Four: Flying Officer R. D. Drife, Royal Air Force, who piloted Stirlings on S.O.E. supply and glider-towing missions, including Operation “Varsity”

1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, together with embroidered R.A.F. “Wings” and officer’s cap badge, the whole contained within a glazed display frame with portrait photograph, extremely fine (6)
£300-350

Robert “Bob” Drife, who was born in April 1916, enlisted in the Royal Air Force in London in November 1941 and commenced pilot training in July 1942. Shortly afterwards embarked for Canada, he returned to the U.K. in late 1943, but did not go operational until being appointed to No. 570 Squadron at Harwell in September 1944, a Stirling unit employed on glider-towing duties. He had, however, flown a Stirling of No. 620 Squadron to Chateauroux on an S.O.E. operation on the night of 16-17 September 1944, while mustered at a Heavy Conversion Unit, and it is probable that his first outing with 570 Squadron to Holland on the night of the 19-20 October was of a similar nature.

It was in the same month that Drife and his fellow aircrew moved to Rivenhall and commenced training for glider-towing operations, although he flew regular bombing sorties on the nights of 23-24 December, and 3-4 and 26-27 February 1945, the latter against German targets at Grevenbroich and Xanten - he had, meanwhile, been commissioned as a Pilot Officer.

Yet his most memorable sortie was yet to come - namely Operation “Varsity” - the Allied airborne crossing of the Rhine on 24 March 1945, for over the previous month, and in common with other Stirling units of 38 Group, 570 Squadron had been carrying out frequent glider-towing exercises over eastern England (e.g. Exercises “Riff Raff” and “Pig Skin”), the local population being treated to the impressive lines of the heavy bombers towing their Horsas. And by mid-March, everything was in place, 38 Group being charged with the transportation of 6th Airborne Division. And so arrived the morning of the 24th, Drife and his fellow 570 aircrew towing Horsas with some 275 troops, the majority being released accurately over their Landing Zones amidst much smoke, small arms fire and flak - the latter was to account for around 50 of the participating British and American powered aircraft and considerably more Horsas and Hamilcars. But the largest ever airborne operation had achieved its objective and the way into Germany lay open for the Allies.

For Drife, however, one or two more important operations remained, including a special mission to north-east of Bergen on 2 April 1945, a supply drop to the Norwegian Resistance as part of an ongoing S.O.E. initiative and, on 11 and 13 May, two outings in support of Operation “Doomsday”, the airlifting of 6th Airborne Division to Gardemoen, Norway. Remaining employed on P.O.W. repatriation flights with 570 Squadron, Drife transferred to 1589 Flight In October 1945, in which capacity he served until April 1946, latterly in the Mediterranean. Post-war, he settled as a farmer in Crawfordjohn, South Lanarkshire, where he died in November 1992.

Sold with the recipient’s original Flying Log Book, covering the period July 1942 to April 1946, and a quantity of wartime photographs, including his Stirling crew.