Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part I)

Three: Flight Sergeant N. T. Starmer, Royal Air Force, an Air Gunner who completed a tour of operations in Halifaxes of No. 102 Squadron: he claimed a confirmed Me. 410 after a raid against Goch in February 1945

1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; War Medal 1939-45, good very fine and better (3) £350-400

Starmer, who was from Kennington, enlisted in the Royal Air Force in July 1943. Having qualified as an Air Gunner in September of the same year, he gained experience in Wellingtons at No. 20 O.T.U. at Lossiemouth, and afterwards attended a conversion course for Halifaxes.

Posted to No. 102 Squadron at Pocklington in September 1944, Starmer commenced his operational tour with a strike against Cleve on 7 October. Targets visited in the remainder of his 30-sortie tour included Bochum (twice), Cologne (twice), Duisburg (thrice), Essen (twice), Hamburg, Munich, Saarbrucken and Wilhelmshaven, but it was in a raid against Goch on the night of 7-8 February 1945, that he gained his confirmed victory:

‘The Halifax was on its way home when a Me. 410 came up from behind. Before it could open fire, Flight Sergeant Starmer gave it a long burst and saw a red glow in the fuselage as the enemy fighter broke away. The Me. dived vertically and was seen to explode on the ground. “The enemy pilot must have been surprised because he never opened fire at all,” said Flight Sergeant Starmer ...’ (accompanying wartime newspaper cutting refers).

Starmer completed his final sortie, against Wangerooge, in late April 1944 and was demobbed in August 1946.

Sold with the recipient’s original Flying Log Book, covering the period August 1943 to May 1945, together with three wartime photographs, one featuring his crew and the other two his Halifax’s nose-art, “The Naughty Nineties”