CAMPAIGN GROUPS AND PAIRS
1228
Four: Flying Officer R. D. Drife, Royal Air Force, who piloted Stirlings on S.O.E. supply and glider-towing missions,
including Operation “Varsity”
1939-45 STAR; AIR CREW EUROPE STAR; DEFENCE AND WAR MEDALS 1939-45, together with embroidered R.A.F. “Wings” and
officer’s cap badge, the whole contained within a glazed display frame with portrait photograph, extremely fine (6)
£300-350
Robert “Bob” Drife, who was born in April 1916, enlisted in the Royal Air Force
in London in November 1941 and commenced pilot training in July 1942.
Shortly afterwards embarked for Canada, he returned to the U.K. in late 1943, but
did not go operational until being appointed to No. 570 Squadron at Harwell in
September 1944, a Stirling unit employed on glider-towing duties. He had,
however, flown a Stirling of No. 620 Squadron to Chateauroux on an S.O.E.
operation on the night of 16-17 September 1944, while mustered at a Heavy
Conversion Unit, and it is probable that his first outing with 570 Squadron to
Holland on the night of the 19-20 October was of a similar nature.
It was in the same month that Drife and his fellow aircrew moved to Rivenhall
and commenced training for glider-towing operations, although he flew regular
bombing sorties on the nights of 23-24 December, and 3-4 and 26-27 February
1945, the latter against German targets at Grevenbroich and Xanten - he had,
meanwhile, been commissioned as a Pilot Officer.
Yet his most memorable sortie was yet to come - namely Operation “Varsity” -
the Allied airborne crossing of the Rhine on 24 March 1945, for over the
previous month, and in common with other Stirling units of 38 Group, 570
Squadron had been carrying out frequent glider-towing exercises over eastern
England (e.g. Exercises “Riff Raff” and “Pig Skin”), the local population being
treated to the impressive lines of the heavy bombers towing their Horsas. And by
mid-March, everything was in place, 38 Group being charged with the
transportation of 6th Airborne Division.
And so arrived the morning of the 24th, Drife and his fellow 570 aircrew towing Horsas with some 275 troops, the majority being
released accurately over their Landing Zones amidst much smoke, small arms fire and flak - the latter was to account for around 50 of
the participating British and American powered aircraft and considerably more Horsas and Hamilcars. But the largest ever airborne
operation had achieved its objective and the way into Germany lay open for the Allies. For Drife, however, one or two more important
operations remained, including a special mission to north-east of Bergen on 2 April 1945, a supply drop to the Norwegian Resistance
as part of an ongoing S.O.E. initiative and, on 11 and 13 May, two outings in support of Operation “Doomsday”, the airlifting of 6th
Airborne Division to Gardemoen, Norway. Remaining employed on P.O.W. repatriation flights with 570 Squadron, Drife transferred to
1589 Flight In October 1945, in which capacity he served until April 1946, latterly in the Mediterranean. Post-war, he settled as a
farmer in Crawfordjohn, South Lanarkshire, where he died in November 1992.
Sold with the recipient’s original Flying Log Book, covering the period July 1942 to April 1946, and a quantity of wartime photographs,
including his Stirling crew.
1229
Four: Warrant Officer Charles Alfred Winch, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, killed in action, 13 September 1944
1939-45 STAR; AIR CREW EUROPE STAR; DEFENCE AND WAR MEDALS, all unnamed as issued, extremely fine (4) £180-220
Warrant Officer Charles Alfred Winch, R.A.F.V.R., was killed in action on 13 September 1944, aged 32 years. His name is
commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. He was the son of Joseph and Georgina Winch, and husband of Olive Emma Winch, of
Maidstone, Kent. With original card medal forwarding box addressed to ‘Mrs O. E. Winch, 34 Woodville Road, Maidstone, Kent’.
1230
Four: Corporal G. C. Green, Royal Air Force
1939-45 STAR; FRANCE AND GERMANY STAR; DEFENCE AND WAR MEDALS, all unnamed
Four: H. D. Maidment, Royal Air Force
1939-45 STAR; AFRICA STAR; DEFENCE AND WAR MEDALS, all unnamed
Three: L. A. D. Bush, Royal Air Force
1939-45 STAR; DEFENCE AND WAR MEDALS, all unnamed
Pair: Flight Officer F. W. H. McLellan, Royal Air Force
DEFENCE AND WAR MEDALS, both unnamed; together with an identity bracelet inscribed, ‘W. H. McLellan, 41475 R.F.C.’,
generally extremely fine (14) £50-70
Medals to ‘Green’ in card forwarding box addressed to ‘G. C. Green, Esq., 6 The Boulevard, Balham High Road, Balham, London, S.
W.17’ with associated slips - one named and listing his medals and stating that he had ‘completed the full period of qualifying service
for the 1939/45 Star on 18.2.45’.
Medals to ‘Maidment’ in two ‘Air Ministry’ card forwarding boxes. That containing the two ‘Stars’, addressed to ‘Mr H. D. Maidment,
The “Original” White Hart Hotel, Ringwood, Hants.’; that containing the two ‘Medals’, having the above address crossed out and
replaced by ‘H. D. Maidment, Esq., Air Ministry Audit, Senior Civil Service Mess, Air Headquarters RAF, Habbaniya, Br. Forces in Iraq’,
the latter with forwarding slip.
Medals to ‘Bush’ in ‘Air Ministry’ card forwarding box addressed, ‘L. A. D. Bush Esq., 8D Sisters Ave., Battersea, S.W.11’, with
forwarding slip.
Medals to ‘McLellan’ in Air Ministry card forwarding box addressed, ‘F/O F. W. H. McLellan, 12 Victoria Villas, Brondesbury Road,
London, N.W.6, with forwarding slips.
www.dnw.co.uk
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