Orders, Decorations and Medals

A fine Second World War D.F.M. group of five awarded to Sergeant J. Alldritt, Royal Air Force, who was decorated for his first tour of operations in Lancasters of No. 12 and No. 166 Squadrons but went on to complete a second tour in Halifaxes of No. 171 Squadron: a survivor of no less than nine trips to the “Big City”, he also participated in the Hamburg and Dresden ‘firestorm’ raids and in the famous strike on the V-weapon site at Peenemunde in August 1943

Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R. (1437011 Sgt. J. Alldritt, R.A.F.); 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star, clasp, France and Germany; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, generally good very fine (5) £1700-1900

D.F.M. London Gazette 2 June 1944. The original recommendation states:

‘Sergeant Alldritt has completed 29 sorties of which nine have been on Berlin.

He is a navigator of exceptional ability and has been an outstanding member of a gallant crew. On a number of occasions this N.C.O. has navigated the aircraft to the target and home safely to base despite heavy enemy opposition and bad weather. In all these trying circumstances his accuracy, coupled with his calm and cheerful determination, have been of the highest order and an inspiration to the rest of the crew and the whole squadron.

For his devotion to duty and his steady bearing when in action against the enemy, he is deemed worthy of the award of the Distinguished Flying Medal.’

John Alldritt commenced his operational career as a Navigator in No. 12 Squadron, a Lancaster unit operating out of Wickenby, Lincolnshire, in the summer of 1943. On his very first sortie - a strike on Wuppertal on the night of 24-25 June - his aircraft was coned by searchlights and his pilot compelled to descend 10,000 feet at 400 m.p.h. to escape the glare.

Having then been assigned to targets in Cologne, Hamburg and Frankfurt, his aircraft participated in a brace of attacks on Milan in August, the second of these trips on the 15th resulting in flak damage to his Lancaster’s bomb bay and port wing. Next up was the famous strike on the V-weapon site at Peenemunde on the night of 17-18 August, followed by Alldritt’s first trip to Berlin on the night of the 23rd-24th.

Tranferring with his crew to No. 166 Squadron, another Lancaster unit which was based at Kirmington, Lincolnshire, in September, his tour of duty continued apace, Hanover, Mannheim and Bochum being attacked in the same month. Further heavily defended targets made up the Squadron’s agenda in October-November, among them Dusseldorf and Stuttgart, but with the exception of a sortie to Brunswick, the remainder of his tour was dedicated to the ‘Battle of Berlin’: thus eight more or less successive trips to the “Big City’ in the period mid-November to late January 1944, including a sortie on the night of 20-21 January when his Lancaster was ‘shot up’ over the Rhur and compelled to make a landing at Little Snoring.

Alldritt was recommended for the D.F.M. and ended his tour of duty with trips to Schweinfurt and Augsburg in February 1944.

Rested at an O.T.U., he returned to the operational scene with a posting to No. 171 Squadron, a Halifax unit, at the end of the same year.

Thus a further 23 operational sorties, the whole of a ‘special duties’ nature, namely dropping ‘Window’ to confuse enemy radar. The vast majority of his targets were of the German variety, including Dortmund (13-14 March: ‘Attacked by intruders over base. 4 attacks. Diverted to western Zoyland’); Dresden on the night of the ‘firestorm’ raid, 13-14 February 1945; Dusseldorf (thrice); Hamburg; Kiel (thrice); Mannheim and Saarbrucken.

Alldritt’s final appointment was at the School of Flying Control, Watchfield; sold with copied research.

Sold with the recipient’s original R.A.F. Observer’s and Air Gunner’s Flying Log Book, covering the period November 1942 to December 1945, together with his Navigator’s R.A.F. Sight Log Book with entries for the period November 1942 to June 1943; two congratulatory ‘postagrams’ in respect of the award of his D.F.M. and a letter from the Air Ministry regarding his application for his campaign medals.