Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A well documented family group:

A fine Second World War Flight Engineer’s D.F.M. group of four awarded to Warrant Officer F. H. Hesketh, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R. (1852589 F./Sgt. F. H. Hesketh, R.A.F.); 1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; War Medal 1939-45, extremely fine

Together with:

Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society, General Medal, silver, with Second Award Bar engraved ‘Second Service/21st December 1915’ (To P.C. 104A (Frederick Hesketh) for Gallant Service 17 Feb. 1913), complete with riband buckle, in its Oldfields, Liverpool case of issue, together with related St. John Ambulance Association long service badge, the reverse engraved, ‘134360 Frederick Hesketh’, extremely fine (6) £1800-2200

D.F.M. London Gazette 23 March 1945.

‘Flight Sergeant Hesketh has completed numerous operational sorties, many of them against heavily defended targets in Germany. On one occasion, shortly after taking off, an engine of the aircraft in which he was flying caught fire. As engineer he had to take instant action. Through his calmness and skill, he was able to aid his captain to such an extent that, although it was impossible to extinguish the fire, the aircraft was successfully crash-landed without injury to any member of the crew. When on another sortie, severe anti-aircraft fire rendered one engine of the aircraft unserviceable, and punctured one of the petrol tanks. Sergeant Hesketh prevented the damaged engine from catching fire and then proceeded to conserve the remaining petrol so skilfully that the aircraft was able to return to base. The sound knowledge possessed by this Flight Engineer, coupled with his courage and devotion to duty, are worthy of the highest praise.’

The following biographical note has been taken from an article written by Roger Perkins for Crown Imperial:

Frederick Hannaford Hesketh was born in Liverpool on 24 June 1911. Four years later, his father, a Liverpool policeman, died of pneumonia and the family moved to Devon. Frederick was educated at Torquay Grammar School and South Devon Technical College, before joining the local gas company as an engineering apprentice.

At the outbreak of the Second World War he volunteered for flying duties but was not immediately mobilised. His post as a plant engineer was judged vital for the maintenance of gas supplies. In 1943, however, he was called up for service with the R.A.F.V.R. and selected for training as a Flight Engineer. By March 1944 he had been crewed up with P./O. C. H. Henry of the Royal New Zealand Air Force at 1667 Conversion Unit, Sandtoft, where they trained on Halifax aircraft. Hesketh was by this time 33 years of age, a remarkably late stage in life for aircrew training. The average age of aircrew was 21.

In June 1944, while the Allies stormed ashore in Normandy, Hesketh was completing his training at No. 1 Lancaster Finishing School, Helmswell, before being posted in early July to No. 12 Squadron, R.A.F. Bomber Command, Wickenby, in Lincolnshire.

His first operation, on 6th July, should have been a gentle introduction: a three hours round trip in daylight to bomb a VI site in Northern France. Eight aircraft took off from Wickenby, seven returned. A Lancaster piloted by F./L. Gray was hit by a bomb dropped from a higher aircraft and staggered back to England at low altitude with a Spitfire escort. The aircraft crashed at Faldingworth and three of the crew died.

Hesketh’s second raid, on 26th July, was against one of the best defended targets in Germany, Stuttgart, and involved nearly nine hours of flight. On the way home Lancaster ‘Y York’, with Hesketh aboard, was trapped by searchlights over Normandy and hit by flak. The mid-upper gunner was wounded.

The following night they went back to Stuttgart again and were attacked three times over the target by night-fighters.

The following eight operational flights were typical of the tasks undertaken by most of Harris’ main force in the late summer of 1944. Short daylight raids on VI sites in France, attacks against troop concentrations (supporting the breakout from the Normandy beach-head), the destruction of oil refineries, and two long flights to the Baltic to destroy the town centre of Stettin (supporting the Russian advance from the east).

Then came operational flight no. 13, a four hours daylight trip to St. Ricquier to hit a VI site. Flying in their favourite Lancaster, ‘Q Queen’, P./O. Henry and F./Sgt. Hesketh were shot-up by predicted flak over the target. The elevator trimming tab control wire was severed and the aircraft became difficult to handle. The bomb release mechanism failed and Henry turned to make another run across the target while Hesketh struggled to repair the cable and free the hung-up bombs. By now the aiming point was obscured by dust and haze and the Master Bomber ordered Henry to take his bomb-load back to England. Setting the big aircraft back down onto the runway, with damaged controls and a six-ton load on board, demanded a high level of skill and cool judgement from both pilot and Flight Engineer.

More raids followed in September, Henry and Hesketh flying in spare aircraft while ‘Q Queen’ spent three weeks undergoing repairs. The Squadron was a typical maid-of-all-work Bomber Command unit, being given a wide range of day and night missions against Wermacht targets in Northern France (battering the beseiged garrisons of Cap Gris Nez, Calais and Le Havre), and against industrial cities in Germany (Frankfurt, Neuss and Saarbrucken).

Then came operational flight No. 22, the target being Dusiberg. Henry, by now promoted Flight Lieutenant, lifted Queenie off the runway at Wickenby and started the slow climb toward the coast and North Sea. This was a ‘maximum effort’ daylight attack and 12 Squadron had twenty Lancasters in the air. They were led by Wing Commander Stockdale who had as a passenger the famous war correspondent Richard Dimbleby. Flying in a loose gaggle, spread over several miles of the early morning sky, the great machines strained for altitude as the beaches of Mablethorpe slid beneath their wings.

Eight miles out from the coast and “Queenie” was in trouble. The port outer engine caught fire, the flames quickly spread and soon the entire port wing was in flames. The other crews, and no doubt Richard Dimbleby also, watched the blazing comet cross their fronts as Henry gingerly turned “Queenie” back towards the coast. He was carrying a 4,000lb. ‘Cookie’ and 1,278 small incendiary bombs. At the frighteningly-low altitude of 800 feet he jettisoned the entire load: the pilot must have been pleasantly surprised when the blast from the exploding ‘Cookie’ did not tear his wings off. Eight hundred feet was far below recommended minimum jettison altitude but he had no choice: “Queenie” was due to ditch. Very carefully, using all their skill and experience, Henry and Hesketh nursed the blazing wreck down toward the sea which had been whipped up by a 30 knot south-westerly wind. The understanding between pilot and engineer was vital at this stage if the crew were to have any chance of surviving the impact. Just thirty minutes after take-off from Wickenby, and with flaps inoperative, “Queenie” smashed into the waves at 120 knots. The fuselage broke in half, the dinghy inflated automatically and the eight men scrambles quickly into it as “Queenie” slid beneath the surface. One and a half hours later, they were rescued by a high-speed launch from Mablethorpe. Yet another crew had qualified for the Goldfish Club!

Two weeks later they were back on the job with three quick trips to Happy Valley. The third, to Dusseldorf, was more than usually eventful, Hesketh’s aircraft being coned by searchlights and approached by night-fighters, but that was nothing compared with operational flight no. 27, on 16th November. This was a daylight raid on a Rhine Valley town on the German frontier, used by the Wermacht as a supply and communications centre. Bomber Command were combining with the American 8th and 9th Air Force to support the U.S. Army’’s new drive towards the Rhine. The target for 12 Squadron was Duren.

At 1530 hours the fourteen aircraft approached the town at 10,000 feet. Visibility was good and they flew closer to each other than was customary in order to give mutual support against fighters. Bomb doors were opened and the point of release had been almost reached when the Lancaster flying alongside F./O. Henry’s ‘R Roger’ received a direct hit in the bomb-bay. Six tons of bombs detonated simultaneously and the blast wrecked ‘R Roger’. Hurled violently across the sky the big aircraft was riddled with splinter holes. The radar set blew up and caught fire. The No. 2 petrol tank in the starboard wing was punctured and fuel streamed back along the fuselage and over the tailplane, threatening to catch fire at any moment. The pilot’s windscreen was blown in and the 160 m.p.h. slipstream roared through the interior of the fuselage, almost blinding the pilot. In the midst of this chaos the starboard inner engine ground to a halt and the aircraft was bracketed by a salvo from a heavy flak battery!

F./O. Henry struggled to regain control as ‘R Roger’ careered wildly across the path of other on-coming Lancasters. With the aid of Hesketh he succeeded in stabilising the aircraft’s altitude, bringing it back to level flight and feathering the useless propeller. For the next three hours the two men worked to keep the wreck in the air as they headed back to Wickenby on three engines. They landed safely: miraculously none of the crew were injured.

Two days later they were back in the air, testing a new “Q Queen”, and three days after that they were battling with night-fighters again over Aschaffenburg.

Hesketh’s final two raids were dark and dangerous: marshalling yards at Karlsruhr on 5th December at 20,000 feet, and the Kruppps works at Essen on 12th December at 19,000 feet. Apart from the intense cold both trips were uneventful and the crew could now step down and take their long leave. They had completed 30 missions together and they went their separate ways. Frederick Hesketh was promoted Warrant Officer and spent the remainder of the war as an engineer instructor.

Released from the R.A.F.V.R. in June 1946, he returned to the gas industry as local manager for South West Gas in Torquay. Active in local affairs, he played cricket for the town and was much involved in church activities. Sadly, like many former aircrew, he did not reach his full span but died of heart failure at the age of sixty.’

Hesketh’s widow claimed his campaign medals in 1977.

Sold with a fine selection of original documentation, including the recipient’s Flying Log Book covering the period March 1944 to December 1944; a large folding map of Europe on which the recipient has marked the flight paths taken by his crew on all of their 30 operational sorties; wartime booklets (3), including Flight Engineer’s Notes for Lancasters Aircraft (maker’s manual, Avro); congratulatory letters on the award of the D.F.M. and more official correspondence, including D.F.M. forwarding letter; pre-war and wartime photographs, among them portraits in uniform and crew pictures; R.A.F. Certificate of Service and Release; R.A.F. issue waterproof wallet with Dutch, German and French banknotes, and a rare Gold Fish Club membership embroidered uniform badge.

Frederick Hesketh, his father, a Police Constable, was awarded his Liverpool and Shipwreck Society General Medal in 1913, for stopping a runaway horse and wagon in a busy Liverpool street. His Second Award Bar was for a similar incident in July 1916. Sadly, as related above, he died at an early age, several months later, having contracted pneumonia while on point duty; several original photographs of him in uniform are included, together with a quantity of documents appertaining to his brother, Private T. J. Hesketh, Coldstream Guards, who died of wounds on 12 October 1917.