Auction Catalogue

16 December 2003

Starting at 10:00 AM

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Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

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

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Lot

№ 885

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16 December 2003

Hammer Price:
£4,300

A rare and well-documented Second World War D.F.C. group of eight awarded to Flight Lieutenant W. K. Winkler, Royal Air Force, late Polish Army and Air Force, a Navigator who completed over 40 operational sorties in Wellingtons and Halifaxes of 300 and 301 (Polish) Squadrons, among them partisan supply drops of the most hazardous kind: on one occasion his pilot dived to “zero feet” to evade an enemy night fighter over Poland

Poland, Order of Virtuti Militari,
5th class breast badge, bronze and enamel with traces of orginal silvering, reverse of lower limb numbered 8441; Poland, Cross of Valour, with 2 Bars; Distinguished Flying Cross, G.VI.R., reverse officially dated 1944; 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals, mounted as worn in this order, enamel damaged in places on the first, contact marks, otherwise generally very fine (8) £1800-2200

D.F.C. Award Approved 20 March 1944. The recommendation states:

‘This Navigator has been detailed for 30 operational sorties and has never failed to complete his mission successfully. These sorties include Hanover (2), Hamburg (3), Cologne (2), Dusseldorf (2), Wuppertal (2), Essen and other Ruhr targets.

On two occasions his aircraft has been engaged in combat with enemy fighters, but displaying outstanding navigational skill and determination he has always bombed his objective and brought his aircraft safely back to base.

His cool courage in action has been an inspiration to his crew and I consider that his fine record and outstanding ability warrant the award of the D.F.C.’

Witold Kazimierz Winkler was born at Grybow, Krakow in January 1917 and was accepted into regular service with the Polish Army on graduating from a Reserve Signals Officer Cadets School at Zegrze in April 1938. Posted to the 6th Telegraph Battalion in January 1939, he fought in the campaign in Poland in September of the same year, being present in the engagements at Jaroslaw, Dolny Lezajsk, Lubaczow, Niemirow, Zolkiew, Zloczow, Tarnopol, Buczacz, Tysmienica and Kolomyja. Subsequently crossing the border at Kuty into Romania, he was interned at a camp at Turnu-Severin before obtaining a passport and visa at the end of the year. The relevant paperwork in order, Winkler departed Rumania for France, via Yugoslavia, and arrived safely at Marseilles in January 1940, whence he travelled to Paris and enlisted in the Polish Forces under French Command later that month. He was subsequently evacuated from Le Verdon in June 1940 and arrived at Liverpool on the 25th.

Transferring from the Polish Army to the Polish Air Force, under British command, in July 1940, he underwent training as a Navigator in both the U.K. and Canada, being posted to No. 18 Operational Training Unit in December 1942. Then in May 1943, on joining No. 300 (Polish) Squadron, Bomber Command, he commenced his first operational tour, operating out of Hemswell in Wellingtons. Completing his first sortie on the night of 21st, he went on to participate in raids on Dortmund, Dusseldorf, Essen and Wuppertal before the month’s end: the raid on Dusseldorf on the night of the 25th witnessed his Wellington being attacked by an Me. 109, but successful evasive action by his pilot prevented any casualties or damage, and the raid on Wuppertal on the night of the 29th flak damage being caused to the mainplane.

June witnessed two mining sorties being flown to Lorient, in addition to return trips to Dusseldorf and Wuppertal, and a strike against Cologne, while in July Winkler’s Wellington re-visited the latter city and Aachen, in addition to participating in the notorious Hamburg “Firestorm” raids on the nights of 27th and 29th, and in the final strike against that devastated city on the night of 2 August. The remainder of the latter month, with the exception of a raid on Munich, was dedicated to “Gardening” sorties to Brest and Borkum (thrice). Similarly, in September, 300 (Polish) Squadron was allocated to further mining operations against Terschelling and Lorient, but also participated in regular bombing runs against Hanover on two occasions, while between October and November Winkler completed his first tour of operations with further mining trips to Brest, Egmont (on the Dutch coast), Lorient and Texel. A well-deserved D.F.C. was approved in March 1943, the same month in which he was advanced to Flying Officer, and for the immediate future he was employed as a Navigator instructor at No. 18 O.T.U.

Winkler’s second tour of duty commenced with No. 301 (Polish) Squadron in October 1944, the unit having just been reformed at Brindisi from No. 1586 (Special Duties) Flight. Equipped with Halifaxes and Liberators, it flew supply-dropping missions to Albania, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Poland and Yugoslavia. Winkler completed his first such mission, to Albania, on the night of 31 October 1944, and between then and February 1945, he participated in another 11 clandestine sorties, the majority of them to Drop Zones (DZs) in northern Italy, but with the occasional flight to Poland or Czechoslovakia. As can be imagined, such operations were perilous in the extreme, and a glimpse of one of Winkler’s more hair-raising outings, in fact to Poland on the night of 27 December 1944, may be found in K. A. Merrick’s definitive “Special Duties” history,
Flights of the Forgotten:

‘Flight Lieutenant Winkler in Halifax LL118-C made a successful drop from 300 feet but shortly after that his aircraft was picked up by a night fighter which followed it as far as Vistula. No attack developed because of the successful evasive action taken by the pilot of the Halifax, Warrant Officer Nowocin, who took the bomber down to zero feet ...’

And again, on the night of 18 January 1945, in a trip to Italy, his final operational sortie:

‘Flight Lieutenant Winkler’s Halifax, LL118-C, had overflown a large convoy at the head of the Gulf of Venice and had been hotly engaged by heavy flak, forcing evasive action. This, after nearly half an hour of fruitless searching for the allotted D.Z. in the fog-laden Po Valley, added to the crew’s frustration ...’

Winkler, who had been advanced to Flight Lieutenant in September 1944, was also awarded the Polish Virtuti Militari, 5th class, the Polish Cross of Valour with 2 Bars and the Polish Air Force Medal.

Honourably discharged in January 1947, he served in the Polish Resettlement Corps until January 1949, and, as evidenced by accompanying documentation, rejoined the Royal Air Force in early 1953, gaining appointment as a Navigator. He was advanced to his old rank of Flight Lieutenant in July 1956.

Sold with a large quantity of original documentation, including the recipient’s Flying Log Books (3), covering the periods June 1942 to June 1948, and March 1953 to October 1960, and the third unused; a fine selection of mainly wartime photographs (approximately 30), among them an “end of course”, Eastbourne, November 1942 group, the reverse bearing several signatures of fellow “Free Poles”; assorted wartime I.D. cards and Polish Honours and Awards booklets (8); and other official paperwork, mainly of polish origin.

Also sold with post-war Polish commemorative awards (6), including Home Army Cross, Air Force Active Service Medal, Defence Medal 1939 and Warsaw Air Bridge Badge; together with assorted dress miniatures (11), several mounted on incomplete wearing bar; and assorted Polish badges (9), including metalled “Wings” (2), one a Navigator’s wartime issue manufactured by
Spink & Son.