Orders, Decorations and Medals

The original flying log book used by Flying Officer R. A. Urquhart, D.F.C., Royal Canadian Air Force, who was killed in action in the famous “Dambusters” raid of May 1943, being an R.C.A.F. Observers’ and Air Gunners’ edition, covering his entire career from training flights in August 1941 up until his death in action on 16 May 1943, the final entry stating, ‘Ops. - Eder Dam. Missing’ and signed-off by Flight Lieutenant H. B. “Micky” Martin, O.C. ‘B’ Flight, and Wing Commander D. J. H. Maltby, 617 Squadron, and including an earlier end of month entry for April 1943, signed-off by Wing Commander Guy Gibson, together with related forwarding letter to Urquhart’s mother from the Department of National Defence for Air at Ottawa, ‘The enclosed log book, which is part of the service estate of the above named, is passed herewith for your retention’, this dated 11 June 1948, in good condition £2500-3000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Ron Penhall Collection.

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Robert Alexander Urquhart was born at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan in August 1919 and enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force at Vancouver in January 1941, having briefly served in the ranks of the 2nd Battalion, Canadian Seaforths. On completing his basic training in August 1941, he was posted to an Air Observer’s Course at Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and thence to an Advanced Air Observer’s course in Manitoba that December.

Commissioned as a Pilot Officer in January 1942, Urquhart was embarked for the U.K., where, in July of the same year, while attending an Operational Training Unit at Cottesmore, he was ordered to participate in a large-scale raid on Dusseldorf on the night of the 21st, flying in one of his unit’s Hampdens. Then in the following month he went fully operational, when he was posted to No. 50 Squadron, a Lancaster unit operating out Swinderby, his first sortie being flown against Nuremburg on the 28th.

September witnessed him serving as navigator in Squadron Leader P. B. Moore’s crew for trips to Bremen, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Karlsruhe, while in October he flew in a similar capacity on the daylight raids against Le Creusot and Milan, in addition to more regular strikes against Aachen, Genoa, Kiel and Osnabruck. Still with Moore as his captain, he returned to Genoa on two occasions in early November, both trips resulting in flak damage to their Lancaster and one of them a worrying three-engine ascent of the Alps. Nor was his next sortie any easier, being an incident-packed visit to Soltau on the 17 December with Squadron Leader P. C. Birch as his pilot:

‘Returned safely with one motor cut out - three large holes in bomb doors (Beaufort shells) - Hit by a Ju. 88 who attacked from underneath and also hit by light flak - Roughly 100 holes in kite - No brakes so we overshot on landing.’

In January 1943, Urquhart flew for the first time as Navigator to Flight Lieutenant Henry Maudslay, D.F.C. - an old Etonian with one tour of operations already under his belt - making trips to Essen, Dusseldorf and Hamburg, while in February they returned to Germany on two occasions and also attacked Lorient, Milan, Turin. Urquhart’s operational tour was now coming to a close, visits to Essen, Hamburg, Munich and St. Nazaire in March bringing his total number of sorties to the 28 mark. Patently, too, he had won recognition for his operational skills, his flying log book bearing the following endorsement from No. 50’s C.O.: ‘One of the Squadron’s most exceptional Navigators. Keen and efficient.’ About the same time, he was also recommended for his D.F.C.:

‘Since joining this squadron Flying Officer Urquhart has flown on many operations. At all times his navigation has been of the highest order and the successes achieved are due, in no small measure, to his skill. This officer took part in the daylight raids on Le Cresot and Milan and at other times on many heavily defended German targets. On one occasion, during a low-level raid on a target in North-West Germany, he was wounded by anti-aircraft fire, but continued to navigate with accuracy. By his skill and determination Flying Officer Urquhart has set a high standard among his fellow navigators.’

In the event, this recommendation was mid-channel in the corridors of officialdom at the time of his subsequent death in action, so when at length the award was announced in the London Gazette of 20 July 1945, the relevant entry stated ‘with effect from 15 May 1943’.

In the interim, Urquhart and Maudslay had been ordered to R.A.F. Scampton to join Wing Commander Guy Gibson’s fledgling 617 Squadron, the former being appointed Flight Navigation Officer to ‘B’ Flight and his pilot the Flight’s C.O. Thus on the last day of March 1943, they completed their first ‘X-country’ low-level bombing exercise - part of it at 240 m.p.h. and 100 feet. Similar training continued throughout April, notably over Derwent Water, but the question of maintaining correct altitude was not properly answered until Maudslay and his crew tried out some new equipment fitted at Farnborough. Paul Brickhill’s The Dam Busters takes up the story

‘Maudslay flew a Lancaster down to Farnborough and they fitted spotlights on it the same day. Coming back he made test runs across the airfield and it worked beautifully. Maudslay said it was easy to get the circles of light together and keep them there. The idea was that their circumferences should touch each other, forming a figure ‘8’. He had Urquhart, his navigator, leaning his head out of the perspex observation blister behind the pilot, looking down at the ground saying, “Down, down, down ... up a bit ... O.K.,” and that was the procedure they adopted. They all tried it over Derwent Water using the same drill, and could fly within two feet of the prescribed height with wonderful consistency. Everyone got a tremendous kick out of it. That was a very major problem solved.’

On the night of the raid proper, Urquhart flew with Maudslay in Lancaster ‘Z-Zebra’, part of Gibson’s first wave and, the Mohne dam having been successfully breached, flew on with Gibson and four other Lancasters to attack the Eder. First in at 1.39 a.m. was Flight Lieutenant “Dave” Shannon, but on this occasion his approach over the water - at 60 feet - was not deemed satisfactory for his bomb aimer, and he climbed back out of the fog:

‘Shannon circled back and was about to try again when Gibson called Henry Maudslay to make his run, so Shannon hauled off. Maudslay came in and dropped the bomb, which appeared to have left the aircraft late. It was later thought that his Lancaster might have been hit on the way to the target area which could have caused the bomb release to have been damaged. Something was seen hanging underneath the aircraft by the light of the moon, but it was not identified for certain.

The bomb bounced but overshot the dam and struck the parapet. The bomb detonated instantaneously as the Lancaster flew over it. Muadslay spoke briefly on the R./T. but it sounded very weak. In the explosion the aircraft had been mortally hit and it headed away in the direction of Emmerich. Maudslay struggled with his crippled Lancaster for the next forty minutes. His wireless operator got off a radio message at 1.57 a.m., stating, ‘Goner, 28B, special weapon released, overshot dam, no apparent breach’. Shortly after 2.30 a.m. the Lancaster was nearing Emmerich.

The light anti-aircraft post at Emmerich had strict orders not to fire on hostile aircraft so as not to give away the town’s location. However, the aircraft, approaching from the south was recognised as British, flying low and on fire. One gun opened up on it and then the others joined in. The bomber was hit and went down, crashing three to five kilometres south-east of Emmerich at a place called Netterden. There were no survivors.’

Urquhart and his fellow crew members were originally buried by the Germans at Dusseldorf but in 1948 their remains were re-interred in the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery.