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Auction: 25002 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 192

A fine Second World War D.F.C. group of five awarded to Flight Lieutenant C. Robson, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, a veteran of 50 operational sorties flown as a Wireless Operator in Halifaxes and Lancasters of No. 427 (Lion) and No. 428 (Ghost) Squadrons, R.C.A.F.

No stranger to the sharp end of enemy fire - his aircraft was damaged by flak on several occasions and once returned to base on three engines - he was decorated for his courage and initiative when his aircraft was attacked by three FW. 190s over Kiel in April 1945; taking over the twin-Browning from his wounded rear gunner, he shot down one of them and damaged another

Distinguished Flying Cross, G.VI.R., the reverse officially dated '1945' and privately engraved, 'F./Lt. C. Robson, D.F.C., 428/427 R.C.A.F. Sqd.'; 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star, clasp, France and Germany; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, sold together with the recipient's Flying Log Book and an original archive, good very fine (5)

D.F.C. London Gazette 26 October 1945.

Clifford Robson joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in the summer of 1942, soon after which he commenced training as a Wireless Operator and Air Gunner. Qualifying in the former discipline in May 1943 and in the latter one in June 1943, he was advanced to Flight Sergeant and posted to No. 428 (Ghost) Squadron, R.C.A.F., in November 1943, a Halifax unit operating out of Middleton St. George, Co. Durham.

Having then flown his very first sortie to Frankfurt on the 23rd, in which his aircraft was damaged, he was assigned to a strike on Mannheim on 20 December. Poor weather having then intervened over winter, his next sortie - to Brest - was not flown until February.

Thereafter, however, the unit's operational activity picked up pace, with Robson and his crew undertaking no less than nine sorties in March. There were mainly against French targets, including Amiens on the 15th, when their Halifax was hit by flak and returned to base on three engines. A further eight sorties ensued in April: Cherbourg, Le Havre and Paris being among their targets, in addition to trips to Kiel and Rostock, whilst in May sorties to Ghent and Amsterdam added a Flemish element to their operational reach.

June, invariably, was taken up by operations in support of the Normandy landings, Robson and his crew flying nine such sorties, an outing to Boulogne on the 1st ending with a crash landing back in Yorkshire, and a target on the French coast on the 2nd being attacked on three engines. And following subsequent strikes on Lorient and St. Nazaire in the middle of the month, their Halifax had to be refuelled at alternative airfields.

Finally, in July, Robson reached the end of his 41-sortie tour with six further trips, two of them to Stuttgart and another to Hamburg, where he noted there were 'bags of fighters'. He was commissioned as a Pilot Officer and rested as an instructor.

In March 1945, however, having attended a heavy bomber conversion unit, he returned to an operational footing in No. 427 (Lion) Squadron, R.C.A.F., a Lancaster unit operating out of Leeming, North Yorkshire. Thus ensued nine sorties in the period leading up to V.E. Day, among them two trips to Hamburg ('Hit by flak. Bags of fighters') and Leipzig ('Hit by flak'). But it was on an outing to Kiel on 13 April that Robson enacted his heroic - and accurate - turn of duty as a stand-in 'tail-end-charlie'. In his own words:

'The D.F.C. was granted to me for the bombing raid on Kiel on 13 April 1945. We were attacked by a formation of three FW. 190s and my rear gunner was wounded. Being a radar and radio operator, I asked the pilot's permission to take over the rear gunner's place. Permission granted. I damaged one FW 190, shot down the second and the third made off. This was confirmed by other aircraft.'

Robson's final appointment was in No. 243 Squadron, a Transport Command unit in the Far East, in which he operated in Dakotas from November 1945 until his release in February 1946.

Sold with the recipient's original R.A.F. Navigator's, Air Bomber's and Air Gunner's Flying Log Book (Form 1767), covering the period August 1942 to February 1946, with four pasted-down photographs, one of them being of him with his crew, with their autographs, together with his Buckingham Palace D.F.C. forwarding letter and his above cited description of his D.F.C. action.

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Estimate
£1,200 to £1,600

Starting price
£950