Beschreibung:

A Fine Collection of Awards to the Men of Bomber Command 1939-45 A fine Second World War Blenheim and Boston pilot’s D.F.C., immediate anti-U-Boat operations D.F.M. group of six awarded to Squadron Leader R. S. “Dickie” Gunning, Royal Air Force, a low-level specialist who flew as a Deputy Leader in the famous strike against the Philips radio factory at Eindhoven in December 1942 Distinguished Flying Cross, G.VI.R., reverse officially dated 1943 and additionally engraved ‘S./ Ldr. R. S. Gunning’; Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R. (580132 Sgt. R. S. Gunning, R.A.F.), an early award correctly impressed in small capitals; 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; Defence and War Medals nearly very fine (6) £2400-2800 Footnote D.F.M. London Gazette 2 April 1940. The immediate award recommendation states: ‘During March 1940, this airman was the pilot of an aircraft engaged on a reconnaissance flight over a strongly defended area of the Heligoland Bight. When coming through the clouds at 2,500 feet a submarine was sighted on the surface. Sergeant Gunning at once dived and attacked giving the submarine no chance to submerge. Four bombs were dropped, the submarine being hit between the stern and conning tower.’ D.F.C. London Gazette 26 October 1943. The recommendation states: ‘This Officer has participated in many daylight sorties during which important targets have been attacked from a low level. He has displayed outstanding determination and faultless leadership, qualities which have contributed in a large measure to the success obtained. He has set a splendid example of courage and devotion to duty.’ Richard Samuel “Dickie” Gunning was born at Muswell Hill, London in April 1912, and enlisted in the Royal Air Force in February 1936, having served as a Gunner in the City of London Yeomanry from April 1933. Selected for pilot training, he qualified at No. 7 F.T.S. and was posted as a Sergeant to No. 49 Squadron at Worthy Down. By the outbreak of hostilities, however, he was an experienced pilot serving in No. 107 Squadron, a Blenheim unit operating out of Wattisham, shortly to be commanded by the dynamic Wing Commander Basil Embry, afterwards the most decorated low-level specialist of them all. Gunning flew his first operational sortie, an uneventful sweep over the North Sea, on New Year’s Day 1940, but on his very next mission, in early March, he accomplished one of the Squadron’s first great victories. Graham Pitchfork takes up the story in his title Men Behind the Medals: ‘On 4 March, Gunning and his crew of Sergeant W. Brinn and L.A.C. J. Bartley were on standby for strike and reconnaissance duties when his one of two aircraft was ordered to take off at 1300 hours to search for flak ships. Flying N 6183 again, he arrived off the Schilling Roads one-and-a-half hours later and sighted a number of merchant ships. Shortly afterwards he was leaving a bank of cloud at 2,500 feet when he sighted a U-Boat on the surface. He immediately set up an attack from directly astern and dived to 1,400 feet before dropping four 250lb. bombs. The Air Gunner observed the last bomb hit the submarine between the stern and the conning tower and, as Gunning turned his aircraft to starboard, the crew saw an explosion and a ‘mass of seething foam’ around the conning tower as the U-Boat crash dived. A reconnaissance sortie by an aircraft of 82 Squadron later confirmed that the Germans had placed four wreck buoys at the estimated position. Basil Embry commented on the valuable effect this attack had on the morale of the Squadron and, within days, Air Chief Marshal Sir Edgar Ludlow-Hewitt, the Commander-in-Chief of Bomber Command, approved the immediate award of the Distinguished Flying Medal to Sergeant Gunning. Post-war analysis shows that the same submarine was sunk by Squadron Leader M. V. Delap of 82 Squadron on 11 March, the day after the wreck markers had been seen. It is possible that the submarine had been salvaged or was badly damaged and was on its way b