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Auction: 23002 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 59

A well-documented and poignant Second World War casualty's group of three awarded to Sergeant R. D. "Ray" Collis, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

Already a veteran of the famous Hamburg 'firestorm' and Peenemunde raids, he was killed in action over Mannheim on the night of the 5-6 September 1943

His Halifax, in which he was serving as an Air Gunner, was shot down by the night fighter ace Oberleutnant Heinz-Martin Hadeball, three of the crew managing to take to their parachutes but the remainder being killed

1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; War Medal 1939-45, in their original O.H.M.S. card forwarding box, addressed to 'Mrs. B. H. Collis, 21 Heath Crescent, Stoke Heath, Coventry, Warwicks', extremely fine (3)

Raoul Derek Collis was born in Coventry, Warwickshire in April 1923, the son of Arthur Frank and Beatrice Hannah Collis. Educated at Stoke Council School, he found employment with the Morris Motor Company and was a keen rugby football player; an original wartime newspaper obituary, refers.
Enlisting in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve at the end of 1942, aged 19, direct from his studies at an Air Defence Cadet's Course, he attended No. 4 Air Gunnery School at Morpeth, where he was assessed as 'above average'. Having then attended operational training and conversion units, he was posted to No. 77 Squadron, equipped with Halifax bombers, at Elvington, Yorkshire in July 1943, and he participated in his first sortie - against Essen - on the 25th. Thereafter, he flew in Flight Sergeant D. C. W. Hamblyn's crew, commencing with three successive 'firestorm' strikes against Hamburg at the end of the month and in early August. Mannheim and Nuremburg followed on the 9th and 10th of August, Collis's Halifax being compelled to land at Tangmere on returning from the latter target, an emergency diversion repeated on the night of the 17th, when he and his crew participated in the famous strike against the V-weapon site at Peenemunde and were compelled to land at Woolfax Lodge.
Having then carried out a sortie against Leverkusen, Collis and his crew were allocated to a strike against Berlin on the 23rd, a round trip of over eight hours. Tragically, it was to prove his penultimate operational outing.

Journey's end

At 19.51 hours on the evening of 5 September 1943, Collis and his crew took-off from Elvington for a raid on Mannheim, their Halifax II - JB970 KN-U - once more being skippered by their New Zealand pilot, Flight Sergeant Hamblyn. Subsequent events were later confirmed by a fellow crew member, Flying Officer Fordham, who was taken P.O.W. and made a statement to the International Red Cross: while in the target area Hamblyn was obliged to dive steeply in order to avoid a mid-air collision. Level flight was then resumed at 11,000 feet but soon afterwards the Halifax was raked by fire from a night fighter, flown by Oberleutnant Heinz-Martin Hadeball of 3/NJG6, two kilometres south-west of Elmstein. Hamblyn, mortally wounded, collapsed over the controls, sending the Halifax into a steep dive, and flames quickly spread along the entire length of the fuselage. Three members of the crew managed to bale out, but the remainder, including 20-year-old Collis perished, the Halifax crashing in the target area, near Iggelbach.

Of the 605 aircraft that participated in the raid, 34 were lost, some 5.6% of the attacking force. Collis and his comrades were buried in a local cemetery, in an unregistered communal grave, but their remains were moved to a collective grave at Rheinberg War Cemetery in April 1948.

Postscript

Today, Elvington, from whence "Ray" Collis embarked on his final sortie, is home to an aviation museum, with surviving buildings and sights that would have been familiar to him, among them the wartime control tower and Nissen huts; at nearby Holy Trinity Church, a magnificent stained-glass window commemorates the fallen from No. 77 Squadron; sold with a quantity of original documentation and a wartime portrait photograph, the former including:

(i)

The recipient's R.A.F. Observer's and Air Gunner's Flying Log Book (Form 1767), with 'Death Presumed' and 'R.A.F. Central Depository' stamps, covering the period January-September 1943 and the recipient's entire career; together with related forwarding letter from the Central Depository to his mother.

(ii)
His named Air Defence Cadet's Course exercise book, with extensive pencilled notes and diagrams.

(iii)
Two wartime letters from the recipient to his brother, in one of which he laments that his pilot may be declared unfit for further duty.

(iv)
R.A.F. Elvington telegram to the recipient's father, reporting with regret that his son had been posted as missing, dated 6 September 1943, together with Buckingham Palace condolence letter, also addressed to the recipient's father, and a photograph of his crew's temporary wooden marker at Rheinberg Cemetery, with related notification letter of his reburial, dated 15 December 1948.

(v)
A letter addressed to the recipient's mother from the courtier and Red Cross volunteer 'Margaret Ampthill', in fact Baroness Ampthill, C.I., G.C.V.O., G.B.E., D. St. J. (1874-1957), dated 7 February 1944, in which she reports that news received from Flying Officer Fordham, a fellow crew member of her son, and now a P.O.W., likely confirms the certainty of her son's death.

(vi)
A photographic copy of a wartime portrait sketch of the recipient, signed 'AET', undated.


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Sold for
£600

Starting price
£400