Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Flight Lieutenant D. A. Stuart-White, 75 (New Zealand) Squadron, Royal Air Force, who was heavily engaged in the bombing of German and Italian targets in 1942

1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Malaya, E.II.R. (Flt. Lt. D. A. Stuart-White. R.A.F.) very fine (5) £300-£400

Derek Arthur Stuart-White was born in 1923 and served during the Second World War with 75 Squadron as a Wellington bomber rear gunner under the command of Sergeant John McCullough, Royal New Zealand Air Force. Engaged on attacks against targets at Kassel, Nuremburg, Saarbrucken, Karlsruhe and Bremen from August to September 1942, he later took part in a sortie to Wilhelmshaven on 14 September 1942 and a ‘gardening’ operation in the Baltic. Sent to bomb Osnabrook and Kiel, he later flew on an attack against industrial targets in Turin using incendiary and fragmentation bombs in November 1942.

Replaced as rear gunner in January 1943 by Sergeant Dudley Harting-Smith, R.N.Z.A.F., Stuart-White would have later heard the news of the loss of McCullough and two of his crew just a month later whilst attempting to penetrate the highly effective defensive sector around the Dutch coastline; caught by a night fighter piloted by Hauptmann Wolfgang Thimmig, their Stirling aircraft crashed near Wierden with the four survivors taken prisoner. Raised Flight Lieutenant, Stuart-White survived the Second World War and later served in Malaya.