Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Second War Navigator’s D.F.C. group of four awarded to Flight Lieutenant J. R. O’Donnell, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who completed 37 operational sorties in Lancasters of 35 Squadron

Distinguished Flying Cross, G.VI.R., reverse officially dated 1945, with its Royal Mint case of issue and named Buckingham Palace enclosure; 1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; War Medal 1939-45, nearly extremely fine (4) £1,400-£1,800

D.F.C. London Gazette 17 July 1945.

John Roderick O’Donnell served with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve during the Second World War undertaking initial training as a Navigator at No. 1 C.N.S., Rivers, Manitoba, Canada and qualifying with effect from 26 November 1943. Returning to the United Kingdom he underwent further training on Ansons and Whitleys at R.A.F. Llandwrog and R.A.F. Kinloss before spells at 1663 Halifax Conversion Unit, R.A.F. Rufforth and the Pathfinder Navigation Training Unit at R.A.F. Warboys at which latter unit he completed his training on Lancasters.

In October 1944 O’Donnell was posted to 35 (Madras Presidency) Squadron, a Pathfinder unit flying Lancasters out of R.A.F. Graveley. His appointment commenced with two visits to Walcheren which took place on successive nights but thereafter, in keeping with Bomber Command’s official priorities at this time, most sorties were attacks on Axis oil and transportation targets. These included raids on the important steelworks at Bochum, the synthetic oil plants at Leuna, Politz and Kamen, the shipyards at Kiel, IG Faben’s chemical works at Ludwigshaven (twice), the oil refinery at Gelsenkirchen, the important railway junction at Hanau, railway yards at Saarbrucken, Grevenbroich and Schwandorf, and an attack on the shipyard producing the new Type XXI U-Boat at Hamburg.

Bombing of German towns and cities, although much reduced from earlier in the war, still continued however. In this regard, on the night of 16 January 1945, O’Donnell’s Lancaster was ordered to attack the city of Magdeburg. Although neither his Flying Log Book or the squadron’s Operations Record Book make mention of it, the AM Form 1180 (Accident Card) shows: ‘aircraft struck by incendiaries from friendly aircraft; successful landing made.’ The aircraft was repaired and returned to the squadron on 10 February. In another area bombing attack on 23 February 1945, O’Donnell, piloted as always by Flying Officer J. A. Murrell, was Navigator in one of 367 Lancasters on the particularly accurate Pforzheim raid which resulted in over 17,000 deaths, probably the third highest air raid death toll in Germany during the war after Dresden and Hamburg, with an estimated 83 percent of the town’s built up area destroyed.

With hostilities in Europe drawing to a close, O’Donnell’s Log Book records two missions ferrying P.O.W.s back from France and Holland in May 1945 in addition to his 42 operational sorties notched up between October 1944 and April 1945. He was subsequently awarded the D.F.C.

After the cessation of hostilities, O’Donnell was posted to No. 12 F.U. at Melton Mowbray and was advanced Squadron Leader in December 1945. In February 1946 he converted to the Avro York at 1332 Heavy Conversion Unit at Dishforth and was posted to 246 Squadron in March 1946, with which squadron he concluded his R.A.F. career as a Navigator on scheduled services to and around India and the Middle East from March to June 1946.

Sold with the recipient’s Royal Air Force Observer’s and Air Gunner’s Flying Log Book covering the period January 1943 to July 1946.