Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Second War campaign group of six awarded to Lancaster pilot Squadron Leader L. S. ‘Benny’ Goodman, one of the last two surviving pilots of 617 (Dambuster) Squadron to attack the German battleship Tirpitz. He went on to be one of the few pilots to drop the 22,000lb ‘Grand Slam’ bomb, the heaviest ever dropped by the Royal Air Force, and by the end of the war he had flown on 30 bombing operations.

After demobilisation, Goodman joined the Auxiliary Air Force in 1946 before re-joining the Royal Air Force in August 1949 - initially flying transport aircraft he converting to jets in the mid-1950s, and flew the twin-engine Canberra, before serving as a flight commander on 80 Squadron, a photographic reconnaissance squadron based at R.A.F. Bruggen on the Dutch-German border

1939-45 Star, 1 clasp, Bomber Command; Arctic Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; France, Republic, Legion of Honour, Chevalier’s breast badge, silver, gilt and enamel, cleaned, mounted for wear, campaign awards privately named by Cleave, ‘Sqn Ldr L. S. Goodman, R.A.F.’, on the occasion of the recipient’s 100th birthday, generally very fine (lot) £2,000-£3,000

Lawrence Seymour ‘Benny’ Goodman was born in West London in September 1920 and was a member of the OTC at Herne Bay College. After leaving school in 1937 he started an electrical engineering course prior to joining his father’s film and advertising business in London. He joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve in 1940 but was sent to RAF Abingdon to join the ground defence section whilst waiting to start his training as a pilot. He commenced his initial flying training in June 1941 and in the following January he left for Canada where he trained on twin-engine Anson aircraft at a flying school in Manitoba. He was commissioned in April 1942 and, after gaining his wings, remained in Canada as a flying instructor training Fleet Air Arm pilots at 31 Service Flying Training School at Kingston, Ontario. In September 1942, he sailed from Halifax on a merchant ship heading for the United Kingdom. An escorting US destroyer was sunk by a U-Boat and Goodman’s vessel was holed.

Goodman began a series of courses to train on bombers. At No 17 Operational Training Unit at Silverstone, he formed his own crew, and after completing the course on Wellingtons, they headed for No 1660 Conversion Unit at Swinderby to fly the four-engine Stirling before converting to the Lancaster at Syerston near Newark. They joined 617 Squadron at Woodhall Spa on 16 August 1944 commanded by the legendary Wing Commander Willie ‘Tirpitz’ Tait DSO & Bar, DFC. (He would soon add two more Bars to his DSO and a Bar to his DFC).

617 (Dambuster) Squadron
617 Squadron was a special duties squadron in No 5 Group equipped with Barnes Wallis’s 12,000lb ‘Tallboy’ deep penetration bomb and a precision bomb sight. The squadron attracted very experienced crews and Goodman and his crew, who had been assessed as above average, were sent to the squadron as part of an experiment to take on novice crews.

To gain experience, he flew his first raid on August 18 – an attack on the U-boat pens at La Pallice – with an experienced captain before he took his crew to Brest a few days later. On their fourth operation they attacked the Tirpitz. The possibility that the German battleship might cause havoc amongst the convoys carrying vital supplies across the Atlantic, and the crucial war materials for Russia, had dominated naval plan for more than two years. Attempts by RAF and Fleet Air Arm bombers had made several attempts to disable ‘The Beast’, (as Churchill dubbed the battleship) had failed, as had gallant attempts by mini-submarines.

In September 1944, Lancasters dropping the 12,000lb ‘Tallboy’ bomb had damaged Tirpitz, forcing it to move south to Tromso for repairs. This brought it in range of bombers taking off from northern Scotland. Drawn from Nos. 9 and 617 (Dambuster) Squadrons, 37 specially modified Lancasters, led by Wing Commander Tait, took off from Lossiemouth on 29 October. Cloud appeared as the bombers approached and the battleship put up a smoke screen. Goodman dropped his ‘Tallboy’ into the smoke before turning for Lossiemouth. After the raid on the Tirpitz, Goodman flew on many notable operations; the majority involved dropping the ‘Tallboy’. The bomb had an 11-second delay fuse to allow maximum penetration before exploding to create an ‘earthquake’ effect.

In December Goodman attacked the synthetic oil refinery at Politz near Stettin, which had been marked by flares dropped by Pathfinders. On return, after a flight of over nine hours, fog had appeared over Lincolnshire, and Goodman’s Lancaster was the only one to land at Woodhall Spa, the remainder diverted to other airfields. At the end of December, he attacked the E-Boat pens at Rotterdam and at Ijmiuden.

After bombing the U-boat pens at Bergen in Norway on 12 January 1945, and a return to the E-Boat pens in the Netherlands, the squadron turned its attention to destroying the crucial viaducts that carried the railways being used by the Germans to bring reinforcements to the front line in the west. On 22 February Goodman dropped his ‘Tallboy’ on the Bielefeld viaduct, a particularly difficult target.

In March the squadron began receiving Barnes Wallis’s 22,000lb ‘Grand Slam’, the biggest non-nuclear air-dropped conventional weapon of the war. To carry this huge bomb the Lancasters had to be modified and this included a stronger undercarriage, removal of the front and mid-upper gun turrets, some armour plating and the bomb doors. As the specially modified bombers took off, observers on the ground saw the straight wings of the Lancaster flex.

On 19 March the target was the Arnsberg viaduct. Goodman was flying one of the six Lancasters carrying a ‘Grand Slam’. He was the third to drop his bomb and, as the raid departed, the viaduct was in ruins. Over the final weeks of the war, Goodman dropped more ‘Tallboys’ including one on the U-Boat construction yards at Hamburg. On 25 April he took off on his last operation, the attack on Hitler’s retreat at Berchtesgaden in Bavaria. Despite being hit by anti-aircraft fire, he dropped his ‘Tallboy.’

Operations Flown:
18 Aug 44 La Pallice – U-Boat Pens
27 Aug 44 Brest – Shipping
3 Oct 44 Westkapelle Sea Wall (Recalled)
28 Oct 44 Norway – Tirpitz
8 Dec 44 Urft Dam (Recall)
11 Dec 44 Urft Dam
15 Dec 44 Ijmuiden – E-Boat Pens
21 Dec 44 Poiltz
29 Dec 44 Rotterdam – E-Boat Pens
30 Dec 44 Ijmuiden – E-Boat Pens
31 Dec 44 Oslo Fjord – Shipping
12 Jan 45 Bergen – U-Boat Pens
3 Feb 45 Pootershaven Midget Submarine Shelter
6 Feb 45 Bielefeld Viaduct (Recalled)
8 Feb 45 Ijmuiden U-Boat Pens
14 Feb 45 Bielefeld Viaduct (Recalled)
22 Feb 45 Bielefeld Viaduct
9 Mar 45 Bielefeld (Recalled)
13 Mar 45 Bielefeld (Recalled)
14 Mar 45 Bielefeld Viaduct
19 Mar 45 Arnsberg ‘Grand Slam’
21 Mar 45 Dreyse
22 Mar 21 Nienburg
23 Mar 45 Bremen
27 Mar 45 Farge
6 Apr 45 Ijmiuden (Recalled)
7 Apr 45 Ijmuiden
9 Apr 45 Hamburg – U-Boat Pens
13 Apr 45 Swinemunde – Eugen and Lutzow (Recalled)
25 Apr 45 Berchtesgaden – Eagle’s Nest

Goodman was loud in praise of his ground crew. He wrote: “Working out in all weathers, often on wind, snow and rain swept dispersals, they were always there to ensure the serviceability of our aircraft and to see us depart. They waited in uncertainty eager to witness our return. For 365 days and nights they made it possible for us to do our job. All of us who flew knew their worth.”

Peacetime Career
Goodman remained in the RAF and transferred to Transport Command flying the Stirling. He left in the summer of 1946 and immediately joined the Auxiliary Air Force flying the latest mark of Spitfire with 604 (County of Middlesex) Squadron. He re-joined the RAF in September 1949 and over the next few years flew the Hastings transport aircraft. He later converted to the Canberra and was a flight commander on 80 Squadron based in Germany. After a tour in the Air Ministry, he left the RAF in 1964 to re-join the family firm. He obtained his British and American civil pilot’s licenses and flew a Piper Comanche, of which he was part owner, until he was 93 years old. He died in July 2021 aged 100. A memorial service for Squadron Leader Goodman will be held at St. Clement Danes Church, 4 February 2022.


To be sold with the following original related items and documents:
The recipient’s brown leather Irvin flying jacket, bearing his initials on detachable band behind collar, sometime restored, and fragile, with signed certificate of authenticity by recipient; 5 Royal Air Force Pilot’s Flying Log Books (19 July 1941 - 2 August 1961), second Log Book annotated ‘Certified that P/O Goodman’s first Log Book was lost by enemy action. He claims the times recorded on this sheet’; R.A.F. Instrument Pilot Rating (Green) Certificate, dated 1 May 1952; several photographs and photographic images of recipient, and a photographic image of 617 Squadron, air and ground crew, signed by recipient; copies of the following books, signed by recipient: The Lancaster by G. A. A. Wilson; Lancaster published by Osprey; Lancaster The Biography, by Squadron Leader T. Iveson, D.F.C. and B. Milton - signed by both authors but not recipient; Dam Busters, The Rush To Smash The Dams 1943, by J. Holland, additionally signed by a number of members of 617 Squadron; The Dambusters And The Epic Wartime Raids of 617 Squadron, published by Griffon International, additionally signed by a number of members of 617 Squadron; The Bomber Command Memorial, commemorative book, additionally signed by a number of R.A.F. veterans; and Rise Against Eagles, Stories of RAF Airmen in the Battle of Britain, by C. Yeoman and A. Cork.

Withdrawn