Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Flight Lieutenant G. P. Jacobs, 117 Squadron, Royal Air Force, a Dakota C47 Pilot who completed over 550 operational hours on supply missions over the ‘Burma Front’ in 1945

1939-45 Star; Burma Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, with damaged named card box of issue, addressed to ‘F. Lt. G. P. Jacobs, Cypress, Partridge Rd., Brockenhurst, Hants.’, good very fine (4) £200-£240

Geoffrey Peter Jacobs was born in Winchester in 1923. Having enlisted in the Royal Air Force, he passed a Night Visual Capacity test in October 1942 and underwent flying training in Canada from May 1943 until August 1944 whilst in the rank of Leading Aircraftman. Returning briefly to England he was then posted to 229 Group in India and flew there in stages, arriving at Karachi on 9 January 1945. Now a fully qualified Dakota C47 pilot he was assigned to 117 Squadron, at Sylhet, India and, on 6 April, commenced a period of supply dropping missions over the Burma Front, his squadron’s tasks also including the supply of Wingate’s Chindits operating behind enemy lines. Often flying multiple sorties a day, Jacobs had completed around 39 supply drops - typically 6500lb per drop - by the end of the month. In spite of rain, ice and violent monsoon storms, the missions continued through May and with the withdrawal of the U.S.A.A.F. around this time, the air supply drops in South-East Asia became mainly an R.A.F. responsibility, adding further pressure on supply crews. Additionally, the Army’s advance towards Rangoon was causing ever lengthening supply lines and consequent pressure on crews to fly increasing numbers of hours, and so in mid-May 117 Squadron moved south to Kyuakpyu, on Ramree Island, Burma, a searing hot airstrip with a permanently strong wind which made for particularly difficult landings.

Jacobs flew 73 sorties in May and continued to fly supply drops throughout the remainder of the campaign in Burma, his logbook recording that he often carried passengers - outward journeys with reinforcements and wounded coming back. The squadron moved to Hmawbi, near Rangoon, in August 1945 and by V.J. Day, Jacobs had completed a total of 169 sorties, flying over 550 hours and carrying over 3000 passengers. He completed his flying with 117 Squadron in December 1945 and was then posted to 267 Squadron, remaining in the Far East and India until September 1946, the final operational entry in his flying log book being a flight from Akyab to Mingdalon in Burma on 7 September 1946. His log book also records many further hours flown in Chipmunks and Tiger Moths at R.F.S. Hamble, Southampton in 1950-1951.

Sold with the recipient’s original Flying Log Book, an R.C.A.F. type covering the period May 1943 to October 1951. Damaged spine, contents good including pasted in press cuttings; the recipient’s ‘Pilot’s Notes for Dakota 1 & III’; two original portrait photographs of the recipient in uniform (83mm x 133mm); three photographic negatives - one showing a portrait of an officer in R.A.F. uniform (presumably the recipient) and two images of three individuals in front of a Dakota C47.

Also sold with an album of captioned photographs and press cuttings relating to the 19th Infantry Division (India) in the Burma Campaign. This also containing an original portrait photograph of a soldier in Second World War Tropical Shirt Sleeve Order uniform bearing some likeness to the recipient, and is therefore possibly the former property of the recipient’s younger brother, William Sidney Jacobs, who served with 2960 Squadron, R.A.F. Regiment in Burma during the Second World War.