Orders, Decorations and Medals

Three: Flight Sergeant R. S. Smith, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who completed an operational tour as a Flight Engineer in Lancasters of No. 90 Squadron, his targets including the Schwammenauel Dam in December 1944

1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; War Medal 1939-45, good very fine (3) £150-200

Robert Stanley Smith, who was born in December 1943, enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in August 1942. Having then completed a Flight Engineer’s course at R.A.F. St. Athan in August 1944, he attended a conversion unit and was posted to No. 90 Squadron, a Lancaster unit operating out of Tuddenham, Suffolk, in November 1944, and flew his first sortie - a daylight strike against Dortmund - on the 15th, as a member of Flight Sergeant (later P./O.) Gilbert’s crew.

Four similar operations were flown before the month’s end, including raids against Cologne and Neuss, while in December his crew was detailed to attack Oberhausen, Gremberg, Witten and Osterfeld, in addition to a target of a more unusual nature - the Schwammenauel Dam on the River Roer on 5th, in support of the American Army - and a “Gardening” trip to Heligoland Bight from which his Lancaster returned on three engines.

January 1945 found Smith and his crew assigned to raids on Nuremburg, Ludwigshaven, Munich, Saarbrucken and the oil plant at Wanne Eickel, while in February they attacked Krefeld, Chemnitz, Dortmund and another oil plant, at Kamem, in addition to three trips to Gelsenkirchen and two to Wesel - a busy month indeed. And in March, with return trips to Cologne, Dortmund and Wesel, and new targets at Hattingen and Munster, he completed his tour of operations. Smith was finally demobilised in January 1946.

Sold with the recipient’s original R.A.F. Flying Log Book (for Navigators, Air Bombers, Air Gunners and Flight Engineers - Form 1767), covering the period September 1944 to April 1945; together with his R.A.F. Flying Clothing Card, and R.A.F. Service and Release Book.