The Armourer February 2023

By the time you read this we will be into 2023, which to me just typifies how time appears to go faster, the older you get. Except when I’m hungry and it’s before lunch, then it goes in slow motion. Anyway, it only seemed like yesterday that I was watching those grey haired, stony faced old veterans of WWI walking down the Mall on Remembrance Sunday. I remarked at the time that it wouldn’t be long before they were all gone. Then it also seems like only last week when it was the year 2000 and everyone had great hopes for the century ahead. That seems a pipe dream as the world is in a far worse place now than it was then. Time though, rolls on regardless and in…

OBITUARY Last of the Dambusters passes away Squadron Leader George ‘Johnny’ Johnson MBE DFM, of 617 Squadron, died peacefully in his sleep on 7 December 2022. It was the end of an era when the last surviving member of the Dambusters raid of WWII passed away, aged 101. Johnny was aged 21 when he was the bomb aimer in charge of targeting the Scorpe Dam as part of Operation Chastise in 1943. The mission cost the lives of 53 RAF airmen but was successful, flooding the industrial Ruhr valley for months afterwards. Johnny was made an MBE in 2017 after a long running campaign, supported by TV celebrities such as Carol Vorderman. Following the raid Johnny participated in a further 19 missions during his time with No. 617 Squadron until April…

Ratisbon’s 53rd The next auction from European dealer Ratisbon’s runs from 18-26 February so let’s have a look at the early consignments. First up, a Waffen-SS crusher visor cap. This is a privately tailored Waffen-SS visor cap in the design of a 1st pattern ‘alter Art’ visor cap, what collectors call a crusher cap (Knautschmütze). The tailor has used a quite hard inner cap band so the cap can not properly be crushed but he correctly used a cloth finished visor to the top and button. There’s a re-attached, but entirely original cap eagle and skull badge with all prongs in place. The cap features white silk piping with clear patina, and a dark grey silk lining. It’s on the small size, but no moth damage. Bidding starts at £4,300…

Medals at Noonans Lancaster Rear Gunner Warrant Officer Victor Arthur Roe was killed in action on a raid to Chemnitz, carrying out his 98th operational sortie on 5-6 March 1945. He was just 21 years old. His outstanding and rare WWII CGM (Conspicuous Gallantry Medal) and Immediate DFM (Distinguished Flying Medal) group of five was sold by Noonans in the sale of Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria for £51,520 (all prices include BP of 28.8%) on 7 December, 2022. They were being sold by Roe’s family and were bought by a leading collector of WWII flying medals. Elsewhere a Great War Western Front MC group of four awarded to Major FW Prentice, Tank Corps, late Royal Engineers, who had previously served as an Assistant Storekeeper on the RMS Titanic, and…

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COVER STORY Less than four weeks before Japan landed on the shores of the Malay Peninsula, General Wavell, Commander-in-Chief in India, wrote to a colleague saying: ‘Personally, I should be most doubtful if the Japs ever tried to make an attack on Malaya and I’m sure they will get it in the neck if they do’. In contrast, Colonel FRN Cobley, incarcerated in Changi Jail PoW Camp, wrote after it was all over: ‘Of all the failings in Malaya, certainly the most outstanding was the failure of Singapore as a fortress, which it was not. This fact few people were allowed to know, or if they knew, to admit it: for this would have been imperial heresy.’ Singapore became a part of the British Empire in 1867. Strategically located in…