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

A Wireless Operator’s Air Log, being the original manuscript carried by Flight Sergeant Hewitt on the night of 13-14 January 1945, when his Halifax MZ 465 MH “Y”-Yorker was in collision with another aircraft over the target, with an endorsement at the end of Hewitt’s final entry, ‘Exceptionally good effort under hazardous conditions’, and further inscribed on the end page, ‘This a/c had the whole of the forward part of the fuselage torn away by another a/c. The Navigator and Bomb Aimer went out instantaneously without having time to take their parachutes. This left the Wireless Operator and his radio now facing into space. By good fortune the W./Op. managed to get a bearing which sufficed to bring the a/c from over the sea back safely to land’, bloodstained, otherwise in good condition £200-250

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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Accounts of this aircraft’s remarkable survival are to be found in numerous Bomber Command reference works. The following is a summary taken from Bomber Squadrons of the R.A.F., by Philip Moyes:

‘Seldom, if ever, during World War Two, did an R.A.F. bomber land on an English airfield with more damage than No. 51 Squadron’s Halifax III MZ 465 “Y”-Yorker after its bombing attack on Saarbrucken on the night of 13-14 January 1945.

Nine feet of the nose was chopped completely off when the Halifax collided with another bomber, but it struggled back to this country with only three of its flying instruments still working, to make a perfect landing. Some of the skin on the nose was bent round and gave some protection against the wind which whistled through the aircraft as it flew home at 7,000 feet. But the Captain, Flying Officer A. L. Wilson, of Leicester, and the rest of the crew were frozen as they struggled to keep the aircraft flying. The Navigator and the Bomb Aimer, neither of whom were then wearing their parachutes, had fallen out of the aircraft at the time of the collision.

The four engines continued to function perfectly after the collision, although the porpellors were dented, probably by bits of wreckage which shook loose and flew off the fuselage. The radio was still working five minutes after the collision, but had to be shut off because of shorting; blue sparks were playing around the aircraft and there was a danger of fire. In that short five minutes, before the radio was cut off, the operator was able to send out an S.O.S. which was received in England. As a result “Y-Yorker” was given special landing aids when it landed on an emergency airfield. The intercom. was unserviceable as well as the A.S.I., the D.R. compass, and many other vital instruments for flying and navigation.

“Y-Yorker” dived 1,500 feet after the collision, with the pilot struggling to gain control. He managed to do this and brought the aircraft up to 11,000 feet again. At this height it stalled, but he managed to keep it at 7,000 feet and at this height flew home.’

Sold with a wartime photograph of “Y”-Yorker, taken shortly after her extraordinary return flight to the U.K.