The Ron Penhall Collection

The Second World War D.F.C., D.F.M. group of seven awarded to Flight Lieutenant W. H. Marshall, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, a Flight Engineer who completed numerous sorties in No. 138 “Special Duties” Squadron and who successfully evaded capture on being compelled to take to his parachute over France in May 1943: after many adventures - including a ride on the Paris Metro during which he dropped a Penny coin in the pocket of the German soldier seated next to him - he reached Gibraltar

Distinguished Flying Cross, G.VI.R., the reverse officially dated ‘1944’; Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R. (1004784 F./Sgt. W. H. Marshall, R.A.F.), with its card box of issue; 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; Africa Star; Defence and War Medals, these last with their original card forwarding box, generally extremely fine (7) £4000-5000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Ron Penhall Collection.

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William Henry Marshall was employed by the British Tyre and Rubber Company at Leyland prior to enlisting in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in 1940 and, having attended a Flight Engineer’s course at Speke factory, was posted to No. 158 Squadron at R.A.F. Eastmoor in June 1942. A week or two later, following a few outings to gain air experience, he completed his first sortie, an outing in one of the Squadron’s Halifaxes to Amiens on the night of 8-9 July 1943 - two trips to Duisberg and another to Dusseldorf followed in quick succession. Having then completed another sortie to Essen in September, with Squadron Leader C. G. S. R. “Robbie” Robinson, D.F.C., at the helm, he joined Flight Sergeant R. D. Roberts’ crew for outings to Kiel, Cologne and Genoa in October, in addition to seven anti-shipping or convoy escort patrols before the year’s end, these latter while on detachment to Beaulieu.

No. 158’s move to Rushforth in the new year witnessed its aircrew flying one or two “Gardening” missions, but by the middle of February the agenda had reverted to German targets of the heavily-defended kind, Marshall flying against Cologne twice that month, in addition to Nuremburg and Wilhelmshaven. Indeed following a trip to Essen in March, Marshall and his crew experienced a particularly challenging sortie to Nuremburg on the night of the 8th - ‘Coolant leak on port inner 110 miles from target. Feathered engine and carried on and bombed target at 10,000. Shot up over Mannheim and Paris. Flak predicted and accurate. Landed at Pocklington’ (Marshall’s flying log book refers). His pilot, Flight Sergeant Roberts, was awarded an immediate D.F.M.

Then later in the same month, having flown against Stuttgart on the 11th - an outing that brought his total number of sorties to near the 30-mark - Marshall joined No. 138 Squadron at Tempsford, one of two “Special Duties” squadrons charged with dropping S.O.E. agents and supplies into occupied Europe. Nor was he alone in making this move, for his new pilot was Squadron Leader “Robbie” Robinson, with whom he had earlier flown in No. 158. And together, over the coming weeks, they completed four clandestine missions to France, another to Belgium and two more to Holland, but on the night of 12 May 1943, disaster struck in the form of accurate enemy flak moments after they departed the scene of their pre-arranged D.Z. With the starboard petrol tanks holed and flames enveloping the wing, Robinson gave the order for his crew to bale out, Marshall finally getting out of the crippled aircraft at around 600 or 700 feet - ‘the parachute hit me full in the face as it came off my chest and when I came round I saw that I was in a large field of long grass.’

At length, Marshall came upon fellow crew member Flight Sergeant J. T. “Hutch” Hutchinson, and still in battledress and wearing their flying boots, the pair sought refuge in a barn. Unbeknown to them, they had in fact landed in the midst of a local Resistance circuit, and before too long - after calling at a local farm - they were taken under the latter’s protective wing, but not before being “cleared” by an Englishman, Mr. K. M. Bruce, who was married to a French doctor - and it was Bruce’s wife who sheltered the evading airmen in her Paris apartment for three weeks, while they awaited the arrival of their false identity documents and travel warrrants. Thus ensued an eventful ride on the Paris Metro, during which Marshall dropped a Penny coin in a German soldier’s pocket - ‘I knew it was a foolish thing to do but I imagined his surprise when he did eventually find it!’ - and a long train journey to the Spanish border, where they were handed over to the care of their mountain guides. The latter were not particularly friendly and pushed the airmen to the very boundaries of physical collapse during the ensuing journey over the Pyrenees, Marshall noting on arrival in Spain, ‘We had worn out four pairs of rope sandals and our trouser backsides were in shreds’. Unlike so many other wartime evaders and escapers, however, the two airmen were fortunate to avoid the hospitality of the local Spanish Police, instead making their way by train to the British Consul in Barcelona, and thence to Madrid and Gibraltar. Both were awarded the D.F.M. and the full story of their escape later appeared in print - The Vital Spot, by William Scott (copy included).

Following some well-earned leave, Marshall returned to the operational scene with No. 138 at Tempsford, this time joining the crew of Flight Lieutenant H. Stiles, D.F.C., with whom he flew a further 33 clandestine missions between October 1943 and June 1944 - 27 to France, two to Belgium, three to Norway and, unusually, one to Koblenz, Germany, via Belgium (when a Russian agent was dropped with a collapsible bicycle), operational work that brought his final wartime tally to around 70 sorties, involving over 400 hours of flying. Added to which should be mentioned his final outing on behalf of No. 138 on the night of 2 June 1944, a sortie that ended immediately following take-off when his Halifax plunged into a wood on Sandy Hill, near the airfield, after the port inner engine stalled:

‘The port inner engine cut at 100 ft. just as the Halifax was passing over the perimeter track. Stiles managed to maintain an indicated airspeed of 120 m.p.h. but fully laden, with the controls hard over to starboard and the engine now feathered, the Halifax took a gentle arc to port, passing over the houses of Sandy by a bare ten feet to crash into a pine wood on Sandy Hill. The aircraft broke up on impact and caught fire, the only significant section left intact being the forward fuselage. Miraculously Stiles and Pilot Officers Casey and Bryant were uninjured, but Pilot Officer Marshall fractured an arm, Flying Officer Ashton fractured a foot, Sergeant Terrell broke his pelvis and Flying Officer Sutherland dislocated his shoulder’ (K. A. Merrick’s definitive history, Flights of the Forgotten, refers).

Awarded the D.F.C., Marshall was transferred to Transport Command, in which branch he served at assorted Lancaster ferrying units until his release in March 1946.

Sold with a fine array of original documentation and artefacts, including:

(i) The recipient’s Flying Log Book, covering the period June 1942 to March 1946, the Certificates of Qualification page with endorsement for ‘Flight Engineer with effect from 20.6.42’ and opening log entry as a passenger in a Halifax of No. 158 Squadron for ‘crew trials’.

(ii) Letter from the No. 138 Squadron’s C.O. to the recipient’s wife, dated 14 May 1943, confirming him missing as a result of air operations; together with another letter from R.A.F. Tempsford confirming that his pilot was Squadron Leader Robinson, dated 18 May 1943; R.A.F. Casualty Branch letter, dated 9 June 1943; an Air Ministry letter advising his wife that her husband had been reported as being ‘in a neutral country’, this dated 27 July 1943; and a R.A.F. Benevolent Fund letter, dated 28 July 1943, reporting of the recipient’s safe arrival ‘in British territory’.

(iii) The recipient’s original pencilled diary entries for the period 13 May to 6 July 1943, as written by him over the course of his successful evasion; together with a 13pp. handwritten account of the same, this probably written around 1980.

(iv) Several documents contemporary to the recipient’s evasion, including his false identity card, with portrait photograph, in the name of ‘Jean Andre Robert Duchesne’, dated 2 June 1943; his ‘Certificat De Travail’ in the same name, dated 7 January 1943; Paris Metro ticket, 2nd class; a copy of a telegram message that appears to have been sent via the offices of the International Red Cross in Paris (‘We are still well and sending our best love’), undated; two official documents relating to his time in Spain, one of them being a Visa request by the British Consul-General in Barcelona to the Chief of Foreign Superior Police, dated 20 July 1943; and his R.A.F. Escaping Society membership card (1946).

(v) Several fascinating letters received by the recipient in the post-war era, 1945-47, all from members of the Resistance who assisted him in evading the enemy, but sadly, on occasion, reporting of the subsequent capture of some of their comrades - execution, torture and imprisonment, and Dachau or Buchenwald, are among fates discussed; and two of these letters from an Englishman, Mr. K. M. Bruce, who was married to a French doctor - it was Bruce who was called upon by the Resistance to verify the downed aviator’s credentials, and whose wife sheltered him in her Paris apartment.

(vi) “Bomber” Harris congratulatory postagram for the recipient’s award of the D.F.M., dated 19 October 1943; Buckingham Palace D.F.C. investiture letter, dated 15 March 1945, with a pair of related admittance tickets and family photograph taken outside the gates of the palace; and ‘Authority to Wear’ slip for his 1939-45 War campaign awards, including entitlement to the ‘France and Germany’ clasp.

(vii) A good selection of wartime photographs (approximately 30 images), including half a dozen of the target variety and several of the wreckage of his Halifax after its spectacular crash at Sandy Wood, Tempsford on 2 June 1944.

(viii) Wartime “Pilot’s and Flight Engineer’s Notes” for Halifax II, III, V, Stirling I, III, IV and Wellington III.

(ix) Air Ministry letter, dated 1 April 1955, advising the recipient that he was no longer liable to recall and that he would be permitted to retain the rank of Flight Lieutenant on relinquishing his commission.

(x) Caterpillar Club membership card and badge, the latter in gold with “ruby” eyes, the reverse inscribed, ‘F./Sgt. W. H. Marshall’

(xi) Parachute rip cord ring, presumably a souvenir from his baling out on the night of 12 May 1943; and his R.A.F. Officer’s cap badge.

(xii) The recipient’s R.A.F. officer’s tunic, complete with rank insignia, ‘E’ brevet and medal ribands, the inside pocket with tailor’s label, R. W. Anderson & Sons, York, this inscribed ‘Dec. 1943. P./O. W. H. Marshall’.