Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Flight Sergeant W. P. S. Rae, Royal Air Force, a prisoner of war in Germany after his Wellington III bomber failed to return from a ‘Gardening’ operation in November 1942

1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; War Medal 1939-45, all unnamed as issued, together with his German P.O.W. identity disc stamped ‘896 Stalag Luft Barth-Vogelsang’, good very fine (3) £300-£400

William Petrie Smart Rae was born in the Parish of Woodside, Aberdeen, on 21 April 1921, and enlisted into the Royal Air Force on 15 July 1940. He was appointed Air Gunner on 28 May 1941, and joined No. 142 Squadron on 31 August 1942. He became a prisoner of war at Stalug Luft I when his Wellington III bomber failed to return from a mine-laying operation on the night of 16/17 November 1942, all five of the crew being taken prisoner. His ‘effective date of release’ is recorded as 3 November 1945.

Sold with copied record of service, together with brass Path Finder Force badge, various cloth insignia including sergeant’s stripes and air gunner’s wing, four ‘Lagergeld’ P.O.W. camp currency notes and a French banknote.