Groups and Single Decorations for Gallantry
Post War Armaments Specialist
After his release from captivity in August 1945, Watkins attended the Empire Armaments School at Manby, before being posted the HQ Bomber Command. Between May 1946 and December 1947 he served with Air HQ British Air Forces of Occupation, having been granted a permanent Commission of Squadron Leader/Acting Wing Commander in March that year. On his questionnaire regarding suitability for continued service on the permanent list he noted has noted ‘over 600 hours operational’, ‘over 400 hours as passenger’. Also recorded are ‘one tour as Observer, one tour as Squadron Bombing Leader, one tour as Flight Commander, one tour as Squadron Commander’. Transferring to the Technical Branch, 29 January 1948, his postings until 1963 appear to be in the main as an armaments specialist, serving at Bombing Trials Units; HQ 2nd Tactical Air Force; and Aero and Armament Experimental Establishment, Boscombe Down, among others. Advanced to Wing Commander on 1 January 1950, and Group Captain on 1 January 1957, he died on 26 June 1965.
As a post script to his Wartime service, Watkins’ son recalls: ‘He also appears to have been involved in the testing of the “bouncing bomb”. Whether or not he was one of the two observer supernumeraries on the Dambuster Raid I have not as yet been able to discover. During his two tours of duty in Germany after the war he travelled all over the country taking note of the effectiveness (or otherwise) of the bombing campaign, frequently taking us all along with him. On one such journey, we stopped at either the Mohne or Sorpe Dam (memory fails me now) and he said it was one he had bombed.’
Sold together with the recipient’s Bestowal Document for the D.S.O., housed in a glazed display frame; the recipient’s Mentioned in Despatches Certificate, housed in a glazed display frame; the recipient’s Caterpillar Club Membership Card, named to ‘W/Cdr. W. D.G. Watkins’, with enclosure stating ‘we much regret that under present condition we are unable to continue presenting a gold caterpillar Pin’; the recipient’s Navigator’s Book, containing various charts and other navigational maps; two Douglas Combined Protractors and Parallel Rules; the recipient’s Prisoner of War identity paper, this laminated, various photographs; and other ephemera.
For the recipient’s related miniature awards, see Lot 753.
www.dnw.co.uk all lots are illustrated on our website and are subject to buyers’ premium at 24% (+VAT where applicable)
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