A superb M.B.E., D.F.C. group of twelve awarded to Group Captain Jack Cottle, R.F.C. and R.A.F., a Camel Ace with 14 Victories in Italy and France, who later served in Afghanistan and with the R.A.F. Armoured Car Squadron in Iraq
The Order of the British Empire (Military) M.B.E., named on the reverse (F/O, R.A.F.); Distinguished Flying Cross, G.V.R., named on the reverse (Capt., R.F.C.); 1914-15 Star (Capt., R.A.F.) this renamed by the recipient; British War and Victory Medals (Capt., R.A.F.); India General Service 1908-35, 1 clasp, Afghanistan N.W.F. 1919 (Flt. Lieut., R.A.F.); General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Southern Desert, Iraq (F/L, R.A.F.); Defence and War Medals, named (G/C, R.A.F.); Coronation 1937; Egypt, Order of the Nile, 4th class breast badge, silver, gilt and enamels, by Lattes; Italy, Al Valore Militare, silver (Jack Cottle, Cielo Dell’Italia, Gennaio - Agosto 1918) generally good very fine and a rare group (12)

M.B.E. London Gazette 12 July, 1920, ‘Flying Officer, 48 Squadron, Afghanistan’.
D.F.C. London Gazette 2 November, 1918:
‘On the 20th of August this officer engaged a two-seater, which crashed. On the evening of the same date he shot down another two-seater, which fell within our lines. In all he has destroyed or shot down seven enemy machines. He is a determined leader of patrols, and conspicuous for devotion to duty.’
Al Valore Militare, Silver, London Gazette 2 November, 1918.
Order of the Nile London Gazette 25 September, 1936, ‘in recognition of valuable services rendered by him in the capacity of Second-in-Command of the Egyptian Army Air Force.’

Jack Cottle was born in Plymouth, Devon, on 19 June, 1892, but spent part of his early life in Zululand where he acquired a native name meaning ‘the man with the funny elbows’. In 1914 he enlisted in the South African Mounted Rifles and was mentioned in despatches during his subsequent thirty-four months’ service in German East Africa. Transferring to the Royal Flying Corps, he underwent 46 hours flying training, of which only three and a half were on Sopwith Camels, and was commissioned on 29 July, 1917. He joined No. 45 Squadron, a Camel unit, in France the day after it ceased operations on the Western Front, and accompanied it to Italy. Posted to ‘C’ Flight, under Captain John Frith, who christened him ‘Crabs’ on account of the red face he had acquired under the strong sun of Tanganyika, he flew his first operational sortie on 2 January, 1918, and made his first successful claim on 10 March when he shot down and destroyed a DFW C south east of Salagarada with 2/Lt. R. J. Dawes. On patrol with two other Camels on 18 May, Cottle attacked an Albatross D III and ‘showing great tenacity, hung on to the tail of the H.A., firing bursts at very short range. The H.A. burst into flames and finally broke into pieces in the air over PONCEGNO (W. of BORG)’. On the 30th of that month he was slightly wounded by machine gun fire from the ground while flying down the Val d’Assa.

On 5 July, he sent a Brandenberg two-seater down into a valley in the Forni - Casotta area, and despite patrolling the valley for a further ten minutes, did not see the H.A. again. The original Combat Report allows ‘one destroyed’, subsequently confirmed by the A.A. group in the valley. In the past this victory has not been recognised by modern historians, and it has been erroneously stated that he was only credited with a ‘driven down’. However, this error has now been acknowledged bringing, his overall score for the War to 14 victories.

On 12 July, he joined a fight between five hostile machines and several Italian machines and succeeded in destroying an LVG. Having been promoted to the command of ‘A’ Flight on 29 July, Cottle, in Camel D8237 ‘D’, claimed an Albatross destroyed on 31st, but this is now thought to have been a Phonix DI, a very similar type to the Albatross, flown by Feldwebel J. Acs of Flik 60j. Post-war publications maintained that Cottle’s victim was Acs’ patrol leader and commanding officer, the 27-victory Ace Oberleutnant Frank Linke-Crawford (‘The Falcon of Feltre’) who died the same day in a Berg DI Scout, crashing at Guia on the Piave. But a lengthy debate thrashed out in the pages of the Cross and Cockade journal now suggests that Linke-Crawford’s Berg crashed as the result of wing failure, and although an allied pilot is believed to have delivered the coup de grace, the victory can no longer be ascribed to Cottle, or to another named contender for the honour, the Canadian Ace, Major William G. Barker, V.C., nor indeed to the Italian Hanriot pilots Sergeant Ciampitti and Corporal Astofi of the 81st Fighter Squadron. However, among the many facts thrown up during the course of the debate to determine the identity of Linke-Crawford’s victor, it is suggested that some Italians had a somewhat embittered view of their British allies. Quite understandably, one particular Italian officer, a Colonel, had good reason to be suspicious of Cottle who, in a near disastrous case of mistaken identity, on an unrelated occasion, attacked his machine and shot him through the legs. An embarrassed Cottle was duly despatched to the hospital to apologize in person to the Colonel.

Cottle became an Ace on 5 August when he sent an H.A. spinning into the side of a hill in the Val di Seren. Two H.A.’s fell to his guns on two separate patrols on the 20th, and for the destruction of these and his five earlier victories he was awarded the D.F.C. On the morning of 31 August, Cottle led Lieutenants M.R. James and R.G.H. Davies on a WOP (Western Offensive Patrol) and fought 45 Squadron’s last combat in Italy. In the locality of Mount Campomolon at 9:35 am they saw six H.A. flying south in bad formation five hundred feet above at 17,500 feet. Cottle led his patrol up 500 feet into the sun and gained height unseen. Singling out an H.A. each, they attacked the right flank of the hostile formation and it split up. Norman Macmillan takes up the story in his account of 45 Squadron in Italy Offensive Patrol. ‘Cottle fired a well aimed deflection burst at close range; the E.A. turned over on its back and dived vertically towards the hill near Peralto, but was unable to see it crash because of the other E.A. around him. He then attacked another E.A. and from behind its tail put a burst of fire into it at very close range. It dived vertically, fell into the Freddo Valley near Arsiero, and was believed crashed. Cottle then attacked a third E.A. nose on, outmanœuvred it, and from behind it fired several long bursts at close range and followed it down to 7,000 feet. That this E.A. fell out of control and crashed near Posina, was confirmed by James who also fired several bursts into it.’ Thus within ten minutes Cottle increased his tally by three victories, all Abatri D III’s from the 3rd Austrian Pursuit Company. Continuing on patrol, the three pilots saw A.A. fire on the British side of the lines, and flying towards it, Cottle spotted an enemy two-seater. He dived immediately at it with his engine at full throttle leaving Davis and James far behind. When within about two hundred yards of the H.A., he opened fire. The enemy observer did not reply and the two-seater was seen to go down out of control into the Val Sugana.

Contrary to the view of a fellow pilot, 2/Lt. ‘Voss’ Williams, who labelled Cottle a ruthless ‘killer’ who would ‘have been happy to kill on either side’, he had considerable sympathy for his victims. On Cottle’s return to Grossa airfield, he was sent off to obtain information regarding the downed aircraft. At Ponte Strenta he saw the remains of his second victory that morning, the Abatross flown by Oberleutnant Purer whom he was informed had been killed. He was then taken by his Italian guides to inspect three more wrecks at Posina, Brustole near Arsiero, and Roccolo-Bagathini, one of which was credited to Cottle and the other two to James. Only the pilot of the crashed machine at Posina, had survived, and the Italians asked Cottle if he wished to see the dead bodies to which he replied “No”. Whereupon they produced the identity cards of the dead. Macmillan continues ... ‘Cottle said the first one bore a photograph of a young fellow who looked exactly like his favourite cousin who had been killed in the Tank Corps on the Somme. “That finished me and I asked for short local leave [Cottle later confessed] and went to Portofino, near Genoa.’ He was awarded the Al Valore Militare for his many combats in the ‘Sky of Italy’, the decoration being handed on to him via the Wing Adjutant at the Villa Veralla, since he was informed while on leave that the Squadron was returning to France as the sole fighter unit in Boom Trenchard’s Independent Air Force. Back on the Western Front on 3 November, 1918, he accounted for his penultimate victory, a Fokker DVII, over Herbeville, and two days later was responsible for sending down a Rumpler C, ‘absolutely out of control in a series of spins and stalls’, having fired 900 rounds.

After the War, Cottle was granted a permanent commission in the R.A.F., and in 1919 was posted to 48 Squadron (Bristol Fighters) based in Baluchistan. He served in the Third Afghan War and in July 1920 was made an M.B.E. On the 14th of the following month, however, he was involved in a flying accident, and was severely injured with concussion. In 1923, he joined No. 8 Squadron (D.H. 9a’s) in Iraq and took part in operations against Arab tribesmen and the Kurds. Soon after joining this unit, he was involved in the rescue of Pilot Officer Neville Vintcent and the famous fighter pilot, ‘Taffy’ Jones D.S.O., M.C., D.F.C., M.M., who was acting as his observer, after they ran out of fuel returning from a raid against rebel Arabs. In response to Very Lights, Cottle landed beside them in a D.H. 9 as did a Snipe piloted by Flt/Lt. F. L. Luxmore. There was, however, only room for one extra man on Cottle’s D.H.9, and therefore Vintcent and Jones elected to stay with their machine while Cottle went to fetch some petrol. As soon as Cottle and Luxmore left, hostile tribesmen appeared on all sides and started to encroach on the stranded aircraft. During Cottle’s absence, Jones kept the Arabs at bay with the aircraft’s Lewis gun, and when any threatened attack developed in a direction ‘blind’ to Jones, Vintcent coolly got his shoulders under the aircraft’s rear fuselage and heaved it round in the appropriate direction. After about an hour Cottle returned and strafed the tribesmen just as the last of the Lewis ammunition ran out and at length a successful rescue was effected. Vintcent was awarded the D.F.C. for his part in this affair and thus became the first Cranwell graduate to receive the decoration.

In 1926, Cottle served with the R.A.F.’s No. 4 Armoured Car Company at Hinaidi in Iraq, and in 1928 took part in the ‘Southern Desert, Iraq’ operations. After a course at the Armament and Gunnery School at Sheerness, he returned to the Middle East to join No. 2 A.C. Company stationed in Transjordan. In 1932, Cottle was seconded to the Egyptian Army Air Force, and rose to become the E.A.A.F.’s Second-in-Command, receiving the Order of the Nile in 1936. Returning to the R.A.F., he was promoted Group Captain in 1940 and served during the Second World War as a station commander. He retired in 1942, but was re-employed until 1944, prior to retiring to India where he died on 15 August, 1967.

The lot is sold with a comprehensive file of research which includes all of his combat reports.