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Auction: 20001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - conducted behind closed doors
Lot: 750

A 1942 Wellington Navigators D.F.M. awarded to Flight Lieutenant C. E. Saunders, Royal Auxiliary Air Force, late No. 150 Squadron, Royal Air Force, who was decorated for his 33 sorties, including the daylight attack against the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau during the famous 'Channel Dash' on 12 February 1942

Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R. (1250052. Sgt. C. E. Saunders. R.A.F.), minor contact marks, good very fine

D.F.M. London Gazette 22 September 1942. The original recommendation states:

'Sergeant Saunders joined the Squadron in December, 1941, and has completed 33 operational sorties over Germany and the occupied countries, including one daylight attack against the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.

His outstanding ability as a navigator and strong sense of duty has been an inspiration to his crew and has set a magnificent example to the rest of the Squadron. Sergeant Saunders possesses coolness and displays exceptional fearlessness in the face of danger which has proved him to be an outstanding member of a gallant crew. His co-operation, skill as a navigator and devotion to duty has contributed in a large measure to the operational success of the crew in which he is Navigator.

On many occasions, during the winter, he has had to navigate his aircraft under bad weather conditions and his dogged determination and fine offensive spirit has enabled his Captain to successfully bomb the target and return safely to base.

Under a calm and quiet manner he has a fine offensive spirit in action which inspires a high standard of morale in his crew making him well worthy of recognition by the award of the Distinguished Flying Medal.'

The covering remarks of Group Captain D. L. Thomson, D.S.O., D.F.C., Officer Commanding, R.A.F. Snaith, add:

'This non-commissioned officer has displayed outstanding ability as a Navigator, and has inspired great confidence in the members of his crew. On many sorties, in spite of bad weather conditions, he has successfully navigated his aircraft to the target and back to base. I recommend that his consistently good work be recognised by the award of the D.F.M.'

Cyril Edgar Saunders flew his first operational bombing sortie with No. 150 Squadron on 8 December 1941. His target - the airfield at Cormeilles on the outskirts of Paris - had been seized by the Germans in June 1940 and was home to Kampfgeschwader 76, equipped at that time with Dornier Do17 and Ju88 aircraft. He conducted further attacks on Cherbourg, Hamburg and Munster, together with a bombing sortie to the French port of Brest on 8 January 1942. This was repeated on 11 February 1942 when he attacked the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in dock. The Operational Records Book describes this attack by ten aircraft of No. 150 Squadron:

'The sun was just setting when our aircraft arrived. The arrival of our party had evidently been anticipated for the smoke generators were discharging great volumes of smoke across the target area. Accurate bombing was carried out from heights between 9,000 and 15,000 feet but results were hard to observe owing to the continual bursting of flak. One aircraft and crew are missing from this operation.'

It was the success of this effort-consuming, albeit costly campaign by Bomber Command that persuaded the Germans that the ships should be brought back to the greater protection of German ports. Both warships had been damaged at La Pallice by the dropping of 3,413 tons of bombs and it was this success - at the cost of 127 aircraft - which prevented them from sailing on another Atlantic shipping raid (The Bomber Command War Diaries, refers).

Channel Dash

Codenamed Unternehmen Zerberus (Operation Cerberus), it was the intention of the German Naval Command that the battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, together with the light cruiser Prinz Eugen, would sail from Brest to Germany through the English Channel in a carefully prepared and well-executed operation. Departing at 9.14pm on 11 February under the cover of darkness, all initially went to plan as the ships escaped detection for approximately 12 hours. Having purposefully selected a day of poor weather and low cloud, this natural concealment ensured that the ships managed to approach the Straits of Dover before discovery. Despite enigma decrypts, photo-reconnaissance flights and SIS monitoring by agents in the port, news of the preparations had failed to reach the British who were woefully unprepared.

The surface ships were first detected by the RDF plotters at Beachy Head under the command of Squadron Leader Bill Igoe, the escorting fighter aircraft giving away their presence whilst circling in the vicinity of Le Havre. At 10am, No. 11 Group Fighter Command realised the plots were moving north-east at 20-25 knots, and quickly despatched two Spitfire aircraft to reconnoitre. The pilots reported a flotilla off Le Touquet but not the capital ships (The Struggle at Sea: The First Battle of the Convoy Routes, the Anti-Shipping Offensive and the Escape of the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, refers). News of the sighting was rushed to No. 11 Group, but it was the coincidental discovery of the ships by two senior fighter pilots from R.A.F. Kenley returning from an intruder mission to the French coastline that finally led to the alert to Bomber Command that the Brest Group were nearing Dover. The pursuit was on!

Owing to the weather, it was soon realised that most of Bomber Command had been 'stood down' for the day, offering a welcome opportunity to service machines. Only No. 5 Group was at 4 hours' notice and they made frantic efforts to prepare aircraft for an attack, supported by small numbers from Fighter Command, Coastal Command and the Fleet Air Arm. In three waves from 1.30pm, the Royal Air Force dispatched 92 Wellington aircraft, 64 Hampdens, 37 Blenheims, 15 Manchesters, 13 Halifaxes, 11 Stirlings and 10 of the new American-built Boston bombers against the German warships. At this stage of the war this represented the largest daylight operation that Bomber Command had ever attempted, however the results failed to match the triumph of deployment; the poor weather meant that most aircraft failed to find the enemy and those that did failed to score hits on their fast-moving and heavily defended targets. This is confirmed by the Operations Record Book for No. 150 Squadron which states:

'After flying for over two hours the search was forced to be abandoned owing to impossible conditions and the last aircraft landed back at base shortly before dusk. Squadron stood down.'

Both the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were slowed down after striking mines laid off the Frisian Islands by Hampden and Manchester aircraft of No. 5 Group, but all the German ships reached the safety of the Elbe at 7am on 13 February 1942.

Hindsight

The Channel Dash cost 42 aircraft recorded over 398 Fighter Command, 242 Bomber Command and 35 Coastal Command sorties (The Victory at Sea 1939-45, by P. K. Kemp, refers). British public opinion was appalled and British prestige suffered at home and abroad, a leading article printed in The Times on 14 February 1942 noting:

'Vice Admiral Ciliax has succeeded where the Duke of Medina Sidonia failed. Nothing more mortifying to the pride of our sea-power has happened since the 17th Century.'

As part of the daylight attacking force, Saunders returned safely to base after a 4.55hr sortie in Wellington X9003 (AIR 27/1010, refers). In hindsight, the poor weather conditions had been a blessing in disguise for No. 150 Squadron; a Board of Enquiry found that the delay in detecting the German ships led to the British attacks being made piecemeal, and that the few aircraft and ships that found the group were 'cut to pieces'. The British response - Operation Fuller - had failed, but the audacious move by the enemy was later viewed as a tactical failure, author Ken Ford writing in 2012 that the German ships had 'merely exchanged one prison for another' (Run the Gauntlet: The Channel Dash, 1942, refers). Just two weeks later Bomber Command raids terminally damaged the Gneisenau at Kiel.

Saunders returned to active service on 21 February 1942 with a bombing sortie to Mannheim. This was followed by a series of attacks on Essen, Cologne, Lubeck, and the Matford Works on the bank of the River Seine on 2 April 1942. It was believed that this target, the Ford Motor Works near Poissy, was turning out military vehicles for the Germans (Bombs Away! Dramatic First-Hand Accounts of British and Commonwealth Bomber Crews, refers). Further attacks were made on Hamburg, Dieppe and Emden, Saunders ending his first tour of 33 missions with a sortie to Bremen on 25 June 1942.

Appointed Temporary Warrant Officer on 24 August 1942, Saunders rested and likely spent the remainder of the year on training exercises. Decorated with the D.F.M., he returned to the fray in February 1943 and flew a second tour of 27 sorties. This included two bombing missions over Berlin, three over Dusseldorf, and raids on Milan, Mulheim, Oberhausen, Leipzig and Bochum.

Saunders was appointed Flight Lieutenant and posted to the General Duties Branch (Navigators) on 24 August 1944. He survived the war and was appointed to a commission with the Royal Auxiliary Air Force on 6 August 1967; sold with copied recommendations, AIR 2 PRO record details and research.


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Sold for
£1,600

Starting price
£950