Auction Catalogue

2 July 2003

Starting at 10:00 AM

.

Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

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

Lot

№ 1080

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2 July 2003

Hammer Price:
£300

Four: Warrant Officer B. K. McGowan, Royal Air Force, who flew in the Far East as an Air Gunner in Catalinas

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Burma Star, clasp, Pacific; War Medal 1939-45, mounted as worn, good very fine, the third rare (4) £300-350

B. K. McGowan commenced training as an Air Gunner in November 1943, qualifying at the end of the year as a ‘steady type but must improve in the air.’ Three months later he commenced his long association with Catalinas at an O.T.U., and in July 1944 he joined No. 191 Squadron out in India, participating in a number of convoy escorts and anti-submarine patrols later in the year. By this stage he was often acting as 2nd Engineer. Moving with the Squadron to Ceylon in April 1945, where he also flew in Dakotas and Liberators, McGowan joined his final posting, in Mombasa, in August of the same year.

Sold with the recipient’s original Flying Log Book, covering the period of his training from November 1943 through to his final appointment in a Catalina unit in Mombasa in July 1946.