Tragic airmen’s medals in Dorset sale

A poignant group of medals and ephemera for a flying engineer named Sergeant Douglas Timms, killed during World War 2, are included in the two-day Collector’s Auction at Dorset auction house Charterhouse on August 31 and September 1.

The lot includes his RAF jacket, Log Book noting flight operations and training, medals, black and white photographs, telegram to the family advising them of him being missing in action and letter of condolence.

There is also a letter from the mother of the wireless operator in the same Lancaster who was also missing asking for any news and the letter from the pilot, Flight Officer Paul Bunn who survived, telling the family about the last time he saw Sgt Timms in the bomber before he was blown out from the plane.

“Sgt Timms was an engineer flying in a Lancaster who was sadly killed in action near Stuttgart on January 2, 1945,” commented auctioneer Richard Bromell. “The Lancaster was caught by German fighters and hit in the fuel tanks which caught fire and within seconds the plane blew up in mid-air. The pilot, navigator and bomb aimer were blown clear out of the Landcaster and survived only to be captured when they landed by the Germans, but Sgt Timms and three crew from the plane lost their lives immediately.”