A rare Second World War D.S.M. awarded to Leading Airman F. R. R. Lowe, Fleet Air Arm, who was killed in the Western Desert in July 1942

Distinguished Service Medal, G.VI.R. (FX. 79410 F. R. R. Lowe, L. Airmn.), number and initials officially corrected, otherwise extremely fine £3000-3500

D.S.M. London Gazette 11 June 1942.

Frederick Ronald Rhodes Lowe, a native of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, attended No. 11B Telegraphist Air Gunners’ Course at Worthy Down between August 1939 and January 1940, following which he joined No. 826 Squadron, Fleet Air Arm, and would quickly have seen action in the Dunkirk operations, when the Squadron’s Albacores operated out of Detling. So, too, over the coming months, operating out of Bircham Newton under R.A.F. Coastal Command. In fact, between June and November 1940, 826 carried out 22 night attacks against coastal targets in Belgium, France and Holland, dropping seven tons of mines and 56 tons of bombs, in addition to escorting 92 convoys. And it was on one of these bombing missions, against invasion barges off Calais, on 11 September 1940, in Albacore L-7097, that Lowe fought off an attack by 109s - nonetheless, his pilot, Sub. Lieutenant A. H. Blacow was injured and their aircraft severely damaged.

Embarked for the Mediterranean in H.M.S. Formidable in November 1940, 826’s aircrew remained actively employed in shipborne operations in that theatre of war until coming ashore in the summer of 1941, a period encompassing anti-submarine patrols and bombardment spotting, in addition to a torpedo attack in the Battle of Matapan at the end of March, and a bombing raid on Scarpanto airfield during the evacuation of Crete in May. Once ashore, initially based in the Eastern Mediterranean, but later in the Western Desert, operations continued apace, successful flare-illumination co-operation work with the 7th Cruiser Squadron leading to 826 carrying out similar duties for the Army and the Desert Air Force, more often than not on the El Alamein front - in the four months leading up to that famous battle, 826 dropped 12,000 flares, in addition to carrying out regular bombing strikes against enemy troops and shipping. The Squadron’s war diary also refers to the occasional “special mission”, such as that flown by nine Albacores on the night of 9-10 July, a mission 250 miles behind enemy lines to salt flats south of Sidi Barrani, where, refuelled by Bombay transport aircraft, they went on to deliver an attack on an enemy convoy approaching Tobruk.

Sadly, on the night of 23-24 July 1942, operating out of Grebe, the Naval Air Station at Dekheila, near Alexandria, in Albacore X-9256, Lowe was killed in action in a strike against landing grounds at Daba, so, too, his fellow crew, Sub. Lieutenants J. D. Nunnerley and M. G. A. Whittle. Aged 21 years, Lowe was buried in El Alamein War Cemetery.