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Auction: 26003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 336

(x) The remarkable and unique 1943 D.F.M. and Polar Medal group awarded to Base Commander (Meteorologist & Photographer) W. R. J. Dingle, Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions, late Flight Sergeant, Royal Air Force

A veteran of some 41 Ops in Halifax's during the Second World War, including flying in support of the St Nazaire Raid on 28 March 1942, he made six attacks on 'The Big City', Berlin, before taking his D.F.M. and being forced to take to his parachute after bombing Frankfurt on 20 December 1943; spending that Christmas on the run, before being captured by the Gestapo on a train destined for Brussels on 6 January 1944 and spending a week in solitary for his troubles - eventually being sent to a Prisoner of War camp

Dingle thence took the opportunity to venture to the Antarctic with the Australian Expeditions - spending no less than seven winters in the Antarctic and carving his name into history as a prominent member and Officer-in-Charge of Expeditions

Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R. (1380581 Act. F. Sgt. W. R. J. Dingle. R.A.F.); 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; War Medal 1939-45; Polar 1904, E.II.R., silver issue, 2 clasps, Antarctic 1954-55, Antarctic 1957 (William R. J. Dingle), officially impressed naming, cotton between clasps, mounted court-style as worn by Spink & Son, London, good very fine, together with his Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions Medals, named for Heard Island 'Bob Dingle 1951', for Macquarie Island 'Bob Dingle 1956' and for Wilkes 'Bob Dingle 1959', each cased, besides his Pathfinder's Badge (Lot)

Exhibited:
200 Years of Polar Exploration, Spink, November 2019 (p219-220 of Exhibition Catalogue).

Purchased Spink 1987.

D.F.M. London Gazette 16 November 1943.

The best story of the life of William Robert John Dingle - or 'Bob' to his friends and comrades - was published by Dr Herbert J. G. Dartnall, in the Papers & Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania in Volume 152 of 2018. The text below is derived from that publication:

'When Bob Dingle retired he moved to Swansea on the east coast of Tasmania where he quickly settled in as a generous and active member of this small town. It was pointless telephoning him during the day as he'd be pottering in his garden or out and about in the community. Mister Dingle, as he was universally known, helped deliver meals-on-wheels and library books to those confined to home, ferried local residents to Hobart for hospital appointments, visited the sick to see what he could do and for many years audited the local Anglican church accounts. His was a quiet albeit active retirement in stark contrast to his extremely varied, adventurous, exciting and peripatetic working life.

He was born William Robert John Dingle on 5 November 1920 at home in Stithians, Cornwall, United Kingdom, the only surviving child of William Dingle and Miriam Jane Dingle née Reed. There was a younger brother but he only lived for a few hours. Bob's father worked as a quarryman, where the rope and lashing skills he learnt whilst serving in the Royal Navy were in great demand. Bob was educated locally at the Helston Grammar School but left in 1936 to join the General Post Office (GPO) as a sorting clerk and telephonist.

With the advent of the Second World War he enlisted as an Aircraftman 2nd class in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve on 10 October 1940. The following year he remustered as a Wireless Operator Air Gunner undergoing training at No 2 Signals School from 1 August 1941 and No 8 Air Gunnery School on 16 July 1942. On 31 August 1942 Temporary Sergeant W R J Dingle was posted to No 11 Operational Training Unit where he linked up with three New Zealanders and together formed the nucleus of a bomber crew. On February 19, 1943 they were posted to 78 Squadron based at Linton-on-Ouse, near York, after spending 2½ months at 1652 Conversion Unit, Marston Moor training on Halifax bombers. Over the coming months they would take part in what would become known as the Battle of the Ruhr, be involved with the firebombing of Hamberg and take part in the opening phase of the Battle of Berlin. As was the normal operational procedure of the time Bob flew his first three operations (Ops) with other crews to gain experience.

Five ops later on 20 April 1943 Bob and his crew were posted to 35 Squadron based at Graveley, Huntingdonshire. Although No 35 Squadron was a pathfinder squadron they flew with the main bomber force at first to gain further experience. But after Bob's 12th Op (to Bochum on 13-14 May) they always flew as Pathfinders - marking the target in front of the main bomber force and guiding them to the target. They turned back twice (on 11 June when the target was Munster and on 27 August when the target was Nürnberg), when their navigational equipment, IFF (indicator friend or foe), GEE (navigational equipment) and Y equipment (target finder) instruments blew up or otherwise failed, returning to Graveley early after jettisoning their bombs, markers and flares in the North Sea. The raid on Krefeld (Bob's 16th op on 21/22 June) was particularly disastrous for 35 Squadron. Six of nineteen Halifax's from 35 Squadron were lost that night - two were lost at sea, three were shot down by night-fighters and one just managed to stagger back and ditched some 30 miles east of Cromer after being damaged by flack. That crew were saved but of the other five crews 20 were killed and 16 made prisoner of war (Chorley, 1996). Bob and his crew were lucky and came through unscathed.

In late July Bomber Command turned its attention on Hamburg and over an eleven day period bombed that city on four occasions while the American Eighth Air Force targeted the docks, U-boat construction yards and various factories during the day. Bob and crew took part in all four raids. British losses over those four nights were light with 12 aircraft out of 791 lost on the night of 24/25 July, 17 out of 787 aircraft lost on the 27/28 July, 28 out of 777 on 29/30 July and a further 28 out of 740 on the 2/3 August (Middlebrook & Everitt, 2000). These relatively light losses were attributed to the first use of windows or chaff - small strips of aluminium that produce false echoes on the enemy's radar. It was extremely hot and very dry the second time they went to Hamburg and the bombing was highly concentrated. A massive firestorm developed that raged for many hours killing an estimated 40,000 civilians (Middlebrook & Everitt, 2000). Bob and crew were briefed for the Peenemünde raid (17/18 August) but for some reason, Bob could not remember why, they were stood down. August '43 was a busy month and Bob and his crew took part in eight ops including two that involved flying over the Alps to Turin so that by the end of that month they had completed their first tour of operations (30 ops). They immediately embarked on a second tour completing a further six ops over the coming three months that took them to the end of November 1943.

By mid-December 1943 Bob had flown 38 successful missions including six trips to Berlin. By then his crew were highly experienced, highly decorated (see Awards to Bob's crew) and five including Bob had been commissioned though he was still flying as a Flight Sergeant. That month 35 Squadron were issued with new B Mark III Halifax's and on 20 December four of these aircraft, including Bob's, were sent to attack Frankfurt. Halifax HX270 (M) took off at 1730 hours. Unfortunately, soon after take-off their airborne, ground scanning radar system (H2S) failed, so that they were unable to drop their target markers. Notwithstanding this they continued on and bombed the target with high explosives and incendiaries. Up until then the flight had been uneventful and no damage had been experienced from either the ground defences (flack) or night-fighters. However, on their way back home and shortly after crossing the German/Belgian border at an altitude of about 20,000 feet, one of the inner engines inexplicably caught fire. All attempts to extinguish the fire were unsuccessful, and when the fire spread to the main fabric of the aeroplane close to where the marker flares were stored, the pilot had no option but to give the order to bail-out.

Bob vividly recalled as he floated down, the barks and growls of countless dogs thousands of feet below disturbed by the sound of hundreds of aero engines passing overhead. He landed alone in a ploughed field and after burying his parachute began walking in a SW direction until 0500 hours next morning. He spent the day hidden in a haystack near Wellen, Belgium and at dusk he began walking again in a SW direction. About half an hour later he spoke to a farmer who took him home. Three hours later a man arrived with a bicycle who took him to a small town where he spent the night with a family whose name he never learnt. On the morning of 22 December he cycled to a farm where he met up with his flight engineer, Flight Sergeant William (Bill) Sinclair. Two members of this unnamed family then cycled with them to Neder Rechem some miles away, where they spent the night with the leader of the local underground. They had successfully linked up with the escape chain run by Walthère Dewé - a noted resistance leader during both World Wars who was shot and killed some weeks later. Next day Bill and Bob caught a tram to Liège where they spent the next 13 days in hiding. On 5 January 1944 they were joined by Sgt H L Pike, an RAF Observer, who had only recently been shot down. The following day they were to take the train to Brussels but a random search by the Gestapo revealed that although their identity cards passed scrutiny they did not have work passes. Bob and Sgt Pike were taken away and beaten up as they would not answer any questions. Taken prisoner, they were initially held in the civilian prison at Liège for six days in solitary confinement. Bob was sent to Stalag IVB (Mühlberg) where he spent the rest of the war as a Prisoner of War.

Stalag IVB was liberated by the Russians on 23 April 1945 but it was several days before Bob and the rest of his fellow POWs were allowed to cross the River Elbe and make contact with other allied troops. Their return journey to the United Kingdom was in three stages - they marched/walked most of the distance from Mühlberg to Halle; air transport from Halle to Brussels; then air transport from Brussels to an airfield near Harwell, Oxfordshire.

Immediately post-war Bob served with a number of conversion units before joining 46 Squadron as a Flight Lieutenant flying Dakotas out of Stoney Cross. He was demobbed in late November 1946 and re-joined the GPO, taking an accountancy course at Bristol. In 1949 he came to Australia, securing a free berth on the MV Somersetshire. Sponsored by an aunt, who had settled in Griffith after the First World War, she had secured for him a job with the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Commission. On arrival Bob took one look at the set-up and left for Tasmania. He landed at Burnie where he was offered three jobs - as an insurance agent in Hobart, as a clerk with an aluminium mine on the Tamar River and, the one he accepted, as a clerk with the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company, Queenstown. The office work he undertook involved, amongst other duties, twice daily weather observations. Here he developed a lasting passion for the Tasmanian wild country and learned to tolerate the ever persistent rain and drizzle peculiar to the west coast of the Island State. All told he spent an enjoyable five months on the staff but this was not the life for him. A magazine article about Australia's subantarctic islands - Heard Island and Macquarie Island - fired his interest so that when in March 1950 The Mercury, Tasmania's daily newspaper, carried an advertisement from the Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology looking for trainee Weather Observers he applied with the express intention of going south.

He underwent a training course in Melbourne and was posted to RAAF Forest Hills near Wagga Wagga, New South Wales to gain experience. January 1951 saw him on board HMAS Labuan on his way to Heard Island as part of the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE) where he spent his first winter south. With hindsight, Heard Island was Bob's favourite Antarctic location - it had it all - the mixture of wildlife and vegetation, ice and snow, coastal and mountainous scenery. Whilst there Bob, Nils Lied and Ken Brown completed an epic 16 day trek, circum-navigating the island while doing a seal count. This was a self-supporting expedition, without radio contact - for which they had to carry all their personal equipment, food, cooking stove and utensils, fuel and camping gear. In 1951 the glaciers radiating out from Big Ben flowed down to the sea. Since then the glaciers have retreated inland as a result of global climate change, so that large pro-glacial lakes or lagoons have formed on the land between the glaciers snout and the sea. The 1951 trip would now be impossible on foot as well as being forbidden under modern health and safety considerations.

Back in Australia at Port Hedland Bob volunteered and was accepted for a second Antarctic tour to Macquarie Island but he was asked to defer this appointment and be part of the team to establish Australia's first Continental Antarctic Base, to be called Mawson Station during the 1953-54 summer. In February 1954 Mawson Station was established on an isolated outcrop of rock in MacRobertson Land. Bob was the sole Weather Observer in the party of ten. The party was relieved just over a year later and in January 1956 the announcement of his Polar Medal followed.

Bob spent the 1956 winter on Macquarie Island. Whilst there he was invited to be the Officer-in-Charge, and sole Meteorological Observer of Australia's second Antarctic Station to be established during the 1956-57 summer. The MV Kista Dan relieved Macquarie Island and, with Bob on board, arrived back in Melbourne on 11 December 1956. Six days later he was back on board the Kista Dan on his way to the Vestfold Hills, an ice-free oasis in Princess Elizabeth Land, where they began building Davis Station. A six day turn-around between two wintering years was most unusual; a year or two gap between consecutive overwinterings was the norm. At other times between trips south, Bob had been sent by the Bureau of Meteorology to various RAAF stations around Australia, and to the Giles Weather Station in Central Australia that had been established to satisfy launch activities at the Woomera rocket range. On one of these gap years early in the sequence Bob took time out to go to New Zealand and visit the families of his bomber crew who had been killed during the War.

Just five men made up the Davis 1957 wintering party. As well as improving their prefabricated living quarters they carried out research projects in meteorology and geology, maintained an all sky camera for auroral studies, trained dogs and explored the local area. A very full program had been successfully carried out and in January 1960 the London Gazette carried the announcement that all five had been recognised with the award of the Polar Medal; or as in Bob's case an additional clasp dated 'Antarctic 1957'.

In August 1958 Bob was granted special leave from the Bureau whilst attached to ANARE, and was appointed Officer-in-Charge of Wilkes Station following its transfer from the United States Antarctic Research Program (USARP) to ANARE in February 1959. In addition to his Officer-in-Charge duties Bob carried out a limited research program for the Meteorology Department at Melbourne University (UNIMET). This proved to be Bob's most difficult Antarctic posting. On 7 April 1959 one of the two diesel mechanics suffered a nervous breakdown and had to be confined and sedated. Three months after Henry Brandt went crazy the other mechanic, Hartley Robinson, was accidently crushed under the tracks of his tractor when it rolled down a slope. The loss of both diesel mechanics was a disaster but Antarctic expeditioners are invariably multi-skilled and highly adaptable and the Wilkes crew managed to keep the station up and running (Bowden, 1997). Bob's father died on 31 December 1959 while he was at Wilkes.

In July 1961 Bob was again granted special leave from the Bureau of Meteorology whilst attached to UNIMET to join the USARP team at Byrd Station. Here he performed routine weather observations for the United States Weather Bureau (USWB) and carried out a series of snow drift observations for UNIMET during the 1962 winter.

Back in Australia he spent a year and a half at Willis Station (east of Cairns in the Coral Sea). Then, Willis station had a population of just three, two radio operators and one weather observer. In addition to his other duties Bob carried out routine weather observations for UNIMET. The fishing was good and the location was very desirable for amateur radio contacts with the rest of the world but his companions were quarrelsome. On his return he spent a very enjoyable six weeks on the summit of Mount Buller, just 200km east of Melbourne, testing equipment for the CSIRO.

In December 1966 Bob was again seconded to the USARP and spent the 1967 winter at Plateau Station where he carried out routine weather observations for the USWB and carried on research for UNIMET. Plateau Station, at an elevation of 11,980 feet (3624 metres) is located at 79º31'S, 40ºE and is one of the most isolated and coldest places on earth. Summer temperatures (November to March) average -40ºC (-40ºF) and winter temperatures (April to October) average -70ºC (-96ºF) with an all-time low of -86.1ºC (-123ºF) recorded in June 1968, a few months after Bob had gone home. The base was only manned for three years with a team of four US Navy personnel to support four civilian researchers.

As a result of a co-operative program between the Australian and the US weather services Bob then spent the next four years, from August 1968 until March 1972, as the senior Australian Weather Observer on board the US Navy Ship Eltanin. The cruises were almost exclusively in the Southern Ocean between South America and 70º East of Greenwich. Bob served on 18 of these cruises (numbers 35 to 52) doing oceanographic research across a wide range of marine science disciplines. Bob's mother, who had migrated to Victoria, Australia after the death of her husband in 1959, died on September 18, 1969 in St Kilda.

Bob served as weather observer on Norfolk Island until April 1973 and then spent the next two and a half years attached to the Special Services Section of the Tasmanian Regional Bureau in Hobart. He resigned from the Australian Meteorological Service in December 1975, aged 55 and retired to Swansea, thus beginning a long and happy retirement. Periodically he would take off on bushwalking trips around Tasmania, while at home he enjoyed listening to his extensive collection of classical symphony and choral music on tape. He was an accomplished photographer and held a number of slide shows for local volunteer groups including the fire brigade and SES, indeed a book of his Antarctic photographs was published a few years ago (Dingle, 2011).

In addition to these indoor and outdoor solitary activities, Bob kept in touch with his ANARE colleagues and Met Bureau workmates. He was a regular attendee at ANARE Midwinter Dinners, and a good correspondent with those further away. In 2012 he sold up and moved into the May Shaw Nursing home in Swansea. William Robert John Dingle died after a long and extraordinary life on 5 September 2016, aged 95.'

Sold together with a good archive including his Observer's & Air Gunner's Flying Log Book (Form 1767), framed oil painting of his final Op by I. G. Taylor, executed in 1995 and entitled 'Time to go - Good luck everybody!, copy of ANARE & Antarctica - Photographs by Bob Dingle, besides a good archive of copied research and articles.


Subject to 5% tax on Hammer Price in addition to 20% VAT on Buyer’s Premium.

Estimate
£7,000 to £9,000

Starting price
£6000