Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An original Second World War pilot’s flying log book (R.C.A.F. type) and other memorabilia, appertaining to Flying Officer R. C. Lake, D.F.C., Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who participated in 11 sorties to Berlin in the winter of 1943-44, covering the period from training days in November 1941 through to October 1945, via a tour of operations with No. 625 Squadron, with a few subsequent entries on light aircraft for the period 1951-52; together with other related memorabilia, including uniform “Wings”, R.A.F. Reserve Forces I.D. card, with photograph, 2nd T.A.F. pass, Air Ministry letter of appointment to Flying Officer, R.A.F.V.R., dated 9 June 1951, two wartime photographs, and a quantity of research, this latter including correspondence with veterans of No. 625 Squadron (Lot) £400-500

Ronald Charles Lake enlisted in the R.A.F.V.R. in July 1941 and commenced his pilot training in November of the same year. He subsequently attended several courses in the U.S.A. and obtained an ‘Above the average’ pilot’s rating before returning home in November 1942. Further training followed until November 1943, when he was posted from a Heavy Conversion Unit to No. 625 Squadron, which was operating in Lancasters out of Kelstern, Lincolnshire.

After just two local flights with his new crew - one of which ended in a crash landing - Lake was among those detailed to attack Berlin on the night of 18th-19th, flying as a 2nd Pilot. And although this particular sortie would appear to have been aborted as a result of trouble with his aircraft’s starboard outer engine, trouble that returned on his next visit to the “Big City” four nights later, the majority of Lake’s 11 intended trips to Berlin went ahead as planned, the last of them being flown on the night of 15-16 February 1944. And for all but three of them he was 1st Pilot.

One of the lucky ones to survive this famous Bomber Command onslaught against the enemy’s capital city, Lake also completed sorties to a host of other heavily-defended enemy targets, Augsburg, Brunswick, Dortmund, Duisberg, Dusseldorf, Essen (twice), Frankfurt (thrice), Schweinfurt and Stuttgart (twice) among them.

Moreover, in the lead up to the Normandy landings, in May 1944, he was assigned to a number of French targets, Lyons and Dieppe included. He also participated in the costly strike against Mailly-le-Camp on the night of 3-4 May, when 42 Lancasters were brought down by enemy night fighters. Yet Lake’s luck held and he successfully completed the final sortie of his tour of operations against Terngier on the night of 31 May 1944. He was duly awarded the D.F.C. (London Gazette 19 September 1944), and ended the War as an instructor.