Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria to coincide with the OMRS Convention

A Second World War Air Gunner’s D.F.M. awarded to Flight Sergeant J. F. Kemp, Royal Air Force, the survivor of two 1000 Bomber Raids, a belly-landing in a flak damaged Lancaster and a tree-top return trip to Kassel in August 1942

Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R. (1551421 F. Sgt. J. F. Kemp, R.A.F.) good very fine £600-800

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Fine Collection of Awards to the Men of Bomber Command 1939-45.

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D.F.M. London Gazette 9.7.1943. The recommendation states:

‘This N.C.O. was an Air Gunner in Sergeant Crampton’s crew which carried out a very excellent tour. He was always ready and keen to fly on operations. Many of his sorties were carried out against Germany’s most heavily defended cities, and he has also raided Italy. For his enthusiasm and devotion to duty during his tour, he is recommended for the non-immediate award of the Distinguished Flying Medal.’

John Fodin Kemp commenced his operational tour as an Air Gunner with No. 50 Squadron, a Manchester unit based at Skellingthorpe, Lincolnshire in April 1942, completing a nickeling sortie to Paris on the night of the 8th-9th. Further outings to Essen, Dortmund and Hamburg, and two trips to Rostock, made up the remainder of the month’s bombing schedule, in additon to two ‘Gardening’ runs.

But, as evidenced by the D.F.M. recommendation for his pilot, Flight Sergeant P. M. P. Crampton, Kemp’s tour was about to take on a more harrowing nature, participation in the 1000 Bomber Raids against Cologne at the end of May, and Essen on the night of 1-2 June, being followed by strikes on Duisberg, Saarbrucken and Dusseldorf in the following month. On the latter raid, presumably in one of the Squadron’s newly acquired Lancasters, on the last night of July, Crampton displayed great skill in bringing his aircraft and crew home:

‘While carrying out his bombing run, his aircraft was heavily engaged by flak and severely damaged and, soon after leaving the target, both starboard engines failed. In spite of damage to his hydraulic system and radiator flaps, Flight Sergeant Crampton flew his aircraft back to England where he made a safe belly-landing without injury to his crew.’

August witnessed another ‘Gardening’ run, in addition to sorties against Mainz, Osnabruck and Kassel, the latter trip, on the night of the 27th-28th, again receiving mention in Kemp’s pilot’s D.F.M. recommendation:

‘He flew to and from the target at tree-top height and on the way back his crew machine-gunned a power house which blew up.’

September saw Kemp participating in his third trip to Essen, in addition to raids on Saarbrucken, Bremen, Wilhelmshaven, Munich and Weismar, and his fourth and last ‘Gardening’ trip, while October included just one sortie, a return visit to Weismar. Now nearing the completion of his tour of operations, Kemp four times visited Italian targets in the November-December period, in addition to strikes against Stuttgart and Mannheim. It was a raid to Turin on the night of 9-10 December 1942 that marked the end of his tour.