Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria including the collection to Naval Artificers formed by JH Deacon

An immediate Second World War pilot’s D.F.M. group of five awarded to Pilot Officer R. D. Roberts, Royal Air Force, who was posted missing on the eve of completing his first operational tour

Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R. (1176875 F./Sgt. R.D. Roberts, R.A.F.); 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; Defence and War Medals, good very fine (5) £800-1000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Fine Collection of Awards to the Men of Bomber Command 1939-45.

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D.F.M. London Gazette 2 April 1943. The immediate award recommendation states:

‘During the attack on Nuremburg on the night of 8-9 March 1943, Flight Sergeant Roberts was Captain of a Halifax bomber, when, 30 minutes flying time from the target, the port inner engine failed and was feathered. Flight Sergeant Roberts carried on despite loss of height from 17,000 to 10,000 feet, at which height, undeterred by anti-aircraft fire, he pressed home his attack with the utmost determination, obtaining a photograph within the target area. After bombing he was unable to close the bomb doors for approximately 15 minutes, and lost height to 7,000 feet. Flight Sergeant Roberts brought his aircraft safely back to this country and landed without damage. The successful completion of this operational flight was due to the initiative, resourcefulness and skilful airmanship of this N.C.O. I consider his devotion to duty and gallant conduct fully merits the award of the Distinguished Flying Medal.’

Pilot Officer Richard David Roberts, D.F.M., commenced his operational career with No. 158 Squadron at Driffield in the summer of 1942, originally participating in a dozen or so sorties as a 2nd Pilot in Wellingtons prior to his first operation as a Captain of Aircraft, flown in a Halifax, against a target in the Paris area on the night of 22-23 August. Subsequent trips carried out as the Captain of a Halifax between then and April 1944, when he was lost on a mining mission to Scandinavia, included Cologne (twice), Duisburg, Frankfurt, Kiel, Lorient (twice), Nuremburg, Pilsen, Stettin, Turin and Wilhelmshaven.

But with the exception of his D.F.M.-winning exploits over Nuremburg in late February 1943, the most memorable of these sorties was probably that flown to Essen on the night of 5-6 March, when a force of 440 aircraft attacked the Krupp works. Oboe was used for the first time and with great success, 160 acres of the city being devastated - Roberts’ Rear-Gunner afterwards reported that he could see a glow in the sky over the target when they crossed the coast 130 miles away. Probably, too, the night of 20-21 April, when their Halifax was hit by flak on the way home (‘Holes in starboard wing - leading edge’).

Tragically, Roberts and his crew, on the brink of completing their first tour, were lost without trace on a mining operation to Scandinavia on the night of 28-29 April 1943. The Squadron’s history, In Brave Company, makes mention of their loss in the following terms:

‘This was followed by two mine laying operations (the last to be flown by the Squadron) and from the second of these excursions Pilot Officer Roberts failed to return. Roberts, who had recently won the Distinguished Flying Medal, had been with the Squadron for about a year and though he had flown eighteen sorties as Captain, he had logged a number of trips as a 2nd Pilot during the Squadron’s last weeks with the Wellington. In November 1942, he had been one of four pilots chosen for the Manston detachment, during which he flew anti-submarine patrols in support of Operation Torch and it goes without saying that his loss was keenly felt.’