A Collection of Awards for the 1939-45 War

A particularly fine Second World War D.F.C. and Bar, A.F.C. group of seven awarded to Acting Squadron Leader R. Edmonds, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who completed three operational tours, many of the resultant 140 plus sorties comprising costly raids in Baltimores and Mitchells - and over 40 of these as Squadron Leader

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’; Air Force Cross, G.VI.R., the reverse officially dated ‘1944’; 1939-45 Star; Africa Star, clasp, North Africa 1942-43; France and Germany Star; War Medal 1939-45; Air Efficiency Award, G.VI.R., 1st issue (Plt. Off. R. Edmonds, R.A.F.V.R.), good very fine and better (7) £3500-4000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Awards for the 1939-45 War.

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D.F.C. London Gazette 5 February 1943:

‘This officer has participated in very many sorties, comprising attacks on airfields, harbours, lines of communications and troops. Throughout, he has displayed great courage and leadership. In November 1942, whilst attacking the enemy, his aircraft was hit and damaged by anti-aircraft fire, which caused the engine to fail. Pilot Officer Edmond was forced to leave the formation while still some 50 miles within enemy territory. With great difficulty, he succeeded in flying his damaged aircraft to base where he effected a masterly landing. His skill and determination were responsible for the safe return of the aircraft and its crew.’

Bar to D.F.C. London Gazette 1 June 1945. The original recommendation states:

‘Since receiving the immediate award of the Distinguished Flying Cross for gallantry during the opening stages of El Alamein battles in North Africa, this officer has completed a further 72 sorties. He has flown the last 42 while leading the Squadron against the varied targets attacked since D-Day, and is now completing his third tour. His coolness, leadership and obvious determination in the face of the most bitterly defended targets has been of the highest possible value to his squadron and in the best traditions of the Service. His example during the period of steady losses against the Rhine bridges and important rail centres kept his squadron at a steady high level of morale. The quiet confidence he displays and instils into those who follow make him an outstanding operational leader. As a well-deserved reward for his qualities and his long operational record, Squadron Leader Edmond is strongly recommended for the award of a Bar to the Distinguished Flying Cross.’

A.F.C. London Gazette 1 September 1944.

Ronald Edmonds was educated at Dover County School, but later moved to Hayes, Middlesex, and was employed in the Civil Service prior to the outbreak of hostilities, so, too, as a member of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, in which he enlisted in 1937. Called up in September 1939, he was awarded his Flying Badge in October 1940, when rated as an above average pilot, and shortly thereafter departed for the Middle East.

But it was in Malta with No. 148 Squadron, a Wellington unit, that he flew his first operational sortie, a strike against Catania Aerodrome in Sicily on 11 February 1941. As it transpired, he spent the next eight weeks in hospital and did not return to operations until early May, when he flew as 2nd Pilot in an attack on Tripoli. Shortly thereafter, he was transferred to another Malta-based unit, No. 69 Squadron, flying Marylands, and in the period July to September flew around another 20 sorties.

Posted to Egypt in November 1941, he attended an Operational Training Unit prior to being posted to No. 223 Squadron in February 1942, then equipped with Marylands but shortly to convert to Baltimores. And it was in the latter aircraft type that he again went operational that May, this time completing around another 75 sorties in the period leading up to May 1943, when he returned to the U.K. Targets largely comprised enemy armour, motor transport and forward aerodromes in support of operations at El Alamein, Tobruk and Mersa Matruh, and later over Tunisia, Edmonds often referring in his detailed Flying Log Book entries to heavy and accurate flak, damage inflicted on his aircraft and the presence of enemy fighters - the raid for which he received his immediate D.F.C. was a ‘roving commission’ in which flak damage caused the failure of his port engine.

Back in the U.K., and with 98 sorties under his belt (his Flying Log Book refers), Edmonds served as an instructor at No. 13 O.T.U. from July 1943 until August 1944, work that gained him the A.F.C., and, having applied to his C.O. for a return to an operational footing, was posted to No. 226 Squadron at Hartford Bridge that September, once more beginning a busy tour of operations, this time in Mitchells of 137 Wing against assorted targets in North-West Europe. Latterly operating out of advanced airfields in France and Holland, his third operational tour finally ended in May 1945, by which stage he had added at least another 40 sorties to his remarkable tally of operations flown - and once again his Flying Log Book provides a detailed and vivid record of such activities, Edmonds often returning home in a badly holed aircraft. Moreover, in addition to acting as Squadron Leader, he was often given the task of leading 137 Wing in to the attack.

Tour nearly expired, Edmonds was recommended for a Bar to his D.F.C., the relevant document confirming his tally of 136 operational sorties and over 300 hours of operational flying. Briefly attached to another O.T.U. back in Harwell after the end of hostilities, he was demobilised at the end of the same year.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including the recipient’s original Flying Log Books (3), covering the periods July 1937 to June 1943, July 1943 to January 1945 and February to July 1945, and, as stated, often with extensive operational entries; assorted wartime telegrams and a congratulatory letter regarding the award of his A.F.C. from Air Marshal Sir Roderic Hill; Buckingham Palace investiture letter for the awards of his D.F.C. and A.F.C., and similar forwarding letter for the Bar to his D.F.C.; several local newspaper cuttings and around a dozen or wartime photographs, including air-to-air shots of Baltimores and Mitchells.