Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A rare Second World War D.F.M. group of seven awarded to Flying Officer I. A. Blaikie, Royal New Zealand Air Force, who completed a tour of operations in Wellingtons in the Middle East before joining No. 161 (Special Duties) Squadron in January 1944, with whom he flew another 26 sorties prior to being killed in action on clandestine operation “Bob 106” on the night of 5-6 August

Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R. (N.Z. 405365 Sgt. I. A. Blaikie, R.N.Z.A.F.); 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star, clasp, France and Germany; Africa Star, clasp, 8th Army; Defence and War Medals; New Zealand War Service Medal 1939-45, extremely fine (7) £3000-3500

A little over 180 Distinguished Flying Medals were awarded to the R.N.Z.A.F. in the 1939-45 War.

D.F.M. London Gazette 12 March 1943. The original recommendations states:

‘During the last six months, Sergeant Blaikie has flown on operations with coolness and courage. It is largely owing to his skilful navigation and bomb aiming that many successes have been achieved.’

Ian Armstrong Blaikie was born in Christchurch, New Zealand in July 1918, and joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force at Palmerston North in January 1940. Embarked for Canada in February 1941, he trained as a Navigator and was awarded his Air Observer’s badge that July, in which month he was also advanced to Sergeant. Next embarked for the U.K., he attended No. 11 Operational Training Unit, was advanced to Flight Sergeant in February 1942, and was posted to the Middle East.

Joining No. 105 Squadron, a Wellington unit, he commenced his first operational tour, completing 45 sorties, initially from landing grounds in the Western Desert, major targets including Tobruk, in addition to enemy transport, gun positions and airfields in support of the 8th Army. While from December 1942, operating out of Luqa, Malta at the height of the siege, 104 Squadron attacked such targets as Catania, Garbini and Comiso in Sicily, in addition to further targets in Italy and Sardinia. And it was costly work, the period 1940-42 witnessing Squadron losses of over a hundred aircraft, with 206 members of aircrew being killed or taken prisoner. Blaikie was recommended for the D.F.M. and returned to the U.K. in January 1943, where he took up instructional duties and was commissioned as Pilot Officer that May.

161 (Special Duties) Squadron

In February 1944, having been advanced to Flying Officer, Blaikie commenced a second tour of duty, when he joined No. 161 Squadron at Tempsford, Bedfordshire, a “Special Duties” unit charged with dropping agents and supplies into Occupied Europe in support of S.O.E. and S.I.S. circuits - his first such mission being flown in one of the Squadron’s Halifaxes, under Flight Lieutenant Parker, on the night of the 4th-5th, but with no lights being seen from the relevant reception committees, pilot and crew returned to base.

A few nights later, on the 8th-9th, in another run to France, Blaikie and his crew had more success, four agents and nine containers being dropped to an awaiting reception committee near Chateauroux, the agents being recruits from De Gaulle’s B.R.C.A. and part of a combined O.S.S./S.I.S. initiative code-named “Sussex”. One of them, a woman agent, was subsequently captured and executed. While on the night of 11th-12th, Blaikie’s aircraft dropped 15 containers to resistance members in the Cahors area.

March witnessed a further six sorties, many more containers being dropped to awaiting committees near Toulouse, Nantes, Liege, Marseille, Orleans and Limoges, the Liege trip on the night of 3rd-4th including another agent (a.k.a. Operation “Make Up”), so, too, the drop near Marseille (a.k.a. S.O.E. Operation “Monk 5”)

April commenced with a sortie to Denmark on the night of the 1st-2nd (a.k.a. Operation “Tablejam 44”), but France was back on the agenda on the 10th-11th, when Blaikie and his crew dropped two S.I.S. agents and containers west of Basel (a.k.a. Operation “Elm”). Reception committees having failed to show up on their next two sorties, May got off to a better start, containers being dropped near Nevers on the night of the 3rd-4th.

In June, Flight Lieutenant Loos became Blaikie’s pilot, their first sortie being to Nogent on the night of the 24th-25th, when several containers were dropped (a.k.a. S.O.E. Operation “Saint 2”), while on the 27th-28th, 15 containers were dropped (a.k.a. S.O.E. Operation “Fireman II”), but the return journey had to be made on three engines. Then in July, after an early sortie in support of S.O.E’s “Stationer 130”, three agents were dropped in support of “Playbill” on the 4th-5th, and eight agents in support of “Pelaiseau” on the 7th-8th, the month being rounded off with four more sorties.

Sadly, on the night of 4th-5th August 1944, in another operation to France in support of S.O.E’s “Bob 166”, Blaikie’s aircraft failed to return, and it was only on the return of a surviving crew member that the fate of his aircraft became known, a fate later supported by investigations carried out by the International Red Cross – his Halifax had been engaged and shot down by an enemy night fighter near Glannes.

Blaikie is buried in a collective grave with six members of his crew in the parish cemetery at Huiron, in Vitry-le-Francois, France, their bodies having been retrieved from the aircraft wreckage by members of the Resistance. On 11 May 1947, a crowd of over 2000 people gathered to witness the unveiling of a memorial near the crash site; sold with a file of research, including modern day photographs of the crash site and memorial, and copied letter from the Mayor of Huiron explaining how the bodies were recovered before the Germans arrived on the scene, dated 29 December 1945, and copies of speeches made at the time of the unveiling of the memorial.