landed. I wasn't used to all these manoeuvres. I wasn't strapped in and I kept being pushed down into the floor and then coming up to hit the cockpit roof.
We made one more attack and, this time, his wing started burning after only half a second. We saw the Lancaster go down into a wood near a railway. We started to circle the crash position in the normal manner, so that ground control could fix the position of the success but the radar operator warned the pilot that our petrol was low and we had to leave and land quickly at Stade, actually cutting in front of another fighter that was landing. About fifty metres before we reached the dispersal, the engines cut.’ (The Battle of Hamburg by Martin Middlebrook refers).

Prinz zur Lippe-Weissenfeld‘s was killed on 12 March 1944 when 'hedge-hopping' in the Ardennes, being credited with fifty-one successes at the time of his death.

Ralph is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. His medals were sent to his mother, Mrs. Joan Mary Ralph.

Sold with copied research.