Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria including the collection to Naval Artificers formed by JH Deacon

Four: Flying Officer G. K. Hathersich, Royal Air Force, a pilot who completed 32 sorties, including three 1000 Bomber Raids, many of them on the much maligned Manchester Bomber

1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; Defence and War Medals, good very fine (4) £400-500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Fine Collection of Awards to the Men of Bomber Command 1939-45.

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Flying Officer G. K. Hathersich commenced pilot training in June 1939 and had amassed over 400 hours flying time prior to leaving No. 14 Operational Training Unit to join No. 207 Squadron, some of them with Flying Officer John Nettleton as his pilot, afterwards the recipient of a V.C. No. 207 was a Manchester unit based at Waddington, and as a 2nd Pilot Hathersich flew his first sortie against Hamburg on the night of 6-7 May 1941, Berlin being visited twice, and Lorient once, before the end of that month.

Between then and late August, however, just one mission was flown, to Dusseldorf, but at the end of the latter month 207’s agenda picked up, Duisburg and Cologne being hit in quick succession. September saw a further sortie being flown against Brest and a minelaying trip to Swinemunde, and October strikes on Cologne, Essen and Frankfurt, and another minelaying mission to Kiel.

Then on the night of 5-6 November, Hathersich completed his first sortie as Captain of Aircraft, against a target in Cherbourg, a role which he would continue to fulfil in subsequent strikes on Dusseldorf, Dunkirk and Ostend before the year’s end. January 1942 witnessed his return to the operational scene with a sortie against Hamburg and three attacks on Brest, the last of these, flown on the 31st, ending with flak damage to his Manchester’s front turret, mid-fin throttle box and bomb doors. But worse was to follow on the night of 8-9 March, after two trips to Mannheim, when Hathersich’s aircraft was hit by flak over Essen and a fire started. Luckily, his Wireless Operator, Sergeant J. Everett, succeeded in putting out the flames with his hands, winning in the process an immediate D.F.M.

Converting to Lancasters towards the end of March, 207 and Captain of Aircraft Hathersich went back into action with a raid on Rostock in late April, and in May participated in the first 1000 Bomber Raid on Cologne, in addition to a sortie to Stuttgart and two “Gardening” trips to Denmark. So, too, in the 1000 Bomber Raid on Essen on the night of 1-2 June, when his Lancaster returned on three engines, and again on Bremen on the night of 25th-26th, the last sortie of his first tour.

Hathersich subsequently served at a conversion unit and No. 14 Operational Training Unit, notching up several hundred hours on Wellingtons, until September 1945, when he was posted to No. 242 Squadron of Transport Command, a Stirling unit. His final posting appears to have been with No. 46 Squadron in early 1946, although in the early 1950s he flew on occasion in Hastings and Hawk aircraft.

Sold with the recipient’s original Flying Log Books (2), covering the periods June 1939 to October 1942, and October 1942 to February 1954, the whole privately bound in a gilt-titled leather volume; a fine series of wartime photographs; a copy of Avro Manchester, The Legend Behind The Lancaster, by Robert Kirby; and a limited edition print (137/500) by Keith Woodcock, Avro Manchesters of 207 Squadron.