orders, decorations, campaign medals and militaria - Spink

November 22, 2012 - LoNdoN
Kearns (third from left) with 617 Squadron, Woodhill Spa, 1944.
The motif of the saint holding a bomb on the side of the Lancaster was the
design of Kearns. His crew had it emblazoned on their flying jackets
H.E.T. - Vis. Good - Hit By Flak Over Target - Returned on
3 Motors - E A/C Encountered Over A. - A. Photos. Very
Interesting Trip - W/Op’s Final Op.’; Essen (4);
Saarbrucken; Krefeld; Genoa; Hamburg (2); Turin (3);
Stuttgart; Mannheim; Duisburg; Munich (2); Lorient (2);
Dusseldorf; Cologne; St. Nazaire (2); Berlin; Keil; La Spezia;
and Pilsen (raid on Skoda Armaments Factory), 16.4.1943.
617 ‘Dam Buster’ Squadron
Once Kearns had finished his second tour, ‘I completed a
Flying Instructor Course and was posted back to No.11
O.T.U. now located at R.A.F. Westcott. I was an Instructor
on the satellite airfield - R.A.F. Oakley - converting pilots to
Wellington Aircraft before they joined the remainder of their
crew at R.A.F. Westcott for advanced training. I was recalled
to Operational Flying with No. 5 Group in September 1943.
My Navigator Flight Lieutenant Barclay and I joined [C
Flight] No. 617 Squadron as it moved to R.A.F.
Conningsby. We formed a new crew and trained to the
operational requirements in Low Level Flying and Specialist
attack procedures. In addition when the Stabilised Automatic
Bomb Sight (SABS) was introduced, we trained for the
delivery of the 12,000lb Blast Bomb. This was replaced by
the 12,000lb Tallboy and later by Grand Slam (22,000lb).
Our best effort on the practice range was - I believe - never
beaten. The average error of eight practice bombs dropped
from 20,000ft on Wainfleet Bombing Range was 15 yards
from the Aiming Point Peg ‘(typed manuscript included with
lot refers); due to the casualties suffered by 617 Squadron
during the Dams Raid, May 1943, Kearns was one of several
skippers drafted in to bolster the squadrons strength, ‘it was
a new squadron being formed for a special low level operation
on an unknown target - all very Hush Hush. He [Len
Chambers] passed my name on to the C.O. Guy Gibson - as
a recruit - but I could not get my release from instructing at
Westcott/Oakley until after the Dams Raid’ (Ibid); he flew
his first operational sortie with the squadron, now led by
Leonard Cheshire, to the Antheor Viaduct, 11.11.1943; this
was the first of 30 operational sorties flown with 617
Squadron, including to 7 Special Duties Targets over
December 1943-January 1944 - a series of pin-point attacks
17
against factories in France which were reluctantly working for
the German war effort, where the object was ensure
maximum damage with minimum loss of French lives; other
operations included: the Gnome & Rhone Aero-Engine
Factory, Limoges, 9.2.1944, when Cheshire tried out his
newly developed low-level marking system for the first time
on operations; Aircraft Factory at Albert, 2.3.1944; La
Ricamerie, 10.3.1944 ‘To Ball Bearing Factory St. Ettienne -
1 x 12,000lbs - Good Raid - Factory Destroyed - Bombed
7,500 feet’; Aero-Engine Factory, Metz, 15.3.1944;
Michelin Tyre Factory, Clermont-Ferrand, 16.3.1944,
‘Direct Hit - 1 x 12,000lb. Factory Destroyed - Landed
Conningsby’; Powder Factory, Bergerac, 18.3.1944;
Explosive Works, Angouleme, 20.3.1944, “Pouderie
Nationale” Explosive Works - Angouleme - Southern France.
Photo A/P Factory Destroyed - Wizard Prang’; Aero-Engine
Factory, Lyons (3); he converted to Mosquitos and returned
to fly, as one of the squadron’s four Mosquito markers, on
operations over Juvisy Railway Sidings, 18.4.1944; Railway
Marshalling Yards, La Chappelle, North of Paris, 20.4.1944;
Brunswick, 22.4.1944 - the first time the squadron used its
low-level marking method over a heavily defended German
city; Munich, 24.4.1944; German Military Barracks, Mailly-
Le-Camp, 3.5.1944; returning to Lancasters he flew in
Operation Taxable, 5/6.6.1944, as part of the D Day
landings, ‘Tactical Operation Causing a Diversion to Cover
the Initial Landings on the Cherbourg Peninsular. Ht. 3000!
- Believed Very Successful’; two days later he flew in the
attack led by Cheshire on the Saumur Railway Tunnel; this
was the first occasion that Barnes Wallis’ new 12,000lb
Tallboy bombs were used and Kearns used it to very good
effect, ‘Bombing Very Accurate - Load 1 x 12,000lb Tallboy
- Direct Hit Tunnel Mouth. Believed Very Successful Raid’
(Log Bok refers); a newspaper cutting adds the following
detail ‘Kearns... scored a bull’s eye with his “Tallboy” - a
12,000lb earthquake bomb. He was so accurate that he
obliterated the squadron commander Leonard Cheshire’s
marking flare, preventing other Lancaster crews from seeing
their target. “Hold on chaps,” Cheshire said. “I’ll have to
mark it again”; the operation was a complete success, the