Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine Second World War night fighter ace’s D.S.O., D.F.C. group of five awarded to Squadron Leader R. G. “Tim” Woodman, Royal Air Force, who claimed at least seven confirmed victories in Mosquitos of No. 169 and No. 85 Squadrons in 1944-45: a close range, low-level pilot, he once opened fire on an Me. 110 at just 20 yards range, his Mosquito being severely damaged by the resultant flying debris, and on another occasion he pursued his victim down to tree-top height over occupied France - much to his regret, however, two special attempts to reduce Goering’s country residence “Karinhall” to ashes had to be aborted

Distinguished Service Order, G.VI.R., 1st issue, silver-gilt and enamel, the reverse of the suspension bar officially dated ‘1945’; Distinguished Flying Cross, G.VI.R., the reverse officially dated ‘1944’; 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star, clasp, France and Germany; War Medal 1939-45, one or two minor chips to enamel on the first, otherwise good very fine (5) £8,000-12,000

D.S.O. London Gazette 13 April 1945. The original recommendation states:

‘Since the award of the Distinguished Flying Cross, Squadron Leader Woodman has completed numerous bomber support operations. He has destroyed three enemy night fighters and damaged another, which has brought his total victories to six enemy aircraft destroyed and one damaged. He has flown on many varied operations, high and low-level sorties with both day and night missions. At all times Squadron Leader Woodman has set a magnificent example of courage, superb tenacity and unfailing devotion to duty.’

D.F.C. London Gazette 9 June 1944. The original recommendation states:

‘This officer and his Observer have shown exceptional ability and determination in the special intruder duties in which they are employed. Flight Lieutenant Woodman has now destroyed four enemy aircraft.

On 25 February 1944, on his first success, his own aircraft was badly damaged by debris, but he landed it safely.

On 18 April 1944, he was engaged in a continuous A.I dogfight for 40 minutes - which was so strenuous that he almost had to give up after half an hour - before he shot down his opponent.

Four nights later, when partially blinded by a faulty gunsight, he closed into 20 yards in order to make certain of destroying the enemy aircraft, again being struck by much flying debris when it exploded.

On 9 May, while on a Ranger patrol, he made contact on an enemy night fighter which he chased and obtained a visual on an Me. 110 which was about to attack three Halifax bombers. The enemy was made to desist from his attacks and was chased to ground level, where, at heights varying from 50-150 feet, strikes were obtained on the 110 until it began to break up, and the remains were seen to crash into a building and burst into flames.

The keenness and determination of this crew have been a magnificent example to the rest of the Squadron. They have now completed ten sorties in this unit, in addition to several successful offensive sorties on Ranger operations in their previous squadron.’

Ronald George “Tim” Woodman was born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, in June 1914, and was employed as an engineering apprentice at Hadens in Trowbridge until 1936, when he joined the Air Ministry’s Mechanical and Electrical Design Staff.

Early days - 410 and 96 Squadrons - cross-Channel offensive patrols in Beaufighters

Selected for pilot training in 1940, he went out to Canada and, on gaining his “Wings”, was commissioned as a Pilot Officer in early 1941. Back in the U.K. by June, he attended No. 52 O.T.U., prior to being posted to No. 410 (R.C.A.F.) Squadron, a Defiant unit operating out of Drem at the year’s end - among other duties the unit intercepted the occasional mine-laying enemy Heinkel.

In April 1942, 410 Squadron converted to Beaufighters, Woodman gaining his first dual instruction with Peter Townsend, the station C.O., and in June he was seconded to Bristol Aircraft as a production test pilot, returning to his squadron in August.

The Beaufighter Mk. II had a poor reputation for safety, Woodman discovering as much when he arrived at High Bercall to collect one of them - several of the local unit’s crews had been killed whilst converting, in addition to a test pilot sent up from Farnborough. But 410’s determination to overcome such losses was shortly dispelled, Woodman recalling how on going out to receive a newly delivered Beaufighter at Drem, he was stunned to see ‘a pair of legs clad in silk stockings’ emerge from the cockpit - ‘it was an Air Transport Auxiliary girl pilot ... if she can fly them thought 410, then so can we.’

In December 1942, Woodman was posted to No. 96 Squadron, another Beaufighter unit, and in that capacity he completed a number of cross-Channel offensive patrols, a case in point being 15 April 1943, when he strafed the Paris-Rouen midnight train, which was invariably packed with German troops returning from leave - taking care to hit the rear carriages of the train, where, according to the French Resistance, enemy troops preferred to congregate.

No. 169 Squadron - Mosquitos - ace - D.F.C.

In November 1943, Woodman was posted to No. 169 Squadron, a Mosquito unit of 100 Group, the commencement of a successful partnership with Flight Lieutenant “Pat” Kemmis as his Navigator. Spurred on by the unit’s motto, “Hunt and Destroy,” they claimed their first victim on the night of 24-25 February 1944, south-west of Mannheim, during a main force bombing raid on Augsburg.

Flying towards a vertical searchlight beam, Kemmis picked up a number of Serrate contacts indicating the presence of orbiting enemy night fighters. Moments later Woodman had A.I radar contact and sighted an Me. 110 against the snow covered terrain below, and, firing a three second burst of 20mm. cannon shell into enemy night fighter’s port engine and wingroot, sent it down in flames to explode on impact with the ground, but not before his Mosquito had been showered in debris - on returning to base at Little Snoring, it was found a large chunk of the Me. 110 had ripped a long gash along the starboard wing.

On the night of 18-19 April 1944, over the Compeigne area, south-west of Paris, Woodman and Kemmis fought a 40 minute long combat with another Me. 110 - a combat ‘which was so strenuous that he almost had to give up after half an hour - before he shot down his opponent.’

On the night of 22-23 April, flying ahead of a main force raid on Dusseldorf, Woodman went hunting in the Munich area and was rewarded with strong Serrate contacts. Discerning four enemy night fighters flying in loose formation, Woodman targeted the white tail light of the formation’s leader but was partially blinded by a faulty gunsight - so to be sure of success he closed to just 20 yards, ‘stirring the stick to spread the cannon shell’, as a result of which the enemy aircraft blew up, debris pitting the wings of his Mosquito and covering the windscreen in oil. By now in the Ruhr flak zone, Woodman was coned by searchlights and compelled to break away from the scene of the action.

On the night of 8-9 May, in a Serrate Ranger sortie over France and Belgium, Woodman tracked another Me. 110 about to attack three Halifax bombers. A long range burst of cannon fire having compelled the enemy night fighter to break off its attack, he set off in pursuit - a 10 minute pursuit of the low-level kind, sometimes, as confirmed by the treetops that appeared in his gun footage, as low as 50 feet. The Me. 110 burst into flames and crashed into a building near Chievras airfield in the area of Braine-le-Comte.

Woodman was awarded the D.F.C. and appointed a Flight Commander, and gained a confirmed Fw. 190 east of Abbeville on the night of 8-9 August, while supporting a bomber strike on V.1 sites in the Pas de Calais - after being hit by a couple of bursts, the Fw. 190 ‘went down hill like the clappers.’

A shot at Goering’s country residence “Karinhall”

Aside from night bomber escort work - he would later claim an Me. 110 over the Ruhr on 4 November, and a damaged Ju. 88 over N.E. Germany on the 10th - Woodman carried out a number of daylight intruder missions. A case in point was an assignment to locate and strafe Karinhall, Goering’s country residence, some 40 miles north-east of Berlin, on 17 October 1944.

Taking off with one other 169 crew, Woodman set off over the North Sea at 50 feet, but some way into the journey, Flying Officer Pierre Dils, D.F.C., the Belgian pilot of the escorting Mosquito, informed Woodman that he had spotted two men adrift in a dinghy - “Krauts!” exclaimed his leader after a cursory look. Nonetheless, Woodman ordered Dils to return to base to report the position of the dinghy, while he and his Navigator, Squadron Leader Mike O’Brien, D.F.C., pressed on alone - contrary to standing orders.

Coming under fire from several ships, they finally crossed the north German coast and, about half way to Karinhall, at tree top height, shot up a tanker train - cannon shell overshooting the target ploughed into a nearby field, where a startled farm worker was tilling with a horse. But with visibility improving by the minute, and the prospect of clear skies, Woodman decided it would be pure folly to proceed further and fall foul of the German day fighters. Instead, he attacked the Heinkel factory at Barth, before a hasty low-level return to base.

Five days later Woodman and O’Brien made another attempt to reach Karinhall, this time with an escorting Mosquito piloted by a West Indian - ‘rare birds in those days’ as Woodman later observed. On this occasion a navigational error sent them heading up the ‘main street’ towards the enemy fighter base at Westerland and, after turning back across Schleswig Holstein, they passed over the seemingly deserted enemy airfield at Eggeberg - only to be met by a bank of tracer fire. ‘All hell broke loose,’ recalled Woodman, and he ordered his West Indian companion to break starboard, hit the deck and ‘get the hell out of it!’ Himself clearing the tracer, Woodman was amused to find it took him sometime to catch up with his escort, who appeared ‘to be heading back to Barbados’ at break neck speed.

This second operation aborted, it fell to Mike O’Brien to make another attempt with a new pilot, but he was killed in the attempt. So Woodman’s wish ‘to see gross Hermann outside in the sun, white uniform and all, entertaining some of his fighter aces, holders of the Knight’s Cross, then see them scampering for shelter as I slammed cannon shell into the building’, never came about.

Further successes - 85 Squadron - D.S.O

Instead he attended a War Commander’s Course at Cranfield, and was briefly attached to No. 85 Squadron, thereby gaining another confirmed victory - a Ju. 188 near Frankfurt on the night of 2-3 January 1945, while flying in support of a main bomber forces targeting Nuremburg and Ludwigshaven.

By now a Squadron Leader, his final wartime appointment was at the B.S.D.U., and in this latter capacity he claimed a Me. 109 west of Magdeburg on 4 April 1945, thereby confirming the ‘magnificent example of courage, superb tenacity and unfailing devotion to duty’ that resulted in his award of the D.S.O.

The post-war years

After the War Woodman was sent to Germany to recover Luftwaffe night fighters and equipment, a flight in a Ju. 88 in September 1945 ending in a crash-landing at Foulsham. Having then been briefly attached to Fighter Command H.Q. and attended the Empire Test Pilots’ School at Cranfield and Farnborough, he became a test pilot at Boscombe Down in early 1948. One of his final appointments was as Deputy Superintendent at Boscombe 1950-52, although he went on to attend the Officers’ Advanced Training School at Bircham Newton, and appears to have retired in the mid-1950s.

A post with Shell Aviation having followed, during which he built up the company’s international standing, he retired to Wiltshire.

to be sold with the following archive of original documentation:

(i) The recipient’s warrant for his D.S.O., dated 13 April 1945.

(ii) The recipient’s R.A.F. Pilot’s Flying Log Books (4), the first covering the period October 1940 to August 1944, with assorted photographic inserts, including his ‘evader’s mugshot’ for use in false identity papers if shot down, and scenes from training days in Canada through to operational service in 410, 96 and 169 Squadrons; the second the period September 1944 to July 1948, with aerial and ground photographic inserts and information relevant to his period of attachment to No. 85 Squadron; the third the period August 1948 to March 1955, the latter entries for local flights in Proctors, and again with some photographic inserts; the fourth with single page entries for flights on Chipmunks of No. 605 Squadron at Honiley between November 1956 and February 1957, and with inserted typed manuscript by the recipient regarding British radar equipment and methods for air interception, and his wartime recollections under the headings of ‘Air Combat Reports’ and ‘Some Other Interesting Operations’, 26pp., and further photographic inserts.

(iii) Typed manuscripts by the recipient (3), entitled ‘The Early Days of 410 (R.C.A.F.) Squadron’, 8pp.; ‘Defensive Night Fighting’, 11pp., as researched by the recipient for lectures held at R.A.F. Leeming and Cranwell; and ‘Offensive Night Fighting to the End of World War Two’, 28pp.