Orders, Decorations and Medals

Sold by Order of the Direct Descendants of the late Wing Commander N. P. Simmons, D.S.O., D.F.M.

The exceptional and well-documented Second World War D.S.O., D.F.M. group of ten awarded to Wing Commander N. P. Simmons, Royal Air Force, one of just 20 men to be awarded this combination of decorations in the last war - having won his D.F.M. for deeds that included ‘literally filling his gun sight’ with the mighty Scharnhorst, and scoring ‘four or five direct hits’, he won an immediate D.S.O. for similar low-level daring in an attack against Panzers in France in June 1944, this time failing to mention the fact that he had been wounded until his badly damaged Halifax had returned to base: twice interviewed by the B.B.C., and twice mentioned in despatches, he added the Chinese Order of the Cloud and Banner to his accolades in 1947

Distinguished Service Order, G.VI.R., 1st issue, silver-gilt and enamels, the reverse of the suspension bar officially dated ‘1944’; Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R. (580676 Sgt. N. P. Simmons, R.A.F.); 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star, clasp, France and Germany; Burma Star; Defence and War Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf; General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Malaya, E.II.R. (Sqn. Ldr. N. P. Simmons, R.A.F.), in its card box of issue; Coronation 1953; China, Order of the Cloud and Banner, breast badge, silver-gilt and enamels, the reverse officially stamped and numbered ‘3243’, with rosette on riband, mounted court-style as worn (excepting the General Service Medal), the first and last slightly chipped in places, generally good very fine and undoubtedly a unique combination of awards (10) £8000-10000

D.S.O. London Gazette 19 September 1944. The original recommendation states:

‘On 30 June 1944, Squadron Leader Simmons was flying as Air Bomber and Captain of an aircraft detailed for a daylight attack on Panzer divisions at Villers-Bocage. The final order before take-off was that the destruction of this target must be brought about at all costs. Before reaching the target area, there was a small amount of cloud, which Squadron Leader Simmons appreciated might interfere with the accuracy of the bombing, but inspite of the risk of severe flak opposition from a tenaciously held position, and the chance of the bombs from aircraft above him, Squadron Leader Simmons descended from 16,000 feet to 4,000 feet to bomb below the cloud.

As was expected opposition was considerable and just after the bombing run had been completed, the aircraft was hit by flak and the Navigator wounded. Squadron Leader Simmons took him aft to the rest position, and was dressing his wounds, when another burst of flak hit the aircraft wounding Squadron Leader Simmons and the Wireless Operator.

Squadron Leader Simmons finished dressing the Navigator’s wounds and returned to the navigation compartment, the nose of which had been blown off, to try to carry on with the Navigator’s work. All instruments however were unserviceable and so Squadron Leader Simmons returned to the cockpit, and assisted the pilot to make a successful landing at Ford. At no time from the moment he was hit until the aircraft had landed did Squadron Leader Simmons give any indication that he was wounded.

His devotion to duty in descending below cloud in spite of considerable risk, in order to bomb a vital target, and his subsequent gallantry in spite of considerable pain and discomfort, is a splendid example to all.

Since being awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal on 12 August 1940, Squadron Leader Simmons has completed 18 sorties with a total of 92 hours operational flying. He has attacked some of Germany’s most heavily defended targets with complete success. As a Bomb Aimer he is outstanding, and although as a Flight Commander he has no crew, he makes a point of operating with the newest pilots in the Flight.

On occasions, he has acted as Squadron Commander with outstanding ability and has proved himself not only a splendid administrator but an inspiring operational personality and leader, anxious at all times to operate and to press on against the enemy.

Since joining the Royal Air Force, this officer has showed a fine fighting spirit and the keenness with which he sets out to attack the enemy is well known.

I most strongly recommend him for the immediate award of the Distinguished Service Order.’

D.F.M. London Gazette 13 September 1940. The original recommendation states:

‘This Air Observer has been actively engaged on operations since, and including, the first leaflet raid on the night of 3 September 1939. His crew were specially mentioned in Command Routine Orders as a result of a particularly good reconnaissance and leaflet dropping flight they carried out later in September 1939, and again after the first raid on the Scharnhorst in a Kiel dock.

Sergeant Simmons, at Boscombe Down, was Navigator and Air Observer on 13 convoy escort sorties, totalling 79 hours, 20 minutes. Since his return from that area, he has been Navigator, Air Observer and Bomb Aimer on 24 bombing raids over enemy territory, totalling 161 hours, 40 minutes. This N.C.O. has always set a magnificent example to his fellow Observers in the Squadron, by his fine work, his inimitable enthusiasm and his thorough determination to see any task completed with all possible accuracy.

During the first raid on the Scharnhorst in a Kiel dry dock, Sergeant Simmons held his bombing until the ship literally “filled his bomb sight” and then let ship and dock have it for all he was worth. Five direct hits were easily distinguishable from photographs taken some few hours after this raid. The latest effort of Sergeant Simmons is merely typical of the man and the work he invariably does.’

Early career

Nicholas Palmer Simmons was born at Bratton Clovelly, Devon in October 1916 and was educated at Callington County School, Cornwall, where he was captain of the cricket and soccer XIs. In 1935 he enlisted in the Life Guards, with whom he qualified as a gunner and signaller, in addition to representing the regiment at cricket and rugby, but in 1937, he purchased his discharge in favour of joining the mounted branch of Exeter City Police (a decision possibly hastened by the hair-raising occasion on which his horse bolted down Pall Mall). Back in the West Country, he gained further accolades in rugby for both the police and Exeter City, and but for the advent of hostilities, he may well have been selected to represent his country. It was also during this period that he became interested in aviation through the Civil Air Guard, and in early 1939, after again growing disillusioned with his chosen career, he elected to join the Royal Air Force as a direct entry Air Observer (a decision also influenced by the fact he had recently paid the fine of a beggar he had arrested, in order to save him from jail).

No. 58 Squadron: September 1939 to July 1940

In September 1939, having completed his training at Desford and Yatesbury, Simmons, now a Sergeant, was posted to No. 58 Squadron, a Whitley unit operating out of Linton-on-Ouse, and flew his first mission as a Navigator and Bomb Aimer to the Ruhr on the 3rd - this was also the first occasion on which R.A.F. aircraft penetrated into Germany. Later that month, on the 28th, he returned to the Ruhr, his flying log book noting that his pilot had to make a forced landing at Barton Stacey on their return - ‘Mentioned in Bomber Command Orders’. Thereafter, commencing on 10 October (his birthday), and ending on 16 January 1940, he completed 13 Anti-Submarine Patrol and Convoy Escort sorties out of Boscombe Down, following which he attended the School of Navigation at St. Athan on an Advanced Observer’s Course in Astro-Navigation. Duly qualified, he returned to No. 58 Squadron (now back at Linton-on-Ouse), and flew a search mission over the North Sea on 12 April 1940 before being assigned to more regular bombing strikes, and by late July he had completed in excess of 20 such sorties, including attacks against heavily defended targets like Bremen and Dusseldorf. Yet, as outlined in the recommendation for his D.F.M., which was submitted in August 1940, Simmons’ most memorable mission was probably the attack against the battle-cruiser Scharnhorst in a dry-dock at Kiel in July, on which occasion he ‘held his bombing until the ship literally “filled his bomb sight” and then let ship and dock have it for all he was worth’: five direct hits were confirmed by photographic reconnaissance a few hours later and he was swiftly ordered to London to be interviewed by the B.B.C.

The following summary of his time with No. 58 Squadron appeared in the Montreal Daily Star in March 1941 (“Pilot Wants Another Chance to Bomb Nazi Sea Raider”):

‘The German cruiser Scharnhorst is out raiding again and there is a young R.A.F. pilot officer in Montreal today who is itching for a chance to get back at the old enemy. The officer [Simmons], who refused to allow his name to be used, bombed the Scharnhorst when she was in floating dry-dock at Kiel last July, put her anti-aircraft guns out of commission and earned the Distinguished Flying Medal. Among his souvenirs he carries a letter of congratulation from Sir Cyril Newall, his chief at the time.

The officer, who at the time of his exploit was a Sergeant Observer and Navigator, started out with his squadron on the night of 1 July to bomb Kiel.

“We circled around,” he said, “and flew in low to bomb our objective. The cruiser in dry-dock was plainly visible from our low altitude and we picked it out for attack. Our plane was the second over the target and we met a terrific anti-aircraft barrage from the ship. I saw our bombs make four or five direct hits. We must have put the guns out of action, as the planes following reported no anti-aircraft fire.”

“Photographs later showed that the vessel was badly damaged. Kiel is heavily fortified, however, and we didn’t escape unscathed. Our radio was knocked out of commission and one of the rudder fins was almost gone, but we managed to get back to our airfield.”

The officer had taken part in 42 sorties against the enemy and in seven his plane limped back home crippled but still flying. On one occasion an anti-aircraft shell exploded within the fuselage of his plane but none of the crew was injured [most probably the occasion his pilot made a forced landing at Barton Stacey on 28 September 1939].

He took part in one of the first raids of the war and on the Sunday that war was declared flew over Germany, dropping pamphlets. “On the pamphlets we wrote, ‘This might have been a bomb.’ Later we wrote on the bombs, ‘This might have been a pamphlet,’ ” he explained.

Searchlights are the bugbear of the night bombers and if a low-flying plane is caught in the beam, it is very hard for it to get away as there is not sufficient altitude for a swift dive, he said. On one occasion his plane went 40 miles in the glare of searchlights and barrage, “and it seemed a lot more.” ’

Simmons’ time in No. 58 Squadron was also recorded for posterity in an evocative painting by Sir William Rothenstein, a picture now in the collection of the Royal Air Force Museum at Hendon, but currently on loan to Whitehall - the canvas depicts five members of aircrew in their flying kit, including Simmons, on the eve of departure for another operational sortie.

Record Trans-Atlantic Flight

In August 1940, he joined No. 97 Squadron, then assigned to duties as No. 10 Operational Training Unit (O.T.U.), in which capacity he remained employed until being embarked for Canada at the end of the year, in order to take up an appointment at the School of Air Navigation at Port Albert in Huron County as a recently commissioned Pilot Officer. But in February 1941, he was assigned to the Ministry of Air Production’s (M.A.P) Trans-Atlantic Air Ferrying Service, in which capacity he served as Navigator in a Liberator on a record coast to coast crossing of 7 hours, 17 minutes, on 9 April - which achievement witnessed him making another B.B.C. broadcast.

Remaining in the U.K. at M.A.P.’s operating department, he was posted to No. 22 O.T.U. as Station Navigation Officer in August 1941, and remained similarly employed until March 1943, other than attending a course at Upper Heyford in October 1942 - ‘Qualified as Ground and Air Instructor’. Throughout this period he flew mainly in Wellingtons, and invented the “Simmons Astro-Scope”, a training device using the Astro-Compass to adjust the master unit of Gyro Compasses, in addition to suggesting the introduction of a 2nd Navigator’s table, an idea which was afterwards added to Varsity aircraft as well - he was twice mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 11 June 1942 and 1 January 1943 refer).

Then in April 1943, and having also gained his Air Navigator’s Certificate First Class, he returned briefly to the operational scene as a Squadron Leader and Chief Navigation Officer in No. 83 Squadron, a Lancaster Pathfinder unit based at Wyton, with whom he flew as Bomb Aimer in a raid on La Spezia on the 18th, but in the following month he was ordered to attend the R.A.F. Staff College at Gerrards Cross.

No. 51 Squadron: December 1943 to September 1944

Finally, in December, Simmons joined No. 51 Squadron, a Halifax unit based at Snaith, and was quickly back in action with a trip to Berlin on the 29th - this time flying as Bomb Aimer and Captain of Aircraft. Leipzig, Stuttgart and Frankfurt followed in quick succession in the New Year, while No. 51 concentrated on assorted French targets in the lead-up to the Normandy landings in April-June, including a strike against the gun batteries at Mont Fleury on the night of the invasion itself and against railway communications at Chateaudun on D-Day proper, Simmons now sometimes flying as acting C.O. A daylight raid on the V.1 rocket site at Marquise on 27 June was typical of the targets assigned No. 51 post-D-Day, but his next mission was of a very different nature indeed - namely the daylight strike against Panzers (and a vital crossroads) at Villiers Bocage on the 30th, his orders to destroy the target ‘at all costs’ leaving no doubt in anyone’s mind of the importance of the mission ahead. And it was typical of Simmons that he should elect to bring his Halifax down to 4,000 feet, amidst significant opposition, to achieve that aim. Typical, too, that he made no mention of his wounds until aircraft and crew had safely completed an emergency landing at Ford. He was awarded an immediate D.S.O., and by now had amassed 340 hours operational flying, and 54 sorties.

Such was the nature of his wounds that Simmons did not fly for a month, and even then on a local run in an Oxford, but on 17 September he returned to the fray in his final wartime operation, another daylight strike against ‘static defences’ at Boulogne. He was then taken-off operational flying duties and appointed O.C. Bomber Command Advanced Landing Airfield at Juvincourt, France, where he remained employed until February 1945.

Air Staff Officer to the Prime Minister’s Personal Representative in China 1945-47

In May 1945, Simmons was appointed Assistant Air Attache at Chungking in the rank of Wing Commander, where he joined the Staff of Lieutenant-General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart, the one-eyed, one-armed V.C. holder, and he remained employed in China until November 1947, latterly at the British Embassy established at Nanking, a period that witnessed him navigating numerous flights in Dakotas, often with the General, in addition to other V.I.Ps, as passengers. Added to which, he assisted the Chinese Nationalist Air Force at their Flying Training School at Lahore and, on their return to China, at Hangchow, and served for two months on attachment to their Transport Command in the N.W. Provinces (Sinkiang-Kansu and Inner Mongolia). He was awarded the ‘Order of the Cloud and Banner, with rosette’.

Back in the U.K., he became Navigation Officer at H.Q. 47 Group, Transport Command, flying in Yorks, which appointment led to him carrying out long-range trunk route checks overseas, including flights to Singapore and the Far East, and in 1948-49, as a Wing Commander Flying Operations, he served in the Berlin Airlift at Schleswigland. A brief posting to H.Q. Fighter Command followed in March 1950, immediately after which he was appointed Air Attache at Saigon, at the height of the French war against Communists in Indochina, a period that involved numerous flights in Dakotas and Valettas, right through until September 1953, some of them of a photographic reconnaissance nature.

Simmons became Station Commander of R.A.F. Kenley in March 1954, and, in November 1956, Training Wing Adjutant at R.A.F. Gaydon, where one of his final flights was in a Canberra in the summer of 1957. He was placed on the Retired List later that year. A Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society, and a Member of the Institute of Navigation, the Wing Commander joined a Liverpool company specialising in experimental photography work, but moved south to Amersham in the early 1960s, where he stood as a candidate in the Local District Council Elections. His civilian career also included employment in the publishing world, the British Institute of Management and work for the blind and disabled, in addition to service as an Assistant Controller (Operations) in the Civil Defence.

In the 1970s, he was approached by the author David de Boinod, as a result of which emerged a completed manuscript for Night Bomber, a hitherto unpublished novel based on Simmons’ time in No. 58 Squadron 1939-40 - a copy of the manuscript is still in possession of the Wing Commander’s family. He died in December 1992, having latterly pursued his passion for painting with some success.

The lot is sold with a quantity of original documentation, including the recipient’s Flying Log Books (2), covering the periods February 1939 to December 1948, and August 1949 to August 1957, the former including inserted 1st & 2nd Class Navigator’s Certificates, dated 5 December 1942 and 14 February 1943, and “Bomber” Harris postagram for his immediate D.S.O., dated 5 August 1944; his mention in despatches certificates (2), dated 11 June 1942, in the rank of Acting Flight Lieutenant, and 1 January 1943, in the rank of Squadron Leader; and his official Air Ministry letter of retirement, dated 26 September 1957; together with a fine selection of career photographs (approximately 20), from images of his time as a policeman and soldier through to the post-war era, but largely relevant to his days in Bomber Command, with some excellent 58 and 51 Squadron scenes, including aircrew and aircraft, among them a picture of him and his crew in front of their Whitley on the eve of departing for an operational sortie, an image upon which Sir William Rothenstein based his painting; and a CD recording of his interview with the B.B.C. regarding the above mentioned record trans-Atlantic flight.