Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A particularly fine Second World War Mosquito navigator's D.F.M. group of four awarded to Pilot Officer L. J. Etheridge, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who completed 50 sorties over France, Holland and Germany in 1944-45, an action packed tour that included a brace of crash-landings back in England after damage sustained in action - once on one engine with a hung-up 500lb. bomb: so, too, the spectacular daylight raids on the S.S.-occupied Chateau de Fou in August 1944 and S.S. barracks at Arnhem in the following month

Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R. (1603309. F/Sgt. L. J. Etheridge. R.A.F.); 1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; War Medal 1939-45, generally good very fine (4) £3,000-£4,000

Dix Noonan Webb, March 2008.

D.F.M. London Gazette 8 May 1945. The original recommendation states:

'Flight Sergeant Etheridge has completed 50 sorties with his pilot, Flight Lieutenant Gasson, including three daylight operations.

This N.C.O. has proved himself to be an excellent operational Navigator. He has never failed to bring his pilot to the target area, often despite poor weather conditions and without navigational aids.

Some of the sorties in which he was engaged involved very deep penetrations into enemy territory, where accurate navigation, without Gee facilities, was vital to the success of the missions.

The results obtained by this Navigator and his pilot have been outstandingly good as the following examples will show.

On the night of 6-7 August 1944, a moving light was attacked in France and due to the fact that the attack was pressed home to a low level the port engine was hit by a ricochet and caught fire at 1500 feet. The port propeller was feathered and the graviner switch operated. The return flight was made on one engine and Flight Sergeant Etheridge's accurate navigation brought them safely to England. It was found that height could not be maintained with the result that the English coast was crossed at 400 feet and a crash landing made at Ford.

On the night of 4-5 October 1944, when carrying out a patrol over Holland and Germany, two trains were found in a railway station at Millingen, which were attacked with bombs and cannon. A large explosion followed the attack and later a fire started. During the same patrol a tug and six barges were found and successfully strafed.

Flight Sergeant Etheridge also took part in the successful daylight operations against the chateau south of Chatellerault on 2nd August, trains at Chalons on 25 August 1944 and on the barracks at Arnhem on 17 September 1944.

Flight Sergeant Etheridge possesses great determination and coolness in times of crisis. His fine offensive spirit, which is equal to that of his pilot, has gone to make an ideal Mosquito crew. In view of his fine operational record, I strongly recommend him for the award of the Distinguished Flying Medal.'

Laurence James Etheridge was born in Hampshire in January 1921. He commenced his operational career with 107 Squadron, a Mosquito unit of 2nd Tactical Air Force's 138 Wing, operating out of Lasham, in July 1944, when, with his New Zealander pilot, Flight Lieutenant L. Gasson, he completed an offensive patrol over Vire-Falaise-Trouville sector on the night of the 24th-25th. Indeed it was to prove the first of a spate of such patrols in support of the Allied landings, 107’s Mosquito VIs targeting enemy troops, transport and communications, often with great success, according to the Squadron's Operational Record Book (O.R.B.), by means of bombing and cannon fire delivered from altitudes as low as 500-1000 feet. Success was also dependent on a bright moon, a case in point being Etheridge's third sortie - against targets in the upper reaches of the Seine, from Rouen on the night of 30-31 July - when 107's Mosquitoes strafed and bombed a variety of trains, bridges, roads and in fact, any moving lights, but not without interference from the usual flak concentrations which had a habit of 'creeping up on the unwary'.

Etheridge's next sortie was of the daylight variety, one of a series of famous strikes against the S.S. and Gestapo, in this case an attack on troops of the notorious 158th “Security” Regiment - who had recently murdered members of the S.A.S. - in the Chateau de Fou, south of Chatellerault on 2 August, a spectacular raid captured on camera, and one in which his aircraft, Mosquito A-NT. 136, formed part of the third wave - never the best place to be with aroused defences:

‘In the woods to the immediate south of the Chateau, one large explosion was seen after a cannon attack, possibly from motor transport. Bombs landed all round the Chateau but no direct hit was claimed. Strikes were obtained on the roof in a cannon attack and a small fire was seen to start inside. Aircraft ‘D’ sustained the loss of one engine over the target and crash landed at Thorney Island - crew unhurt. The trip back was uneventful except for a little flak soon after leaving the target, which was successfully avoided by all except F./O. Staple in Aircraft ‘J’ ... It is doubtful if the Chateau was entirely destroyed but troops possibly hiding in the woods would have been eliminated’ (107’s Squadron Operational Record Book refers).

Two days later Etheridge was part of a Squadron effort to lend support to the Army in the Caen sector, when 'much activity was seen in the battle zone and flak was very considerable', while on the night of 6-7 August, as cited above, he and Gasson were compelled to return from France on one engine, the other having been set alight by a ricochet from their own low-level cannon-fire - not mentioned, however, is the fact they were carrying a hung-up 500lb. bomb as they made their crash landing at Ford in Sussex and that said bomb exploded just two minutes after they had scrambled clear of the wreckage. Notwithstanding such a close-call, both were back in action over France, chasing trains out of Paris, the very next night. So, too, on the 8th-9th, evidence indeed of 107's constant operational agenda, another three nights of successive operations taking place between the 12th-15th, in one of which further trains were shot up in the Falaise sector.

And as if this "three-nighter" agenda were not punishing enough, Etheridge and Gasson were called upon to carry out two sorties on the night of 16th-17th, both of them strikes against barges on the Seine - such was the ferocity of the flak that neither could see the results of their attacks. Bad weather then having intervened, their next sortie was flown on the night of 23-24 August, on a line between Cap D'Antifer and Lens, another on the 24th-25th, and a daylight operation against railway targets at Chalons in the afternoon of the latter date - a spectacular mission in which a number of oil-trains were hit, exploding 'with a terrific mushroom of flame and black smoke', but a mission, too, in which most of the participating aircraft were also damaged by return fire: a vivid portrayal of 107’s Mosquito VIs on a low-level railway strike over France, by David Pentalnd, is available as a limited edition print from Cranston Fine Arts.

The Squadron now having moved to Epinoy, France, September started with a deep penetration sortie into Holland and Germany on the night of the 5th-6th, severe jamming preventing the use of GEE and making Etheridge's navigation role all the more difficult, while on the 9th-10th eight of 107s aircraft destroyed a brace of ammunition trains between Metz and Morhange, taking it in turns to carry out devastating cannon and machine-gun attacks. A successful sortie to Holland followed on the night of the 11th-12th, a less successful one on the 13th-14th, while on the 17th Etheridge and Gasson, piloting Mosquito B-NT. 207 in 107's sky black formation, paved the way for the biggest airborne landings ever made with a daylight attack on the S.S. barracks at Arnhem. At 0700 hours that morning, a total of 32 crews from 107 and 603 Squadrons were assembled for a special briefing, during which models of enemy barracks were unveiled - their target: S.S. troop positions at Arnhem. Take-off was at 10.45 a.m., 107s Mosquito VIs attacking in waves of four on reaching Arnhem, at varying altitudes of 800-1,500 feet. Flak was intense and two of their aircraft were downed.

Two deep penetration sorties against Germany on successive nights ended 107's September agenda, another similar operation and trips to Holland dominating October, not least the above mentioned attack on trains at Millingen and a softening-up of enemy defences in preparation for the assault on Walcheren on the last day of the month - low cloud compelling the Squadron's Mosquito VIs to attack from below 500 feet. Poor weather appears to have limited potential targets in November, just two trips being made with varied results, but December saw Etheridge participating in at least half a dozen more strikes on German targets, more often than not in direct support of our ground forces - thus a congratulatory telegram from 21st Army Group after an accurate attack against enemy troops concentrated near Heinsburg on the night of 6th-7th; so, too, signs of his determination to locate and attack a target whatever the weather conditions, his Mosquito being the only one in the Squadron to do so on the night of 17-18th, when 'everyone experienced flak of varying intensity and accuracy'. But flak was not the only prevailing danger, 107's O.R.B. noting that many of these operations were flown with special long-range fuel tanks, but nonetheless with aircraft still landing back at base on last reserves, a danger compounded by poor weather conditions.

Fortunately for Etheridge and Gasson, the end of their operational tour was in sight, their fiftieth sortie being flown at the end of January, in which month half a dozen patrols were flown, the whole with the aim of attacking and harassing enemy movements - thus 107's O.R.B. proclamation for a sortie on the night of the 17th-18th: 'To destroy billets and kill Huns in Wegberg and north of Heinsberg ... This operation was very successful and several fires were started in factories and houses'. Some of these operations were of the "turn around" variety too, namely back to base to re-arm and thence to the same target, but that would have been impossible for Etheridge and Gasson on their final mission on the night of 27th-28th:

'Flight Lieutenant Gasson's aircraft was hit by flak on leaving the target area, resulting in extensive damage. Returning to base, his hydraulics and electric systems U./S., and with no V.H.F., he very successfully crash-landed, neither he nor his Navigator, Flight Sergeant Etheridge, suffering any injury.'

Etheridge was commissioned as a Pilot Officer at the end of the month and awarded the D.F.M. He died in Biddulph, Staffordshire in February 1997.

Sold with three original congratulatory telegrams regarding the award of the recipient’s D.F.M., including one from the C.O. of 138 Wing. Also with extensive research, including copies of the relevant O.R.B.