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

An early Second World War Hampden Bomber operations D.F.M. group of four awarded to Sergeant G. Kelly, Royal Air Force, who was killed in action during his second operational tour in a raid on Dusseldorf in August 1942

Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R. (535494 Sgt., R.A.F.);1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; War Medal 1939-45, the first with edge bruise, generally good very fine and better (4) £800-1000

D.F.M. London Gazette 18 April 1941. The recommendation states:

‘Sergeant Kelly has served in an operational unit for 14 months as a Wireless Operator / Air Gunner, during which period he has completed 29 operational flights against the enemy in a flying time of 189 hours. Throughout this time he has displayed keenness and initiative on all occasions. Sergeant Kelly has never allowed extreme discomfort or enemy action to interfere in the performance of his duties. He has given every assistance to his Captain and his excellent work has frequently enabled the latter to locate his target and return successfully to his base when weather conditions have rendered other means of navigation practically impossible. His courage and devotion to duty have set a high standard to all members of other air crews.’

Gerard Kelly, who was originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland, flew his first operational sortie with No. 50 Squadron, a Hampden unit then based at Waddington, on the last day of July 1940, when despatched on a “Gardening” run. And as was the case with Sergeant J. E. Jones (see Lot 1602), the remainder of his tour with No. 50 would be completed in the ‘grotesque-looking flying glasshouse’ that constituted the Hampden Bomber, and largely against German targets.

Among the more noteworthy sorties of Kelly’s first tour of operations, which ended in February 1941, were an attack on the Bismarck, ‘lying under construction in Hamburg docks’; the oil plants at Merseberg, where ‘Intense A.A. fire was encountered over the target area’ and ‘the starboard engine started to fail over the target and continued to run with irregularity during the homeward run’; strikes against German invasion-barge concentrations at Ostend and Calais; and an attack on the Tirpitz at Wilhelmshaven.

Gazetted for his D.F.M. in April 1942, Kelly quickly returned to the operational scene with a posting to No. 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron, a Lancaster unit, based at Waddington, in June of the same year. It was around this time that No. 44 could boast two V.C. recipients on its strength, Squadron Leader J.D. Nettleton, decorated for the low-level, unescorted, daylight raid on the M.A.N. factory at Augsburg, and Squadron C.O., Wing Commander “Babe” Learoyd. For his own part, Kelly commenced his second tour of operations with the 1000 Bomber Raid on Bremen on the night of 25-26 June, his pilot being Flight Sergeant G.K. Hathersich, ‘on loan’ to the Squadron for the final mission of his own tour (see Lot 1270).

Over the following month Kelly and his crew completed another five sorties, Duisberg and Hamburg among them, but on the last day of July, in a raid on Dusseldorf, they were posted missing. One eye-witness from No. 44 Squadron reported seeing an aircraft being shot down by a night fighter near Munchen-Gladbach, and in all probability this was Kelly’s Lancaster. He was 25 years of age and left a widow in Newark, Nottinghamshire. He was buried in the Rheinberg War Cemetery, Germany.