Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The original R.A.F. pilot’s flying log books (2) appertaining to Flying Officer S. M. J. Lloyd, Royal Air Force, who flew operationally in Stirlings and Lancasters of No. 218 Squadron in 1944, the first covering the period June 1941 to December 1942, and the second the period January 1943 to October 1944, generally in good condition (2) £250-300

Lloyd commenced pilot training at No. 18 Elementary F.T.S. in June 1941 and, after additional attendance at No. 3 F.T.S. later in the year, graduated to Ansons of No. 3 (O.) A.F.U. in 1942. He remained similarly employed until September 1943, when he attended No. 12 O.T.U. and converted to Wellingtons, but appears to have been grounded shortly thereafter. In March 1944, however, he attended a conversion unit for Stirlings and was posted to No. 218 (Gold Coast) Squadron that May, with whom he flew his first operational sortie - against Wemars Cappel - on the night of 28-29 July. That September, having converted to Lancasters, he participated in strikes against Le Havre (thrice), Calais and Frankfurt, while in October he flew on sorties against Saarbrucken, Kleve, Duisburg and Wilhelmshaven. But here his flying career ended, a development most probably answered by the “Gross Carelessness” endorsement contained at the back of his second flying log book, an endorsement regarding a ferrying accident with one of the Squadron’s Lancasters on 13 September 1944.