Awards to the Royal Air Force from the estate of the late Eric Campion

An early Second World War immediate D.F.C. group of four awarded to Pilot Officer S. R. Henderson, Royal Air Force, a Canadian who participated in the R.A.F’s very first raid of the War, a low-level Blenheim strike against the “Admiral Scheer” at Wilhelmshaven on 4 September 1939

Distinguished Flying Cross, G.VI.R., the reverse officially dated 1940; 1939-45 Star; Canadian Voluntary Service Medal, with overseas clasp; War Medal 1939-45, together with related Canadian Memorial Cross, G.VI.R., the reverse officially inscribed, ‘P.O. S. R. Henderson, R.A.F. 40826’, in its case of issue, generally extremely fine (5) £1000-1200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Awards to the Royal Air Force from the estate of the late Eric Campion.

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D.F.C. London Gazette 2 January 1940. The recommendation states:

‘At 11.45 on 8 November 1939, when pilot of a reconnaissance aircraft on duty over the North Sea, Pilot Officer Henderson encountered two large enemy flying boats. He engaged the leading boat with utmost resolution; bursts were seen to enter the engines and after part of the flying boat’s hull, the enemy Rear-Gunner was incapacitated and eventually the flying boat went down partially out of control. Pilot Officer Henderson then attacked the second enemy aircraft with equal determination and silenced its fire before exhausting all his ammunition.’

Selby Roger Henderson, who was born in Winnipeg, Canada in April 1914, joined the Royal Air Force in March 1937, having already gained a civilian pilot’s licence. Qualifying as a Navigator, he was posted to No. 206 Squadron, a Coastal Command unit, but within a matter of hours of the commencement of hostilities, he had been despatched to No. 110 Squadron to serve as Navigator to Squadron Leader K. C. Doran in one of 15 Blenheims detailed to carry out the first offensive strike of the War. In the event only ten of the Blenheims actually found their target, the Admiral Scheer and several other enemy ships which had been located that morning by a reconnaissance patrol at Schillig Roads, Wilhelmshaven. The Luftwaffe War Diaries take up the story:

‘On the afternoon of 4 September 1939, the sky over Heligoland Bight was heavily overcast. A stiff nor’wester drove the rain clouds low over the North Sea against a German coastline. Sometimes they were down to only 300 feet above the waves. Within this confined space a group of twin-engined aircraft were droning eastwards. Five of them, followed at a short distance by another five. In this weather the markings on their wings were all but indistinguishable.

They were not, however, German machines, but British: ten Bristol Blenheims, the fastest bombers of the Royal Air Force. On the day following their country’s declaration of war they had come to make the first attack. ‘The weather in Heligoland Bight was bloody,’ writes Squadron Leader K. C. Doran, who led the way with the first five aircraft from 110 Squadron [the whole navigated by Henderson]. ‘A solid wall of cloud seemed to extend from sea-level to about 17,000 feet. We obviously had to keep below it to stand any chance of finding our target. So we went down to sea-level’ ...

... The first three Blenheims formed into line ahead, and with short intervals between them flew straight for the German battleship. The fourth and fifth machines broke away to port and starboard and climbed briefly into cloud. They were to attack the ship from either side and disperse the enemy defensive fire ... So, at least, was the plan the British had worked out. A lightning attack on their victim from all sides, by five Blenheims, and at mast height, and all within eleven seconds ...

Doran writes: ‘We saw the matelots’ washing hanging out around the stern [of the Admiral Scheer] and the crew idly standing about on deck. However, when they realised our intention was hostile they started running about like mad.’

Before a shot could be fired the first bomber was on them. Just missing the mast, it screamed diagonally over the after-deck. Two heavy bombs crashed on to the ship. One dug itself in and came to rest; the other bounced along the deck, then rolled overboard into the water. No explosion! Then at last the flak began firing angrily at the retreating Blenheim.

Almost at once the second was upon them with the same results as the first. One bomb plummeted into the sea with a great fountain of water just a few yards from the gunwale - an especially dangerous spot for a delayed-action bomb, for it could work like a mine and hole the ship deep below the waterline.

But now at Schillig Roads all hell had broken loose. Over a wide area lines of tracer laced the air, as over a hundred flak barrels - from the ships and from the numerous batteries ashore - concentrated their fire on each aircraft as it dived out of the cloud ...

The five Blenheims of 107 Squadron fared worse. Attacking somewhat later than Doran’s 110 Squadron, they bore the whole brunt of the now fully alerted defences. Only one of them returned; the others were all shot down. As one Blenheim fell it crashed sideways into the bows of the cruiser Emden, tearing a large hole and causing the war’s first casualties in the German Navy.’

Another good account of the action may be found in Heroes of the Fighting R.A.F. by Leonard R. Gribble.

Four days later, Squadron Leader K. C. Doran and his crew, Henderson among them, reported to R.A.F. Uxbridge, where they were presented to King George VI in recognition of their gallant first blow against the enemy. And on 10 October 1939, Doran became the first D.F.C. of the War. Henderson was about to win the same honour for his bravery in an encounter with a brace of Dornier flying boats on 8 November 1939, this time in an Anson of No. 206 Squadron, an incident of sufficient interest for inclusion in MacMillan’s The Royal Air Force in the World War.

In fact Henderson completed many sorties with No. 206 Squadron between September 1939 and July 1940. And on at least one occasion he was involved in a successful encounter with a U-Boat, an incident referred to in the Squadron’s operational record book:

‘Aircraft K. 6184: When on patrol about 150 miles out, sighted an enemy submarine on the surface. Pilot Officer Harper, the pilot, approached out of the sun and carried out a successful dive bombing attack. One 100lb. A./S. bomb dropped and seen to hit submarine at the base of conning tower. Large oil patch and bubbles appeared with small amount of wreckage.’

Henderson received his D.F.C. at an investiture at Buckingham Palace in February 1940 and was married to a Norfolk girl that May. Tragically, however, he was posted missing in Hudson N. 7368 in a search mission off Texel on 4 July 1940. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.

Sold with an original and impressive wartime album of telegrams, newspaper cuttings and other documentation, the latter including Buckingham Palace investiture letter.