Beschreibung:

A Collection of Awards to the Royal Flying Corps, Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Air Force The British War Medal 1914-20 awarded to Captain J. L. Trollope, M.C. and Bar, Royal Air Force, late Royal Engineers and Royal Flying Corps, who claimed a record six victories in a single day as a Flight Commander in No. 43 Squadron in March 1918: shortly afterwards shot down by the renowned ace Leutnant Paul Billik and taken prisoner, he suffered terrible wounds that would affect him for the rest of his life - ‘Tall, well built and well liked, Trollope was a brilliant fighter pilot and an ideal Flight Commander, ready to take on any odds at any time’, and Hermann Goring agreed, smuggling the hospitalised Trollope extra rations as he recovered from the amputation of his mangled left hand without anaesthetic British War Medal 1914-20 (Capt. J. L. Trollope, R.A.F.), good very fine £500-600 Footnote M.C. London Gazette 13 May 1918: ‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. During a period of three months has engaged and brought down completely out of control four hostile machines, and has sent crashing to earth three others. On all occasions he has displayed the greatest courage, determination and skill, and it is largely due to his fine leadership that the flight under his command has contributed so much to the marked success of the squadron.’ Bar to M.C. London Gazette 22 June 1918: ‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. On one occasion during the recent operations, while on offensive patrol, he encountered three enemy machines, two of which he completely destroyed. He then attacked a scout, and after firing 100 rounds into it, the enemy machine went down completely out of control, eventually crashing. Later in the same day, on his flight encountering four enemy two-seater planes, he sent three of them down crashing to earth. Within a month previous to this he fought two hostile formations, numbering 12 machines in all, single-handed, and did not break off the engagement until he had driven off all of them towards the East. He has accounted for 14 enemy machines and has rendered brilliant service by his gallantry and determination.’ John Lightfoot Trollope was born in Wallington, Surrey, in May 1897, and was educated at Malvern College. A trainee surveyor and estate agent by the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he enlisted in the Royal Engineers and went out to France as a Corporal in July 1915, in which capacity he served as a dispatch rider until returning home that October. Subsequently transferring to the Royal Flying Corps, he took his Aviator’s Certificate (No. 3772) in August 1916 and was posted to No. 70 Squadron out in France as a newly commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, in which capacity he flew a number of reconnaissance and fighter escort missions. But it was as a Camel pilot in No. 43 Squadron, which he joined as a 20 year old Flight Commander in late 1917, that he achieved his remarkable feat of destroying six enemy aircraft in a single day, a feat matched only by one other pilot. Trollope opened his account in January 1918, with a DFW.C downed over Vitry on the 19th, followed by two more of the same type in mid-February. What followed in March, however, was by any standards quite remarkable, namely the destruction of another 14 enemy aircraft and one balloon inside four weeks, six of the former, famously, in a single day, and another three in his final sortie, when he was shot down by the ace Leutnant Paul Billik of Jasta 52 on the 28th, terribly wounded and taken prisoner. Final combat - the height of extreme courage The history of No. 43 Squadron takes up the story: ‘Ten weeks later after 16 victories, including a record-breaking six on the same day, he was finally vanquished in a fight with eight of the enemy. This battle and its aftermath were a classic of personal courage. Henry Woollett has said that what he hated above all was to see, when engaged with an enemy, one of his machines with a Hun on