The Second War Coastal Command D.F.C. group of seven awarded to Flying Officer D. E....

The Second War Coastal Command D.F.C. group of seven awarded to Flying Officer D. E. Yeomans, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who was decorated for his gallantry as a Sunderland pilot in the Far East in 1945 Distinguished Flying Cross, G.VI.R., the reverse officially dated ‘1945’; 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Burma Star, 1 clasp, Pacific; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, mounted as worn, extremely fine (7) £1,600-£2,000 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- Provenance: Glendining’s, March 1999. D.F.C. London Gazette 23 October 1945. A joint citation with Flight Sergeant R. G. Meale, who was awarded the D.F.M.: ‘In August 1945, this officer and airman as pilot and front gunner respectively of a Sunderland aircraft, were engaged on an armed reconnaissance when they sighted an enemy tug and two barges. Flying Officer Yeomans executed two determined and accurate attacks while Flight Sergeant Meale swept the decks of the vessels with machine-gun fire. As a result of their excellent work and co-operation, two of the vessels were destroyed and the third one badly damaged. The success of this and other sorties is the result of a high standard of efficiency and long training to which they have applied themselves so enthusiastically and diligently in the past.’ Donald Eric Yeomans was born on 4 August 1921, and enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve at Regent’s Park, London. Assessed for pilot training in January 1942, he subsequently attended courses at Moncton in Canada and Pensacola, Florida in the U.S.A., prior to returning home to attend an O.T.U. at Alness in Ross and Cromarty, Scotland. Posted to No. 202 Squadron in December 1943, he remained similarly employed until April 1944, flying anti-submarine patrols out of Oban as Second Pilot in the unit’s Catalinas. Having then qualified as a First Pilot, he was posted to 265 Squadron at Diego Suarez in February in 1945. It was, however, for his subsequent tour of duty as a First Pilot in Sunderlands of 209 Squadron in the Far East from May 1945, that he was awarded the D.F.C., when flying anti-shipping patrols over the Gulf of Siam and off Burma. He was released from service in September 1946 and died in Birmingham in October 1987, aged 66. Sold with the recipient’s original Royal Canadian Air Force Pilot’s Flying Log Book, covering the period January 1942 to April 1946, together with Royal Mint case of issue and named Buckingham Palace forwarding letter for his D.F.C; a related congratulatory letter from Air Marshal Sir Keith Park, then A.O.C. South-East Asia Command, dated 6 October 1945; his R.A.F. Service and Release Book; O.H.M.S. card forwarding box for campaign medals addressed to the recipient, with enclosed Air Ministry slip and ticker tape print out; his embroidered R.A.F. uniform wings and a few address stickers for ‘US Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida’.