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Auction: 17003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 586

A fine Second World War airborne operations group of nine awarded to Sergeant W. R. 'Ray' Fiander, 2nd Parachute Squadron, Royal Engineers, who participated in Operations "Rugby" and "Manna" in August-October 1944, and who may well have been attached to the S.A.S

He afterwards rose to Chief Inspector in the Kent Constabulary but his enthusiasm for parachuting never deserted him: 'he carried out hundreds of leaps as part of a display team with his last jump at the age of 70'

1939-45 Star; Africa Star, copy clasp, 8th Army; Italy Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Palestine 1945-48 (1878160 Cpl. W. Fiander, R.E.); Jubilee 1977; Police Long Service, E.II.R. (Ch. Inspr. Wilfred R. Fiander), mounted as worn, very fine and better (9)

Wilfred Raymond 'Ray' Fiander was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire in February 1923 and enlisted in the Royal Engineers as a boy recruit at Weymouth in July 1939.

Embarked for the Middle East in July 1942, he saw action with the 8th Army in North Africa until transferred to West Africa in August 1943. Having then qualified as a parachutist in March 1944, he joined the 2nd Parachute Squadron, R.E., 2nd Parachute Brigade, and it was in this capacity that he saw further action with the Central Mediterranean Force, including the Monte Cassino operations in Italy.

Operations "Rugby" and "Manna"

Fiander next participated in the airborne assault on the South of France, when, in August 1944, 2nd Parachute Brigade was dropped over the Argens Valley in support of the American 7th Army. The Brigade went on to capture its main objective but the capture of Le Muy had to be delegated to the Americans, for casualties amounted to 51 killed, 130 wounded and 181 missing. A local newspaper obituary records that Fiander was on one occasion slightly wounded by shrapnel: this may have been that occasion.

The 2nd Parachute Brigade returned to Italy at the end of August 1944, in readiness for its next assignment: Operation "Manna". On the night of 12-13 October 1944, the Brigade was dropped onto Megara airfield, near Athens, from whence, over three months of bitter fighting, it advanced to Salonika and the border with Bulgaria.

Fiander took his discharge from the Regular Army in the acting rank of Sergeant in May 1949.

Postscript

Opting for a career in the Police, he rose to senior command in the Kent Constabulary and was awarded the Jubilee Medal in 1977 as a Chief Inspector (the official roll, refers).

He retained an active interest in his airborne past and enacted free fall parachute drops over Arnhem during reunions in the 1960s: in fact 'he carried out hundreds of leaps as part of a display team with his last jump at the age of 70' (Obituary notice, The Kentish Gazette, 13 August 2009, refers).

Sold with the recipient's original wartime Soldier's Service and Pay Book and his Regular Army Certificate of Service, together with copied obituary notices. The former includes 'SAS' references alongside issuance details in respect of his campaign awards.


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Sold for
£600