Orders, Decorations and Medals

A fine D.F.C., D.F.M. group of nine awarded to Flight Lieutenant Leonard Fish, Royal Air Force, who won his D.F.C. with 138 (Special Duties) Squadron, flying missions in support of the S.O.E. in Europe

Distinguished Flying Cross, G.VI.R., the reverse officially dated ‘1944’; Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R. (940472 Sgt., R.A.F.); 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; Africa Star, clasp, North Africa 1942-43; Defence & War Medals; General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Malaya, E.II.R. (Flt. Lt., R.A.F.); General Service 1962, 1 clasp, Arabian Peninsula (Flt. Lt., R.A.F.), the group mounted as worn, together with the recipient’s Observer’s and Air Gunner’s Flying Log Book for the period July 1940 to June 1954, with various enclosures and a group photograph taken in May 1941, some contact marks, otherwise very fine and better (9) £1500-2000

D.F.C. London Gazette 11 February 1944: Act. Flight Lieutenant Leonard Fish, D.F.M., R.A.F.V.R., No. 138 Squadron.

D.F.M. London Gazette 21 November 1941: Sergeant Leonard Fish, No. 77 Squadron.

Flight Lieutenant Leonard Fish, D.F.C., D.F.M., commenced training at Yatesbury in December 1939, and was posted to No. 77 Squadron as Rear Gunner in October 1940, later becoming a Wireless Operator. Operating with Whitleys, the Squardron carried out raids on such targets as Bremen, Hanover, Kiel, Hamburg, Dusseldorf and Berlin. During a raid on the latter city on 9th April 1941, his Whitley encountered ‘intense searchlight and flak’, and he was wounded in the leg. Only a few days earlier he had participated in an attack on the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau at Brest, although on this occasion his aircraft was compelled to land at Tangmere with its bomb load. After completing 32 operations he was posted to No. 10 O.T.U. and awarded the D.F.M.

In January 1942, Fish commenced his second tour of duty with No. 138 (Special Duties) Squadron. Formed in August 1941, the squadron’s main duties were to support S.O.E. agents in Europe, and for more than three and a half years the squadron ranged Europe from Norway in the north to Yugoslavia in the south and at times far into Poland. First with Whitleys then with Halifaxes, it flew out with agents, arms, explosives, radio sets and all the other equipment of the saboteur, parachuting them down at rendezvous points where reception parties of local underground movements awaited them.

Fish’s first such sortie was to Belgium on 28 January and thereafter his log book contains only the briefest of detail. However, it can be ascertained that he flew on six trips to Belgium, twelve to France, four to Norway, and one to Holland. There were also several excursions to Gibraltar and Malta, the former in aid of delivering agents who were to be landed in the South of France by felucca. On one of these trips three engines failed and two crew members baled out, the remainder surviving a crash landing in Algeria.

Fish remained with 138 Squadron until January 1944, latterly becoming the unit’s Signals Officer. In all he had flown more than 30 clandestine operations and in February he received a much deserved D.F.C. He remained with the R.A.F. after the War but returned to ground duties in 1954. Flight Lieutenant Fish retired in 1970. A set of replacement awards is known to be in possession of the recipient, those offered here being the original awards.