UNIQUE SECOND WAR ‘CHANNEL DASH’ MEDALS TO BE OFFERED AT NOONANS

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The unique ‘Channel Dash’ Conspicuous Gallantry Medal group of six awarded to 20-year-old Chief Petty Officer (Air) Donald Arthur ‘Don’ Bunce, who was a Telegraphist Air Gunner in 825 Naval Air Squadron in the Fleet Air Arm is to be offered at Noonans Mayfair in a sale of Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria on Wednesday, January 15, 2025. It is estimated to fetch between £80,000-100,000 and is being sold by the estate of a private collector.

Christopher Mellor-Hill, Head of Client Liaison at Noonans, said: “Already a veteran of the celebrated Swordfish attack against the German flagship, the Bismarck, in May 1941, it was in the English Channel in February 1942, he was awarded his CGM when the German ships made their bid for freedom - in what became known as the Channel Dash. Having rendezvoused his small flight of Swordfish with just 10 Spitfires of 72 Squadron over Ramsgate – not the intended escort of five whole squadrons – the force’s leader, Lieutenant-Commander Eugene Esmonde, dived, in an almost kamikaze attack to just 40 feet over the Channel and set off in pursuit. Less than 20 minutes later, his entire flight had been shot down, with just five of the 18 aircrew surviving the ordeal with Esmonde awarded well-deserved posthumous Victoria Cross.”

“In my opinion,” wrote Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, Flag Officer Dover, “the gallant sortie of these six Swordfish constitutes one of the finest exhibitions of self-sacrifice and devotion to duty that the war had yet witnessed.”

Donald Arthur Bunce was born in Oxford on 27 May 1921 and joined the Fleet Air Arm as a Naval Airman Second Class in January 1940, when he commenced training as a Telegraphist Air Gunner (T.A.G.). He was first posted to 825 Naval Air Squadron (N.A.S.) at Campbeltown in mid-April 1941, he and the squadron were embarked in the aircraft carrier H.M.S. Victorious a month later, shortly before the famous pursuit of the Bismarck.

In early 1942, and having re-mustered at Lee-on-Solent, 828 N.A.S. was ordered to R.A.F. Manston, as part of Operation ‘Fuller’, the much-flawed plan to counter the anticipated breakout of enemy capital ships from Brest, namely the battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. When indeed the German ships made their bid for freedom - in what became known as the Channel Dash - the response mounted by air and sea proved entirely inadequate. Apart from anything else, the breakout was daringly enacted in daylight, whereas ‘Fuller’ had been planned around a nocturnal breakout. Moreover, the Germans had assembled a formidable defensive screen, the three capital ships being covered by six destroyers and 34 E-boats, in addition to a mass of Me 109s and Fw 190s.

Bunce spent the remainder of the war on instructional duties in various squadrons and establishments, latterly in the rank of Chief Petty Officer (Air). He died in September 2008.

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