bentley priory - Spink

September 6, 2012 - LONDON
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The Second War ‘Military Division’ M.B.E. Group of Four to Flight Officer C. Babington-
Smith, Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, A Pioneer of Wartime Photographic Interpretation, Who
Made the First Identification of a V1 Flying Bomb
a) The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, 2nd type, Military Division, Member’s (M.B.E.)
breast Badge, silver
b) Defence and War Medals, M.I.D. Oak Leaf
c) United States of America, Legion of Merit, Legionnaire’s breast Badge, gilt and enamel, the reverse
engraved ‘CBS Dec. 1945 W.A.A.F.’, nearly extremely fine (4)
£200-300
M.B.E. London Gazette 1.1.1945 Flight Officer Constance Babington-Smith (1512), Women’s Auxiliary Air Force.
United States of America, Legion of Merit London Gazette 16.4.1946 Flight Officer Constance Babington-Smith,
M.B.E. (1512), W.A.A.F.
‘In recognition of distinguished services in connection with the war.’
The original United States Citation states: ‘Recognised as the outstanding Allied authority on the interpretation of
photographs of aircraft, she provided the Eighth Air Force with extremely vital intelligence for the strategic bombing
and destruction of the German Aircraft industry and contributed materially to the success of the U.S.A.F. strategic
mission to Europe.’
Flight Officer Miss Constance Babington-Smith, M.B.E., was born Putney, London, 15.10.1912, the daughter
of Sir Henry Babington-Smith and Lady Elizabeth Babington-Smith, née Bruce, the daughter of the 9th Earl of
Elgin, and educated at home; after a spell working in London for the milliner Aage Thasrup, she ventured into
journalism, working first for Vogue magazine, and then for The Aeroplane magazine. Commissioned Assistant Section
Officer, Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, 19.12.1940; she set up an aircraft interpretation section during the Second
World War for the Royal Air Force’s photographic reconnaissance unit at Heston airfield, and was responsible for
searching for secret weapons; promoted Section Officer, 1.7.1942, she made the first identification from a
photograph of a German V1 flying bomb at Peenemünde on the Baltic coast in November 1943, an identification
which enabled and led to the subsequent air campaigns that disrupted German plans for the mass launch of V1 and
V2 rockets against the Allies. At the same time she was pursuing another vital brief- watching out for new types of
enemy aircraft, and was responsible for spotting the Me.163, the He.280, and the Me.262 for the first time, the
discovery of which greatly impressed Group Captain Frank Whittle, the inventor of the jet-engine, who was said to
be ‘rather enamoured of this unusual WAAF officer’ (recipient’s Telegraph obituary refers). Promoted Flight Officer,
1.1.1944, after the surrender of Germany in 1945 she travelled to the United States and assisted in photographic
interpretation for the war against Japan; following the end of the War she resigned from the Women’s Auxiliary Air
Force, 26.2.1946, but maintained a keen interest in aircraft, especially the de Havilland Mosquito, which had played
a large part in wartime photographic reconnaissance work, becoming a Founder Director of the de Havilland
Museum Trust which preserved the prototype Mosquito. She died at home in Cambridge, 31.7.2000.
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