Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Second War campaign group of four awarded to Flight Lieutenant L. Liversidge, Royal Air Force, a Spitfire pilot who from 1943 completed 117 operational sorties with No. 185 Squadron, both in the skies over Malta and in a ground attack role during the Italian Campaign, before going on to pursue a lengthy post-war flying career

1939-45 Star; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, mounted as worn, together with the recipient’s related miniature awards, R.A.F. officer’s cloth cap badge, pilot’s wings and riband bar, slight contact marks otherwise good very fine (4) £800-£1,000

Law Liversidge, who was born in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire in 1922, joined the Royal Air Force in April 1940. Selected for pilot training in the summer of 1941, Leading Aircraftman Liversidge was embarked for Canada where he attended courses on Tiger Moths and Oxfords until returning to England in the spring of 1942.

Subsequently posted to No. 4 G.T.S. at Kidlington for single-seat fighter training, he then converted to Spitfires at No. 61 Operational Training Unit (R.A.F. Rednal), March to May 1943, and went operational in July with a posting to No. 185 Squadron, a Spitfire unit based on Malta, from where he flew the Mark Vc and Mark IX on a number of convoy and island combat air patrols in December 43 and January 1944.

Part of his squadron having moved to Grottaglie in the Taranto area of Italy in February 1944, Liversidge flew a memorable shipping recce on 15 March from Brindisi to the Bay of Kotor off Montenegro, noting in his log book, ‘One troop transport and one staff car destroyed, one bus damaged.’; a two hour rhubarb was logged later the same day. From April to July, he flew numerous less eventful scrambles and patrols but in August, with 185 squadron re-uniting at Perugia as a fighter-bomber unit in support of the Allied advance, his log book springs into life with regular bombing raids and enemy contacts, notably:

‘20 August - Bombed railway yard and bridge. All bombs on target. Much Flak.
23 August - Two 109s approached but beat it when Bal and I turned in to meet them. Geoff Cross killed today.
26 August - No transport about so bombed railway line N.W. of Remini.’

September continues in a similar vein with bridges and gun positions being bombed amid flak, cars and motor transports being destroyed and comrades-in-arms occasionally perishing.

Liversidge recorded no flights in October - he was commissioned Pilot Officer in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve on 14 October 1944 - but he was back in action the following month, bombing Nebelwerfers on 3 November and two days later he flew a close support sortie described as, ‘fireworks for the hun - bombed and strafed Forli airfield.’ More bombing of Nebelwerfers and strafing of enemy occupied villages followed later in the month.

The New Year saw the Squadron move to Pontedera, near Pisa, from where Liversidge undertook eight sorties against German ground targets in January, including on the 15th ‘two direct hits on gun pits - one farm house clobbered’ and although warming to his work with a strafing and bombing run on Castiglione on 17 January, he experienced some uncomfortable moments later in the month, noting on the 28th, ‘engine very rough after bombing - much twitch’ and on the 29th ‘upward roll accidentally after strafing. Much flak.’
In February Liversidge records further sorties or ‘Rover Joes’ among which, one is described as, ‘Direct hit on H.Q. - P.O.W. later stated: 1 General and at least 30 other troops killed.’ He also notes the loss of two squadron pilots (baled out to become P.O.W.s) and a third baled out but returned.
March and April see more of the same frenetic activity, in which he destroys many ground targets, takes an occasional hit from flak and loses fellow pilots - ‘Chutney flew into house’, ‘Rosie burst into flame’. His final combat patrol on 2 May is a recce in the Bolzano Area - he notes in his log book, ‘Saw many M.T. but were not allowed to attack. Did not know that war in Italy was already over.’
Flying Officer Liversidge remained in Italy for the rest of the war, transferring to 87 Squadron (Spitfires) in August 1945 and logging his last squadron flight on 15 January 1946. He completed over 470 hours on Spitfires and 117 operational sorties during the war.

Remaining on the active list, he resumed his flying career in 1949, taking a course at the Flying Refresher School, R.A.F. Finningly before embarking on a career as a Flying Instructor at an assortment of Flying Training Schools, in which capacity he remained employed, teaching on Harvards, Meteors and Vampires, for the next 6 years.
He was posted in September 1955 to 614 Squadron (Vampires and Meteors), transferred in 1959 to R.A.F. Guttersloh, Germany (Hunter VII) and then having returned to England in January 1962, he joined the Flying Training Command Communications Squadron based at R.A.F. White Waltham, flying the Anson. Finally relinquishing his commission in 1968, he embarked on a career in civil aviation with British Airways and flew Vanguards and BAC 111s on European and domestic routes, on one occasion being congratulated for a successful approach at Tegel on 30 October 1975, when his Super 1-11 aircraft was successfully landed in Category Two weather conditions, with visual contact established at 100ft on the radio altimeter in a visibility of 800 metres. He retired in 1978.

Sold with the recipient’s original R.A.F. Flying Log Books (3), covering the periods August 1941 to August 1962; September 1962 to January 1967 (and July 1975 to August 1978); and April 1967 to July 1975, a complete record of a lengthy and diverse flying career, the war years assiduously annotated; a good quantity of photographs - subjects spanning the recipient’s career - including seven images of the recipient and 185 Squadron in Malta during the winter of 1943/1944; two commission documents - Pilot Officer (20 October 1944) and Flight Lieutenant (21 April 1953); scroll commemorating a successful landing in adverse weather at Tegel in 1975; other career related documentation and ephemera; a framed caricature drawing of the recipient by Pat Rooney, dated 1959, 270mm x 390mm; a wooden shield bearing the Central Flying School coat of arms, 175mm x 260mm; October 1941 copy of Fighter Pilot by Paul Richey, inscribed inside the front cover by Sergeant Liversidge.