Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An original air service training scheme pilot’s flying log book appertaining to Wing Commander J. H. White, D.F.C., Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, covering the period March 1935 to July 1939, light blue covers with ‘A.S.T.’ motif and ‘Air Service Training Limited, Hamble’, generally in good condition £80-120

John Henry White entered the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve under pilot training in 1935 and was appointed an Acting Pilot Officer in March of the following year. Advanced to Flight Lt. in September 1940, and to Squadron Leader in December 1941, he was posted to No. 156 Squadron, a Lancaster unit of the Path Finder Force operating out of Warboys in Huntingdonshire, in March 1943, and first went operational in the same month, with an attack on Hamburg on the night of the 3rd-4th. He was subsequently awarded the D.F.C. (London Gazette 10 September 1943 refers), as per the following recommendation, submitted in July: ‘This officer has carried out 24 operational sorties against targets in Germany, Italy, and enemy occupied territory, of which 20 have been on marker duties. Squadron Leader White has held the post of Flight Commander in this squadron since May 1943. As a pilot and Flight Commander he has shown powers of airmanship and leadership which have set an outstanding example to the rest of the squadron. His determination and efficiency have now reached such a standard that his crew have been selected for visual marker duties. It is considered that this officer’s record and his example of outstanding operational determination make him worthy of the award of the D.F.C’

White clearly volunteered for a second tour of duty for, tragically, he was killed in a strike against Berlin on 18 November 1943, his Lancaster crashing near Doberitz. The son of Henry and Frances White of Weybridge, Surrey, he was 28 years of age and is buried in the Berlin War Cemetery.