The Bill and Angela Strong Medal Collection

An extremely rare Second World War escaper’s M.M. group of five awarded to Flight Lieutenant W. A. Weaver, Royal Air Force, who, after many previous attempts, finally made a successful bid for freedom in Italy in October 1943 - escape work of a persistent nature that on one occasion resulted in a severe beating from his captors

Military Medal, G.VI.R. (1258218 W.O. W. A. Weaver, R.A.F.); 1939-45 Star ; Africa Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, good very fine or better (5) £3000-3500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Bill and Angela Strong Medal Collection.

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Just 121 M.Ms were awarded to Royal Air Force personnel in the 1939-45 War.

M.M. London Gazette 13 February 1945.

William Alfred Weaver was born in Swansea in January 1910 and was educated at Swansea Grammar Secondary School 1922-27 and Technical College 1928-30, prior to taking up employment as a clerk for a local colliery proprietor.

Enlisting in the Royal Air Force in July 1940, he qualified as an Air Gunner and was posted to the Middle East in August 1941, where he joined No. 38 Squadron, a Wellington unit operating out of Shalufa in Egypt. Shortly afterwards, however, he was taken P.O.W. when his aircraft developed engine trouble on a raid against Benghazi, and was compelled to make a forced-landing in enemy territory, about 100 miles west of Tobruk.

In February 1942, having obtained an Italian soldier’s uniform and some local currency, he made his first bid for freedom from Campo 59 at Chiavari by joining on to a guard patrol and walking out of the camp. Hiding in a quarry overnight, the following day he took a train to Genoa and thence Pietra Liguare, but he was arrested by a suspicious Italian Sergeant-Major while waiting for another train, and his ploy of speaking rapid Welsh to represent his false identity as a Roumanian failed to impress said N.C.O. So, too, the police back at Chiavari, who ‘thumped me all over my body and punched me in the face’ (Weaver’s M.I. 9 debrief refers). He then endured 40 days in solitary confinement before being moved to Campo 52.

Here, after taking part in several abortive tunnel schemes, he joined 16 others in a more successful enterprise in September 1942, a tunnel that ran from a camp hut to a Red Cross parcel hut just outside the wire, from which they broke out in the early morning hours of 22nd, Weaver teaming up with three other R.A.F. N.C.Os and a pair of army parachutists - he had covered for one of the latter at an earlier escape attempt at Bari and been manacled and placed in solitary for his troubles. As it transpired, he was about to spend another 30 days in solitary, for, having reached Civitanova, he was arrested by a Carbinieri and returned to Campo 52.

Having completed his sentence, Weaver was transferred to Campo 53 at Macerata in January 1943, where he obtained two Italian uniforms and enlisted Corporal Westwood, one of the parachutists, to join him in another escape - this time re-enacting his earlier attempt at Campo 59 by simply walking out of the gates. Unfortunately, the following day, they ran into the same Carbinieri who had arrested them at Civitanova - from now on, Weaver’s ‘presence was checked at half hour intervals day and night.’

But with the Italian capitulation in September, he was able to join swathes of P.O.Ws on another attempt to reach Allied lines, himself remaining at large for three weeks before being captured by the Germans at Montmenero. Weaver takes up the story:

‘On 14 October, while we were being transferred to an unknown destination by lorry, the lorry stopped in the roadway to allow another truck to pass. The two drivers got out and lit cigarettes. I noticed that the guard was not paying much attention to us. I jumped out of the lorry, bolted across a road, a vineyard, waist-deep across a river, and hid in some rough growth on the hillside on the other side of the river. At night, I re-crossed the river and after walking for five days, I met the West Kents at Guglionesi.’

Weaver, who had attained the temporary rank of Warrant Officer in May 1943, was awarded the M.M. and commissioned as a Pilot Officer in the R.A.F.V.R. in March 1944, and went on to serve in East Africa and South-East Asia, including an aircrew appointment with No. 265 Squadron, a Catalina unit, from November 1944 until May 1945. Released from the Service in November 1947, he rejoined with a short service commission in October 1949, qualified as an Interpreter in Russian, and was onetime employed on intelligence duties until placed on the Reserve as a Flight Lieutenant in October 1954; sold with copied service record.