Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Caterpillar Club badge presented to Manchester and Lancaster navigator Flight Lieutenant A. S. Meara, D.F.C., Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who flew in at least 23 operational sorties with Guy Gibson’s 106 Squadron, including the Thousand Bomber Raids to Cologne, Essen and Bremen, before being shot down by flak returning from Cologne, 15/16 October 1942. He was taken prisoner of war, and interned at the infamous Stalag Luft III at Sagan - the scene of the ‘Great Escape’

Caterpillar Club badge, in gold with ‘ruby’ eyes, reverse engraved ‘P/O A. S. Meara’, in Irving box of issue, good very fine £300-£400

D.F.C. London Gazette 6 November 1942, the original recommendation (by Guy Gibson) states:

‘Pilot Officer Meara is a navigator of the highest skill and throughout his twenty three operational sorties he has maintained an exemplary standard of accuracy. He has been consistently successful in locating his target, often under extremely difficult conditions.

He has navigated his aircraft to such targets as Bremen, Dusseldorf (three times), Kassel, Nuremburg and on all of the more recent heavy raids on the Ruhr. His accurate navigation was largely responsible for a successful mining sortie to Gdynia and it was also very much due to his efforts that mines were successfully laid in an area in the Baltic under most unfavourable weather conditions.

Pilot Officer Meara is the navigator of Sergeant Crowfoot’s aircraft, and with P/O Dickinson, he forms one of a trio which have been outstandingly successful and which forms part of a Squadron crew second to none.’


Arnold Stanley Meara was born in South Wales in December 1914. He was employed as a School Master in Monmouthshire prior to joining the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve as a Pilot Officer in October 1940. Meara served as a navigator with 106 Squadron (Manchesters and Lancasters) at Coninsby in 1942, and was under the command of Wing Commander Guy Gibson.

Meara flew in at least 23 operational sorties with the Squadron, including: Cologne, the first Thousand Bomber Raid, 30/31 May 1942; Essen, the second Thousand Bomber Raid, 1 June 1942; and Bremen, the third Thousand Bomber Raid, 25 June 1942.

Meara moved with the Squadron to Syerston, and flew in Lancaster I W4771 ZN, piloted by Pilot Officer T. B. Crowfoot, D.F.C., 15/16 October 1942, ‘T/O 1925 Syerston. Shortly after completing the attack [Cologne], while flying at 17,000 feet in the Cologne-Munchengladbach area, the Lancaster was hit by flak, which killed two members of the crew.’ (Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War by W. R. Chorley refers)

The remaining four members of the crew, including Meara, baled out and were taken prisoner of war. Meara, having advanced to Flight Lieutenant, was imprisoned in the infamous Stalag Luft III at Sagan, 11 November 1942 - 28 January 1945, and was present there when the ‘Great Escape’ occurred. After being repatriated, Meara returned to employment as a School Master. He died in Clwyd in December 1993.

Sold with the following documentation: Caterpillar Club Membership Card, with correspondence relating to issue of badge, the latter being addressed to recipient at 21 Clwyd Street, Ruthin, North Wales; named Buckingham Palace enclosure for D.F.C.