Beschreibung:

The Ron Penhall Collection The Second World War D.F.C., D.F.M. group of seven awarded to Flight Lieutenant W. H. Marshall, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, a Flight Engineer who completed numerous sorties in No. 138 “Special Duties” Squadron and who successfully evaded capture on being compelled to take to his parachute over France in May 1943: after many adventures - including a ride on the Paris Metro during which he dropped a Penny coin in the pocket of the German soldier seated next to him - he reached Gibraltar Distinguished Flying Cross, G.VI.R., the reverse officially dated ‘1944’; Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R. (1004784 F./Sgt. W. H. Marshall, R.A.F.), with its card box of issue; 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; Africa Star; Defence and War Medals, these last with their original card forwarding box, generally extremely fine (7) £4000-5000 Footnote William Henry Marshall was employed by the British Tyre and Rubber Company at Leyland prior to enlisting in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in 1940 and, having attended a Flight Engineer’s course at Speke factory, was posted to No. 158 Squadron at R.A.F. Eastmoor in June 1942. A week or two later, following a few outings to gain air experience, he completed his first sortie, an outing in one of the Squadron’s Halifaxes to Amiens on the night of 8-9 July 1943 - two trips to Duisberg and another to Dusseldorf followed in quick succession. Having then completed another sortie to Essen in September, with Squadron Leader C. G. S. R. “Robbie” Robinson, D.F.C., at the helm, he joined Flight Sergeant R. D. Roberts’ crew for outings to Kiel, Cologne and Genoa in October, in addition to seven anti-shipping or convoy escort patrols before the year’s end, these latter while on detachment to Beaulieu. No. 158’s move to Rushforth in the new year witnessed its aircrew flying one or two “Gardening” missions, but by the middle of February the agenda had reverted to German targets of the heavily-defended kind, Marshall flying against Cologne twice that month, in addition to Nuremburg and Wilhelmshaven. Indeed following a trip to Essen in March, Marshall and his crew experienced a particularly challenging sortie to Nuremburg on the night of the 8th - ‘Coolant leak on port inner 110 miles from target. Feathered engine and carried on and bombed target at 10,000. Shot up over Mannheim and Paris. Flak predicted and accurate. Landed at Pocklington’ (Marshall’s flying log book refers). His pilot, Flight Sergeant Roberts, was awarded an immediate D.F.M. Then later in the same month, having flown against Stuttgart on the 11th - an outing that brought his total number of sorties to near the 30-mark - Marshall joined No. 138 Squadron at Tempsford, one of two “Special Duties” squadrons charged with dropping S.O.E. agents and supplies into occupied Europe. Nor was he alone in making this move, for his new pilot was Squadron Leader “Robbie” Robinson, with whom he had earlier flown in No. 158. And together, over the coming weeks, they completed four clandestine missions to France, another to Belgium and two more to Holland, but on the night of 12 May 1943, disaster struck in the form of accurate enemy flak moments after they departed the scene of their pre-arranged D.Z. With the starboard petrol tanks holed and flames enveloping the wing, Robinson gave the order for his crew to bale out, Marshall finally getting out of the crippled aircraft at around 600 or 700 feet - ‘the parachute hit me full in the face as it came off my chest and when I came round I saw that I was in a large field of long grass.’ At length, Marshall came upon fellow crew member Flight Sergeant J. T. “Hutch” Hutchinson, and still in battledress and wearing their flying boots, the pair sought refuge in a barn. Unbeknown to them, they had in fact landed in the midst of a local Resistance circuit, and before too long - after calling at a local farm - they were taken under the latter’s protective wing, but not before being “cl