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Auction: 19002 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 165

Four: Flying Officer G. A. Plastow, Royal Air Force, a Catalina pilot who escorted a surrendering German U-Boat at the war's end

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Burma Star; War Medal 1939-45, good very fine (4)

Gordon A. Plastow enlisted in the Royal Air Force in August 1941 and was embarked for Canada for pilot training in early 1942; he also attended a course at Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida.

Returning to the U.K. in the summer of 1943, he attended No. 131 O.T.U. and converted - as 2nd pilot - to Catalinas, and in was in this capacity that he would see active service in No. 240 Squadron over the Indian Ocean in the following year; family sources state that on his outward journey his aircraft was pursued by enemy fighters off Malta and had to undertake a forced-landing in Tobruk harbour.

Embarked for the U.K. in September 1944, Plastow flew operationally on convoy escorts with No. 202 Squadron in the period leading up to V.E. Day and, as cited above, escorted a surrendering U-Boat to Belfast at the war's end. He appears to have been released from the R.A.F. in May 1946.

Sold with the recipient's original Royal Canadian Air Force Pilot's Flying Log Book, covering the period April 1942 to May 1945, together with photocopied biographical entry, with photographs, taken from a family source.


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Sold for
£260