Beschreibung:

He’s gone. We do not understand. We only know as he turned to go and waved his hand In his young eyes a sudden glory shone and we were dazzled by a sun-set glow and he was gone.’ A poem inscribed in Sergeant Stephen Burns’s flying log book by his distraught mother, following his death in action in December 1943. A deeply poignant ‘Dambuster’s’ uniform and extensive archive appertaining to Sergeant S. “Ginger” Burns, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who flew as Rear Gunner in Pilot Officer Geoffrey Rice’s crew on the night of 16-17 May 1943: detailed to attack the Sorpe Dam, their ‘bouncing bomb’ was torn from its mountings when their Lancaster - flat out on the deck - hit the water at Vlieland: as his gun turret flooded up to his waist in salt water Burns was heard to exclaim, “Christ! It’s wet at the back, skipper” Already a veteran of assorted operations in No. 57 Squadron, he was killed in action in No. 617 Squadron’s attack on the armaments factory at Liege in December 1943: on his last leave he had told his mother that he didn’t expect to live and to prepare his younger brother and sister for his imminent death. The uniform and artefacts: (i) The recipient’s R.A.F. tunic, trousers and side cap, as kept at his mother’s house for when he went home on leave; when he was reported missing his mother was so distressed that a Doctor had to be called, and she was put to bed with this uniform to comfort her. (ii) His leather flying gloves, as worn on the Dams raid, together with a leather flying helmet and flying goggles, as given to his younger brother, Freddie, the former with ink inscriptions, ‘Thomas 145’ and S.G.F. 4’; and two embroidered A./G. brevets. (iii) His brown leather wallet, as purchased during 617‘s stop over at Ras-el-Ma in French Morocco in July 1943, and as listed on the back of his R.A.F. Will. (iv) A clock removed by the recipient from Lancaster ED-936 on its return from the ‘Dambuster’ raid; when his navigator, Richard MacFarlane, saw him removing the souvenir, he told him not to worry about it but Burns replied, “Waste not want not.” (v) A wooden painted model of a Lancaster made for Burns by Richard MacFarlane and brought home by him on leave; an accompanying newspaper cutting refers. The archive: (i) The recipient’s R.A.F. Air Observer’s and Air Gunner’s Flying Log Book, with entries covering the period September 1942 up until his death in action on the night of 20-21 December 1943, the following page inscribed with the above quoted poem written by his distraught mother; the monthly entries signed-off by some notable senior officers, among them Guy Gibson, Cheshire, Maltby and Shannon, complete with red ink ‘Death Presumed’ and ‘Central Depository, Royal Air Force’ stamps, dated ‘Jun. 1946’. (ii) His hand written Will, undated, witnessed by Sergeants Thomas Maynard and Chester Gowrie, who would be killed with him in December 1943. (iii) His R.A.F. omnibus warrant, dated 10 August 1943. (iv) His Buckingham Palace condolence slip addressed to ‘Mrs. S. Burns’. (v) Air Ministry telegram confirming the recipient’s death, dated 16 February 1944, following news received from the International Red Cross. (vi) An impressive - and poignant - array of wartime period letters (22), several of them in the recipient’s own hand to his mother, among them his description of the King’s visit to Scampton and Gibson’s award of the V.C. and four letters sent from R.A.F. Coningsby after 617’s move there a few weeks before his death in action; also including Leonard Cheshire to the recipient’s mother, dated 21 December 1943, reporting that her son had failed to return from an operational sortie the night before, together with another to her husband, dated 10 February 1944, stating that he had no further news and that his earlier letter to his wife was not a ‘stock letter’ and that he meant everything he said; Group Captain Evans to the recipient’s mother, also reporting her son as missing on operations, dated 24 December 1943