Orders, Decorations and Medals

Family group:

A particularly fine Second World War Blenheim pilot’s D.F.C. group of five awarded to Flight Lieutenant A. B. “Ben” Broadley, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who flew alongside Wing Commander H. I. “Hughie” Edwards in the daring and costly low-level daylight strike against Bremen on 4 July 1941, which resulted in the latter’s award of the V.C.: shortly afterwards, Broadley was brought down by flak over the Mediterranean, rescued by Italian launch, and incarcerated in Stulag Luft III - but not before having an escape attempt frustrated by armed guards while en route to Germany

Distinguished Flying Cross, G.VI.R., reverse officially dated ‘1941’, in its Royal Mint case of issue; 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; Africa Star; War Medal 1939-45, together with his original P.O.W’s metalled identity tag ‘2522 Stalag Luft 3’, extremely fine

Pair: Sergeant B. J. Broadley, Royal Air Force, son of the above

Campaign Service 1962, 2 clasps, South Arabia, Northern Ireland (N. 0594359 S.A.C., R.A.F.); Royal Air Force L.S. & G.C., E.II.R. (Sgt. (N. 0594359), R.A.F.), extremely fine (8) £3500-4000

D.F.C. London Gazette 8 August 1941. The original recommendation states:

‘One evening in July 1941, this officer participated in a raid against shipping at Rotterdam. The attack was carried out from mast height and Flight Lieutenant Broadley succeeded in obtaining direct hits on an 8,000-ton ship, apparently under construction and nearing completion, in one of the harbour docks. Flight Lieutenant Broadley has participated in 22 operational missions and throughout has displayed great skill and courage.’

Arthur Benjamin “Ben” Broadley, a native of Swanage, Dorset, who was born in August 1915 and enlisted in the R.A.F.V.R. in September 1939, commenced his operational career with No. 105 Squadron, a Blenheim unit operating out of Norfolk, in April 1941, completing around 18 sorties before posted with a detachment to Luqa, Malta in July of the same year. Most of these sorties were “fringe attacks” mounted by No. 2 Group against targets in Germany and the Low Countries, but one of them, against Bremen, on the 4 July, was particularly hazardous. The citation for the V.C. awarded to Wing Commander H. I. “Hughie” Edwards, Broadley’s C.O. on this occasion, takes up the story:

‘On 4 July 1941, he led an important attack on the Fort of Bremen, one of the most heavily defended towns in Germany. This attack had to be made in daylight and there were no clouds to afford concealment. During the approach to the German coast several enemy ships were sighted, and Wing Commander Edwards knew that his aircraft would be reported and that the defences would be in a state of readiness. Undaunted by this misfortune he brought his formation 50 miles overland to the target, flying at a height of a little more than 50 feet, passing through a formidable balloon barrage. On reaching Bremen he was met with a hail of fire, all his aircraft being hit [including Broadley’s] and four of them being destroyed. Nevertheless he made a most successful attack, and then with the greatest skill and coolness withdrew the surviving aircraft without further loss ... ’

A more detailed account of this famous raid appears in Theo Boiten’s Bristol Blenheim: ‘Edwards’ Squadron contributed nine crews, plus six crews from Wing Commander Lawrence V. E. Petley’s 107 Squadron, based at Great Massingham. On the long North Sea crossing, racing over the wave-tops at less than 50 feet to avoid radar detection, three aircraft turned back with technical problems. Despite the perfectly clear weather with not a cloud in sight in which to hide from fighters, the remaining four vics of three pressed on [Broadley’s aircraft among them], even after encountering enemy vessels on three separate occasions. By 08.05 hours, the loose formation, now in line-abreast, raced in over the outskirts of Bremen at about 50 feet. Within minutes, the crews had to plough their way through a lattice of crossfire, which was hosed up in an unbelievably intense curtain by 30 batteries of 20 and 37mm. flak from the section of the city which the Blenheims had penetrated. Exposed to a combined firepower of an estimated 62,400 rounds per minute, all the aircraft were repeatedly hit but none turned about. Avoiding collision with all kinds of hazards such as balloon cables, pylons, cranes, buildings and ships’ masts, the crews accurately dropped their bombs in the industrial area between the main railway station and the docks. Losses, however, were inevitable, and four aircraft were destroyed by the withering fire, two from each squadron which included Wing Commander Petley’s V6020.’

Later that month, Broadley and a detachment of 105 pilots arrived at Luqa, Malta, from which base, in the afternoon of 1 August, he led three Blenheims on a mission against enemy shipping off Lampedusa - they scored three hits on the ships but his own aircraft was badly damaged by flak and crashed into the sea. In company with his Air Gunner, Sergeant V. R. Marsh, he was picked-up by an Italian rescue launch, but his Observer, Pilot Officer A. S. Ramsay, died of wounds - Broadley’s post-war P.O.W’s debrief states that he sustained leg injuries and was treated at the military hospital at Palermo.

Next taken to Rome, where he was interrogated by ‘Capitano Marini, who chatted affably, and when told the limit of the information I could give him, did not press me’, he was transferred to Campo 41 at Montalbo in October 1941, and to Campo 5 at Gavi in June 1942. When the Germans arrived at the latter camp in September 1943, in order to move him and his fellow P.O.Ws, he made an attempt to escape from a cattle truck bound for the fatherland - but the attempt was ‘frustrated by guards firing from the next coach’. Accordingly incarcerated at Stulag Luft III, scene of the “Great Escape”, from November 1943 to January 1945, Broadley was latterly moved to Tarmstedt, and to Lubeck, at which latter place he was liberated that May.

He eventually settled at Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, where he died in November 1963, aged 48 years; sold with an original wartime portrait photograph, together with an extensive file of research.