Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A United States of America Second War Air Medal and Purple Heart group of six awarded to 1st Lieutenant W. R. Shank, U.S. Air Force, who was killed in a B25 crash off Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 27 July 1943

United States of America, Air Medal, bronze, the reverse engraved ‘1st. Lt. William R. Shank. A.C.’, with two bronze oak leaf clusters on riband; Purple Heart, gilt and enamel, reverse engraved ‘William R. Shank’; American Defense Medal, bronze; American Campaign Medal, bronze; Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal, bronze, with three bronze stars on riband; Victory Medal 1945, together with a Presidential Unit Citation riband bar, with two bronze oak leaf clusters on riband, good very fine and better (6) £200-300

William R. Shank, from Suffolk County, Massachusetts, was born in 1919 and enlisted in the United States Air Force at Boston, Mass., on 28 October 1941. He served during the Second World War as a First Lieutenant and Navigator with the 71st Bombardment Squadron, 38th Bombardment Group, United States Air Force, and was killed along with the rest of his crew on 27 July 1943, when his B-25D aircraft, during a practice bombing run on the damaged S.S. Pruth, had a bomb they released knocked off their stabilizer, causing them to crash into the sea between Idihi and Bravo Islands, 10 miles north of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. He is commemorated on the Tablets of the Missing, Manila American Cemetery, Philippines.

Sold together with a City of Boston In Memoriam Certificate; portrait photograph of the recipient; photograph of the recipient receiving his Air Medal from Lieutenant-General G. C. Kenny; and various copied research.

Note: 38th Bombardment Group were awarded four Presidential Unit Citations for their combat service in Papua New Guinea between 23 July 1942 and 23 January 1943.