Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Squadron Leader P. Hadfield, Royal Air Force, who, having flown Westland Lysanders with 13 Squadron during the Battle of France and Battle of Britain, converted to Tomahawks and then Mustangs with 26 Squadron

1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star, 1 clasp, France and Germany; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, good very fine (4) £300-£400

Peter Hadfield was born on 24 August 1914 at Wallasey, Cheshire. He joined the Royal Air Force and undertook elementary flying training at the Bristol Flying School, Filton commencing 26 August 1935. Commissioned Acting Pilot Officer on 21 October he carried out further training at No. 11 F.T.S. Wittering and was posted as a pilot to No. 13 (Army Co-operation) Squadron at Old Sarum in May 1936. He then relocated to R.A.F. Odiham in November where he accumulated flying time in the Hawker Hector until his squadron was equipped with the Westland Lysander in early 1939.

On 2 October 1939, Hadfield embarked with No. 13 squadron for France where they joined the British Expeditionary Force in the Army Co-operation role. Flying Lysander sorties daily in the Mons-en-Chaussée - Peronne - Douai region, Hadfield remained in France until, with British positions being overrun by the advancing Germans, his squadron was evacuated back to Odiham on 20 May 1940.

During the Battle of Britain, Hadfield was engaged on Coastal Reconnaissance and Anti-Aircraft Calibration flights in the Lysander which belatedly was becoming recognised as unsuitable for the role. Air Marshall Arthur Barrett, C-in-C of the British Air Forces in France describing the aircraft as ‘quite unsuited to the task, a faster, less vulnerable aircraft was required’. By general consensus the Lysander was considered too fast for artillery spotting, too slow and unmanoeuvrable to avoid fighters, too big to conceal quickly on a landing field and too heavy to use on soft ground. It did however carve a niche for itself in undertaking clandestine missions for the Special Operations Executive later in the war.

Continuing to fly sorties in the Lysander, he was posted to No. 16 Squadron at Weston Zoyland in January 1941 but in July, having been promoted to Squadron Leader the previous month, he joined No. 26 Squadron at Gatwick where he converted to the Tomahawk. Now undertaking fighter sweeps as well as tactical reconnaissance sorties, Hadfield’s log book records a ‘rhubarb’ flown in a Tomahawk on 24 November 1941 in which he claims a damaged Me 109 and a damaged Focke Wulf 44. With the Tomahawk lacking in performance it was replaced with the Mustang which Hadfield then mostly flew both with 26 Squadron and 171 Squadron on tactical reconnaissance sorties until January 1943 when he began a 5 month period at the Army Staff College.

In October 1943, Hadfield was sent to the U.S. Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas as part of an R.A.F. delegation. Over the course of the next year he logged flying hours mostly on the Douglas Dauntless but also on the Curtis Helldiver, Beechcraft C-43 and others besides.

Returning to England, he joined No. 17 Service Flying Training School at Coleby Grange as an Instructor in November 1944 and then from March 1945 he flew Ansons within Allied controlled Europe from 105 Staging Post, Brussels until January 1946.

Hadfield’s R.A.F. logbook also records his post-war civil flights, which for a period took place in the United States, 1949-52. His final logbook entries are in 1955. He died in Cheshire in 2010.

Sold together with the recipient’s R.A.F. Pilot’s Flying Log Book containing flights covering the period December 1937 to October 1955 and Record of R.A.F. Service covering August 1935 to January 1946; Air Ministry C.A. Form 60 Pilot’s Certificate and License; 2 sets of cloth R.A.F. wings and 2 identity tags ‘P. Hadfield Offr C of E 37400 R.A.F.’