Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Warrant Officer R. Hawkins, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who completed 44 sorties as a Bomb Aimer in Lancasters of 186 Squadron, including the famous “firestorm” raid on Dresden in February 1945

1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; War Medal 1939-45, good very fine (3) £400-£500

Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, December 2008.

Ronald Hawkins, who was born in February 1921, enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in March 1942 and was 186 Squadron, a Lancaster unit operating out of Tuddenham, Suffolk in November 1944, when he flew in Flying Officer R. J. Gogler’s crew in a daylight strike against the Meerbeck oil plant at Homburg on 2 November. And no less than 11 further sorties were flown by him before the end of the same month, all bar one of a daylight nature, his targets including Solingen (twice), in addition to further trips to Homberg and another to Cologne.

The Squadron having moved to Stradishall in December, Hawkins, still as Bomb Aimer in Gogler’s crew, completed another four daylight sorties, namely attacks on Witten, Trier, St. Vith and Cologne, his Flying Log Book noting that his aircraft ‘nearly bought it’ over the latter target on the 28th. And on his very next sortie - a night strike against Vohwiekel on New Year’s Day 1945 - his Lancaster was twice attacked by enemy fighters and diverted to Linton on reaching the U.K. Four further day and two night operations were flown before the month’s end, his targets including Neuss, Saarbrucken and Krefeld (twice).

February witnessed Hawkins completing four day and three night sorties, thrice being called upon to set his sights on Dortmund, one of these latter trips being described by him as ‘very tough’. Gladbeck, Gelsenkirchen and Wesel were among the other targets that month, but most memorable of all was Dresden on the night of 13-14 February, the famous raid in which “firestorms” were created and around 40,000 killed - Flying Officer Gogler had to carry out an emergency landing on their return.

Now with nearly 40 sorties under his belt, Hawkins participated in four more daytime attacks in March, one against Cologne on 5 March being described by him as ‘Touch and go’, in addition to another ‘very tough’ night operation against Dessau on the night of 7-8 March. This latter raid marked the end of his operational tour and he was “rested” at a conversion unit before finally being demobilised in July 1946.

Sold with a large quantity of original documentation and wartime photographs, including his R.C.A.F. Flying Log Book (for Aircrew other than Pilot), covering the period February 1943 to June 1945; a rare silk Russian translation sheet with Union Jack motif and an equally rare series of Bomb Aimer raid observation sheets (33), the whole representative of more or less every sortie undertaken by the recipient, together with a quantity of related target photographs (12), and a target map of Solingen; his R.A.F. Service and Release Book; and other ephemera.