Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part I)

An outstanding Second World War path finder’s D.F.C. and Bar group of five awarded to Flight Lieutenant J. Harbottle, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who survived a remarkable tally of 82 operational sorties, including 11 trips to the “Big City”

Distinguished Flying Cross, G.VI.R., with Second Award Bar, the reverse of the Cross officially dated ‘1943’ and the reverse of the Bar ‘1945’; 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star, clasp, France and Germany; Defence and War Medals, cleaned, good very fine (5)
£1800-2200

Harbottle resumed his operational career in Lancasters of No. 405 Squadron, 8 (Path Finder Force) Group in June 1944, going on to complete seven sorties against mainly French targets prior to transferring to No. 692 Squadron, also of the Path Finder Force, in the following month.

By now having attended a Mosquito Training Unit, he joined up,as a navigator, with a Canadian, Pilot Officer B. D. McEwan, the pair of them going on to complete 19 operations against an array of heavily defended German targets, Berlin, Bremen, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Essen, Hamburg, Mannheim and Stuttgart among them.

In September, they were posted to the newly formed No. 128 Squadron as part of 8 Group’s Light Night Striking Force, an awesome tally of 31 sorties being completed by December 1944, once again against a string of heavily defended German targets. It is interesting to note that Harbottle survived a total of 11 trips to Berlin in his operational career, although one such outing on the night of 6-7 October 1944 nearly ended in disaster, his Mosquito being coned in searchlights for a terrifying 15 minutes – the Squadron’s O.R.B. notes that the aircraft’s starboard flap was shot away, in addition to further damage to the rear-spar. Indeed the hazards of operational flying were all too often made apparent, right up until the gallant duo flew their last sortie in late December – detailed to attack the oil refinery at Scholven, their Mosquito was compelled to return from the target area on one engine.

Harbottle was gazetted for a long overdue Bar to his D.F.C. in February 1945 and finally released from the Service in July 1946.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including a fine array of Navigator’s operational ‘route planner’ sheets, detailing 19 of the recipient’s sorties to German targets between September and December 1944, the whole in Mosquitoes of No. 128 Squadron; his Caterpillar Club and American ‘Eagle Club’ membership cards; R.A.F. Service and Release Book; a good selection of wartime photographs, including a number of target scenes; two or three certificates of post-war credits, and much besides.