Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Second War Mid-Upper Gunner’s D.F.M group of five awarded to Flight Sergeant M. Ransome, 76 Squadron Royal Air Force, who completed a tour of operations in Halifaxes, including three trips to the ‘Big City’, and the Nuremberg Raid, 30-31 March 1944

Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R. (1593164. F/Sgt. M. Ransome. R.A.F.); 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star, 1 clasp, France and Germany; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, minor edge bruising and scratches to first, this very fine, the campaign awards nearly extremely fine £1,000-£1,400

Provenance: Spink, July 2017 (when sold as just the D.F.M.)

D.F.M. London Gazette 17 November 1944.
The original recommendation states: ‘Sergeant Ransome has completed 35 sorties as Air Gunner against the enemy, and flown a total of 178 operational hours. He has carried out attacks against many of the heaviest defended of targets, including Berlin, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Aachen and Kiel.
This Non-Commissioned Officer has recently completed a highly successful tour of operations. He is a man who possesses courage, skill and initiative and a remarkable devotion to duty, both in the air and on the ground. His work as an Air Gunner has always been of the highest order and has gained for him the complete confidence of his crew.
His meritorious service is considered worthy of the award of the Distinguished Flying Medal.’

Maurice Ransome was born in Sunderland on 22 November 1915. The 1939 census shows him working as a rolling mill clerk with his address given as 43 Corder Road, Middlesborough. He enlisted in the Royal Air Force in September 1941 at Weston-super-Mare, training as an Air Gunner at 4 A.G.S, 15 O.T.U, 1663 C.U, before joining 76 Squadron in late 1943. The squadron operated Halifax bombers from R.A.F. Holme-on-Spalding Moor. This period was at the midst of Arthur Harris’ all-out campaign against the German ‘Big Cities’ and the squadron had a substantial number of Norwegian pilots.

Ransome joined the crew of the Norwegian Pilot Officer Carl Larson who prior to joining up had worked on the whaling ship the FLK Lancing since the age of 14. They commenced their operational tour on in December 1943, when he participated in a strike on Berlin; he returned to the ‘Big City’ on two further occasions, in January and March 1944. Operation Mainly as a Mid-Upper Gunner, he visited a number of other heavily defended German targets, most notably Nuremburg on the night of 30-31 March 1944; his name appears as a contributor to Martin Middlebrook’s The Nuremburg Raid 30-31 March 1944, in addition to his input to the same author’s The Berlin Raids - The Bomber Battle, Winter 1943-1944, where he describes events during a raid on Berlin on the night of 28-29 January 1944:

‘We were attacked by a Ju. 88 which knocked out one engine. We managed to lose him but we were losing height and the Navigator informed the skipper that we could never make it, so we jettisoned our bomb load near Rostock. After this we decided to go back the way we had come, the Navigator quite confident he could make it. Our lone aircraft was harried by flak, and another twin-engined fighter appeared ahead of us slightly above. Our Navigator claims he could see the enemy Observer's head looking around everywhere except below him. He must have been guided on to us by radar and it seemed a long, long time before the enemy crew must have told their ground control that they had boobed, and they broke away. We got home O.K.’

Ransome was otherwise employed against targets of a French nature, participating in 20 or so such sorties, including strikes on the batteries located at Montfleury and St. Lo on the eve of D-Day in June 1944. He ended his operational tour in late July. Following the end of the War he stayed in contact with the rest of the crew including Carl Larsen. He died in April 1997.