CAMPAIGN GROUPS AND PAIRS 501
Five: Warrant Officer L. R. Read, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who gained membership of the Caterpillar Club after his No. 142 Squadron Wellington was downed by flak over Holland in May 1942
1939-45 STAR;AIRCREW EUROPE STAR, these neatly impressed on the reverse ‘745334 W.O. L. R. Read, R.A.F.’;DEFENCEMEDAL 1939-45;WARMEDAL 1939-45, this neatly impressed on the edge, ‘745334 W.O. L. R. Read, R.A.F.’; AIR EFFICIENCY AWARD,
G.VI.R., 1st issue (745334 F. Sgt. L. R. Read, R.A.F.V.R.), together with the recipient’s Caterpillar Club membership badge, the reverse officially engraved, ‘F./S. L. R. Read’, this lacking one ‘ruby’ eye and the other damaged, the A.E. with official correction to initials and surname, all the medals late claims from the 1970s, generally good very fine (5) £200-300
Leslie Ronald Read commenced his operational tour as a Rear Gunner in No. 142 Squadron, a Wellington unit operating out of R.A.F. Binbrook, in March 1941, his first sortie being flown to Boulogne on the 15th. His pilot was Flight Lieutenant P. E. Dodson, who was to be awarded the D.F.C.
Read subsequently completed 19 further operational sorties in the period leading up to the loss of his aircraft during the ‘1000 Bomber Raid’ on Cologne on the night of 30-31 May 1942. Thus raids on such targets as Berlin, Bremen (twice), Duisberg, Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Mannheim; so, too, no less than five additional trips to Cologne.
In an accompanying application for membership of the Goldfish Club, he states that his aircraft came down in the North Sea, off Grimsby in January 1942, after being hit by flak in a strike against Wilhelmshaven; accompanying research does not appear to confirm these claims.
More certain is the fact he took to his parachute on the night of 30-31 May 1942, after his Wellington was hit by flak on returning from the ‘1000 Bomber Raid’ on Cologne; a Wellington of No. 25 O.T.U. where he had been attending a gunnery course. Read landed in the grounds of a factory at Eindhoven and, after being interrogated in Amsterdam, was sent to Stalag Luft III, afterwards the scene of the famous ‘Great Escape’.
Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including the recipient’s Caterpillar Club and Goldfish Club membership cards, in the name of F./Sgt. L. R. Read’; ten wartime photographs, including two scenes fro Stalag Luft III, believed to be images of a funeral for an officer murdered after the Great Escape; the remnants of the M.O.D. forwarding letter for his Air Efficiency Award, dated 15 September 1978 and an old newspaper cutting with article, ‘My parachute won’t open!’, being the recipient’s account of his final sortie in May 1942, together with a typescript based on his flying log book entries, and copied O.R.B. entries.
502 Seven: Flight Sergeant J. Donaldson, Royal Air Force
1939-45 STAR; AFRICA STAR, clasp, North Africa 1942-43; DEFENCE ANDWARMEDALS, M.I.D. oak leaf, these unnamed; GENERAL SERVICE 1918-62, 1 clasp, Malaya,
G.VI.R. (545222 Act. F. Sgt., R.A.F.); U.N. KOREA 1950-54, unnamed; ROYAL AIR FORCE L. S. & G.C., E.II.R., 2nd issue (545222 F. Sgt., R.A.F.) mounted as worn, very fine (7)
£120-160 M.I.D. London Gazette 8 June 1944 (King’s Birthday Honours List). 503 Four: attributed to Gunner P. Stockford, Royal Regiment of Artillery, who was killed/died, Tunisia, on 4 May 1943
1939-45 STAR;AFRICA STAR, clasp, 8th Army;WARMEDAL 1939-45; FRANCE,CROIX DEGUERRE 1939, star on ribbon, all unnamed, adhesive marks, nearly extremely fine (4)
£40-60 Croix de Guerre London Gazette 1 March 1949.
Gunner Percival Stockford, 65 Field Regiment R.A., died/was killed on 4 May 1943. He was buried in the Enfidaville War Cemetery, Tunisia. He was the son of Thomas Percival and Phoebe Ann Stockford, of Tipton, Staffordshire. With part of the original named commemorative scroll.
504
Five: Private M. A. Howard, Royal Durban Light Infantry - a prisoner-of-war of the Germans 1939-45 STAR; AFRICA STAR;WAR AND AFRICA SERVICEMEDALS - all officially named (7291 M. A. Howard); EFFICIENCYMEDAL,
G.VI. R., 1st (bilingual) issue, Union of South Africa (Pte., R.D.L.I.), mounted as worn
Four: Lance-Corporal F. J. Pretorius, South African Engineer Corps - a prisoner-of-war of the Germans 1939-45 STAR; AFRICA STAR; WAR AND AFRICA SERVICE MEDALS - all officially named (34098 F. J. Pretorius); with two identity disks, good very fine (11)
£150-180
Maurice Alexander Howard was born on 4 April 1919. In civilian life he was employed as a French Polisher. Served in the R.N.V.R., July 1937-May 1940. Attested for service in the Army at Durban on 1 July 1940. Served with the Royal Durban Light Infantry in Egypt and North Africa, disembarking at Suez on 12 August 1941. Reported missing on 20 June 1942, later confirmed as a P.O.W. Held as such at Gravina, near Altamura and then at Hartmansdorf Chemnitz. Discharged on 30 July 1945. With copied service papers and P.O. W. roll extracts. With riband bar.
Franscois Johannes Pretorius was born on 3 November 1900. Attested for full-time service on 11 May 1940. Arrived in Egypt, May 1941. Serving with 5 Field Company S.A.E.C., he was reported missing on 23 November 1941 and was later confirmed as a P.O.W. Released on 17 May 1945. Discharged 5 November 1945. With record of service.
505 Six: Warrant Officer Class 2 W. F. Harvey, Queen’s Bays (2nd Dragoon Guards)
1939-45 STAR AFRICA STAR, clasp, 8th Army; ITALY STAR; DEFENCE ANDWARMEDALS, these unnamed; ARMY L.S. & G.C.,
G.VI.R., 2nd issue, Regular Army (406719 W.O. Cl. 2, Bays) some contact marks, very fine (6)
£90-120
William Frederick George Harvey was born on 17 April 1913. A Barman by occupation, he enlisted into the Cavalry of the Line at Colchester on 26 January 1933. Served with the Cavalry and Royal Armoured Corps in the B.E.F., 19 May-17 June 1940; in the Middle East, September 1941-September 1943; British North African Force, September 1943-June 1945; Middle East Land Forces, May- December 1947 and British Army of the Rhine, November 1949-November 1952. As a Warrant Officer Class 2 he was discharged on 25 January 1955 on the termination of his period of engagement.
With original Soldier’s Record and Pay Book; Regular Army Certificate of Service booklet; Official Secrets Act Declaration Form, signed 4 January 1955; the booklet A Short History of The Queen’s Bays, 1939-1945; and riband bars.
www.dnw.co.uk
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