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Auction: 25003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 222

A well-documented Second World War pilot's D.F.C. group of five awarded to Flight Lieutenant P. A. Curd, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who completed a tour of 33 operational sorties in Lancasters of No. 207 Squadron, including daylight strikes against V-weapon sites in the summer of 1944

Distinguished Flying Cross, G.VI.R., the reverse officially dated '1945'; 1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, good very fine (5)

D.F.C. London Gazette 16 February 1945, the original recommendation states:

'Flying Officer Curd has completed 33 successful sorties against heavily defended enemy targets, including Stuttgart, Darmstadt, Bremerhaven, Munchen Gladbach, Bremen and Karlsruhe.
This officer was unfortunate in losing his Navigator early in his tour and on each of his remaining trips was obliged to take a different Navigator each time. His skill and determination, however, enabled him to press home every attack with outstanding success and accuracy. His courage and devotion to duty have been a fine example to the squadron.'

Peter Alan Curd was born in Loughton, Essex on 3 April 1922 and enlisted in the Royal Air Force at St. John's Wood in December 1941.

Selected for pilot training, he obtained his 'Wings' on a Catalina in the U.S.A., prior to being selected for Bomber Command on his return to the U.K. in the summer of 1943.

Posted to No. 207 Squadron, a Lancaster unit operating out of Spilsby, Lincolnshire, on the eve of the Normandy landings, Curd's very first sortie was flown against a target in France in the early hours of D-Day. And up until August, it was largely targets of the French variety that occupied the pages of the squadron's operational record book.

High on the list of those targets - over and above hitting enemy armour, troop concentrations and installations at such locations as Bordeaux, Brest and Caen - was a pressing need to take out V-weapon sites. Hence Curd's part in several such sorties, among them the daylight raids on Trossy St. Maximin and the Bois de Cassan in early August.

One particularly hard nut to crack was the underground site at St. Leu D'Esserent, a site visited by Bomber Command on no less than four occasions, in Curd's case on the night of 7-8 July 1944. Another costly night as it transpired, for enemy night fighters shot down 31 of our aircraft, five of them from No. 207 Squadron; in the early 1990s, some 50 years after the event, Curd was a guest at the unveiling of a memorial in the village of Neaufles St. Martin, a memorial dedicated to the memory of his fellow airmen who died in the raid.

The squadron's French agenda aside, he participated in numerous attacks against heavily defended targets in Germany, once being coned by searchlights and on occasion returning with flak damage. In July 1944 alone, he carried out three strikes against Stuttgart, and in October 1944 - via such targets as Bremen and Stettin - he rounded off his tour with a sortie in support of the forthcoming Operation 'Infatuate', the landings at Walcheren.

On his release as a Flight Lieutenant in September 1946, Curd remained on the strength of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and it was in that capacity that he served as an instructor in the University of London Air Squadron in the post-war era.

He subsequently ran a successful architect's practice in Wiltshire, where he died in January 2008.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, comprising:

(i)
The recipient's R.A.F. Pilot's Flying Log Books (2), covering the periods May 1942 to August 1945 and August 1945 to November 1951.

(ii)
His Buckingham Palace D.F.C. forwarding message and a related congratulatory telegram, dated 31 March 1945, together with a campaign medal entitlement slip, dated at No. 1653 Conversion Unit in August 1944.

(iii)
His enlistment notice dated at the R.A.F. depot, St. John's Wood, 1 December 1941, together with his R.A.F. Service and Release Book and National Identity Card, dated in July 1949.

(iv)
Two wartime crew photographs and a large quantity of post-war photographs from the recipient's visit to Neaufles St. Martin, France, to commemorate No. 207 Squadron's fallen (approximately 25 images), with his handwritten reminiscences of that visit.

(v)
His R.A.F. Instrument Pilot Training Card, University of London, dated 12 September 1951, together several letters concerning his application to be released form the R.A.F.V.R. in the same year, since he had commenced studying Architecture at University College London; and resultant Air Ministry letter confirming the relinquishment of his commission, dated in March 1952.

(vi)
A commemorative stamp cover for Lord Tedder, and assorted newspaper cuttings.

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Estimate
£1,000 to £1,400

Starting price
£800