Groups and Single Decorations for Gallantry


Manser flew in 31 operational sorties with a regular crew entirely composed of Sergeants, piloted by Flight Sergeant K. Corkhill. Their targets included Frankfurt (3 times); Berlin (8 times, including the ‘Battle of Berlin’ on 20 January 1944: ‘Attacked By 3 Me 110s. Cannon Shells Thro Portside etc. Emergency Landing at Lindholme. A/C Write Off’ (the recipient’s Log Book refers)); Stettin; Leipzig; Stuttgart (twice); Schweinfurt; Essen; Nuremburg (the Nuremberg Raid, when 95 out of 795 aircraft were lost on what was Bomber Command’s biggest loss of the war); Aulnoye (the start of preparations for D-Day); Rouen; Cologne; Maintenon; Venissieux; Orleans; Duisburg; Brunswick; Aachen (twice); and Trappes.


Upon completion of his operational tour at the end of May 1944, Manser was posted to No. 28 O.T.U., Wmyeswold as a WO1 radio instructor on Wellingtons. Subsequent postings included to 93 Group, Screened Pilots School; 27 O.T.U. at R.A.F. Church Broughton and 109 (T) O.T.U. at R.A.F. Crosby on Eden for conversion to the Dakota, he qualified as a R.A.F. Transport Command Wireless Operator on 28 February 1945. He was seconded to B.O.A.C. Whitchurch, March-June 1945 before being discharged from the R.A.F. on 14 November 1946 with the recommendation: ‘W/O Manser has always carried out his R.A.F. duties conscientiously and efficiently. His character is exemplary.’


After the war Manser was employed as a radio operator by British European Airways flying to European destinations. On 5 April 1948 he took off as part of the crew in a Vickers Viking on a scheduled flight from London to Gatow, Berlin (British Zone) with 10 passengers. The book 10 Tons for Tempelhof, The Berlin Airlift, by Bob Clarke offers the following account of the flight: ‘A scheduled British European Airways Vickers Viking was on its final approach into Gatow, when suddenly a Yak-3 Russian fighter passed close by at speed. The Yak then turned and made another high-speed pass, misjudged and crashed head on into the Viking, ripping the starboard wing clean-off the aircraft. Both aircraft crashed in flames killing all on board, wreckage coming down on both sides of the sector border. Major Henry Herbert was immediately on the scene. He discovered the Yak had come down in the British sector but this was already guarded by Russian troops. Unfortunately the Viking fuselage lay just inside the Soviet Sector; this too was surrounded by armed Russians. After lengthy negotiations Herbert agreed to allow one Russian sentry to remain at the Yak site as long as one British soldier was allowed to stay with the Viking. The bodies of the four crew, John Ralph, pilot, Norman Merrington, co-pilot, Charles Manser, radio operator, and Leonard C. Goodman, steward, along with their ten passengers, including two from America and one from Australia, had to be left at the crash site while the political wrangling over access to the aircraft dragged on. Robertson [British Military Governor Berlin] was enraged by the situation and immediately ordered fighter escort for all British aircraft using the [Berlin] corridors. Sokolovsky (Soviet Military Governor) even gave Robertson an assurance that the Soviet Military Authorities had no intention in interfering with aircraft using the corridors. However this attitude did not last for long. When a quadripartite board of enquiry was requested the Soviets blamed the accident on the British, saying that no request for the aircraft to be allowed to traverse Soviet airspace had been lodged and in any case the Yak was legally allowed to be there.


A British-Soviet commission of enquiry was set up on 10 April. The Soviet representative, Major-Marshal Alexandrov, refused to hear the evidence of German or American witnesses, claiming that only British and Soviet evidence was relevant and in any case Germans were unreliable. On 13 April the British ended proceedings by saying they were unable to proceed on this basis. Thereupon a British court of enquiry was convened by General Robertson and held in Berlin on 14–16 April. This found that the crash was accidental, that the fault in the crash was entirely that of the Soviet pilot, and that Captain John Ralph and First Officer Norman Merrington, D.F.C., of B.E.A. were not in the slightest to blame for the crash. However, the Soviets announced that the fault was entirely that of the British aircraft, which emerged from low cloud and crashed into the fighter. The British enquiry heard that the Viking was flying at 1,500 feet, well below the cloud base at 3,000 feet.


Eventually a board of enquiry was convened but it comprised only Russian and British investigators. The board published its findings in two separate reports but both came to similar conclusions, the accident was just that, no malicious intent was intended, and the crash was down to an error on behalf of the Yak pilot


Sold with the following original documents: R.A.F. Navigator’s, Air Bomber’s and Air Gunner’s Flying Log Book (21 March 1943 - 12 June 1945, the latter months including his secondment to B.O.A.C.); R.A.F. Service and Release Book; Letter to recipient’s father-in-law from the Private Secretary to the Military Governor of Berlin, dated 29 April 1948; Letter to recipient’s son from the R.A.F. Record and Pay Office, dated 24 October 1969; Letter to recipient’s son from the German Air Attaché regarding the commemoration of 50th Anniversary of the Berlin Airlift, dated 3 February 1998; Two R.A.F. Ludford Magna Sergeants’ Mess Christmas Dinner 1943 Menus, one signed by the Wireless Operators of 101 Squadron, the other signed by all 8 members of the recipient’s regular Lancaster crew; a number of photographs of recipient from varying stages of his career; Three R.A.F. Notebooks, used during various courses; Air Ministry and Ministry of Civil Aviation Communications Procedures Manual.


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