Dropping Food to Dutch People Signed W S O Randle WW11 Welli...

Hammer

£4

Dropping Food to Dutch People Signed W S O Randle WW11 Wellington Pilot Evader. 25 1V 80 Soestduk ( Netherlands ) CDS Commemorating The Dropping of Food to the Dutch People by Bomber Command. Cover depicts 15 Sqn Lancasters dropping supplies to the Dutch people near The Hague in 1945 and RAF badge. In April 1945 German Commanders in Holland declared publicly that they could not feed the Dutch people. Operation Manna was a lifesaving operation between the Allied and Axis Forces with the International Red Cross acting as intermediary. During the period 29 April to 5 May 1945 aircraft of the Bomber Command and the US 8th Air Force, the German guns remained silent and their fighter remained on the ground. Flown in Battle of Britain Lancaster from RAF Coningsby on a low level runs in the same manner as 35 years ago when dropping food supplies to the Dutch people in the Rotterdam, The Hague and Amsterdam areas. Personally Signed by Gp Capt W S O Randle WW11 Wellington Pilot Evader. May 1942, Bill was a sergeant pilot with No 150 Squadron, Bomber Command, based at Snaith in Yorkshire, and had already established something of a reputation as a survivor and escaper, having walked away from no fewer than 3 crashes in Vickers Wellingtons, the last of which began with a propeller falling off over East Anglia and ended with a devastating wheels-up landing, in dense fog, on the village green at Dittington, near Peterborough, In the course of his career Bill was eventually to survive no fewer than 8 Wellington crashes on 16 September 1942, his Wellington was hit by a anti-aircraft shell at 23,000 feet over Zwolle, on the Dutch coast, while en route to Essen on his 27th operation of the war. Unaware that his aircraft was badly damaged, he flew into the Ruhr, where he dropped his 4,000lb blockbuster on the target and stayed with the bomber stream, only to be hit again while turning over Aachen. After about 20 minutes, Bill began to lose control and with the Wellington flying a large erratic circle even closer to the Ruhr barrage, Bill and his crew bailed out at 16,000 feet. All landed safely in Belgian countryside, though Bill sustained minor eye and hand injuries while bailing out. made his way through France across the Pyrenees into Spain and reached Gibraltar. Bill Randle returned to England a mere 2 months after being shot down. His navigator Sergeant 'Scottie' Brazill returned after 5 months, and bomb-aimer Sergeant Wally Dreschler came home a month later, The MI9 rule that no one who used an escape route could return to operational flying applied to Bill Randle until after D-Day when the routes no longer had need to run to Switzerland and Spain. Soon after his return to England he was commissioned and then, after a short time lecturing on evasion and escape, he settled down to instructing on Wellingtons at the OTUs at Pershore, Stratford-on-Avon and Lossiemouth. He converted to Mosquitos in late 1944 and, still in Bomber Command, finished the War with No 692 Squadron at Gransden Lodge. He was awarded the DFM in January 1943, Mentioned in Dispatches and earned the AFC in 1944. Certified Copy 5 of 10. Single Vendor RAF cover collection. Good condition. All autographs come with a Certificate of Authenticity. We combine postage on multiple winning lots and can ship worldwide. UK postage from £5.99, EU from £7.99, Rest of World from £9.99