orders, decorations, campaign medals and militaria - Spink

orders, deCoratioNs, CampaigN medaLs aNd miLitaria
‘Terry’
tunnel was destroyed, and a German Panzer division was prevented from reaching the Allied invasion beach-head
that had been established two days earlier; four days later Kearns was part of the operation over the Submarine
Pens at Le Havre, ‘Blue Flight Formation Leader - 1 x 12,000T.B. Very Good Raid - A/B Claims Direct Hit’;
the next day he attacked, with the same bomb load, the “E” Boat Pens at Boulogne; he flew two abortive sorties
on a V-Weapon site at Wizernes, Pas De Calais, before carrying out his final operational sortie of the war,
25.6.1944, ‘Operation to “Siracourt” Rocket Installation - 3 Direct Hits On Installation - Flak Damage - Cat
A/C. Load 1 x 12,000lb T.B.’; posted as Chief Flying Instructor, No. 17 O.T.U., Silverstone, October 1944;
towards the end of the war he was seconded to British Overseas Airways Corporation to fly transports on the
Karachi route and on 28.5.1946 he piloted the ‘1st BOAC Service Out of London Airport’ (Log Book refers);
on 8.6.1946, he helped fly a Sunderland in ‘ “V” Day Fly Past In London’; discharged in 1947, he returned to
New Zealand to complete his studies before accepting a permanent commission in the R.A.F. in 1949; posted to
3 (T) Squadron at the start of 1949, he spent the following two years at No. 1. I.T.S., flying a mixture of aircraft
including Vampires and Meteors; posted for operational service in Malaya to 60 (Fighter) Squadron (Vampires),
Tengah, December 1952; he carried out numerous “strikes”, rocket attacks and jungle reconnaissance as “A”
Flight Commander; having spent two years at Tengah he was posted back to the UK, April 1954; returned to
Tengah in the Summer, and continued to serve with the squadron over the Malayan jungle until the end of July
1955; having taken part in 49 “strikes” with the squadron he returned to Bomber Command, and was posted to
R.A.F. Lindholm, followed by No. 231 O.C.U., Bassingbourn, where he converted to Canberras; Squadron
Leader 1956; posted as Flight Commander to 139 (Jamaica) Squadron (Canberras), Binbrook, January 1956;
the squadron took part in the Suez Crisis, and flying from Nicosia, Kearns’ Log Book gives the following:
31.10.1956, ‘1st Strike Inchas Airfield’; 1.11.1956, ‘2nd Strike Luxor Airfield’; 2.11.1956, ‘3rd Strike Huckster
Depot’; 5.11.1956, ‘4th Strike Port Said, Mkr. For French Para Drop’; posted to H.Q. Bomber Command
Communications Squadron (Meteor Flight), April 1959, and subsequently held a number of appointments
including as part of the operational control of the Thor Missile Programme; in 1963 he contracted tuberculosis
and was forced to retire later that year; in civilian life he went on to work for Shell, before retiring in 1980
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