Beschreibung:

An important Great War O.B.E. group of eleven awarded to Group Captain A. J. Miley, Royal Air Force, late Royal Naval Air Service, one of a handful of pilots chosen for the famous Cuxhaven Raid on Christmas Day 1914, ‘the world’s first carrier air strike’: compelled to “ditch” in hazardous conditions, he was picked up by the submarine E11, in which craft he experienced good old naval hospitality in the form of Christmas turkey and plum pudding at 20 fathoms - the whole after a Zeppelin’s bombs had badly shaken - but clearly not stirred - the submarine’s crew The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 1st type breast badge, silver-gilt, hallmarks for London 1919; 1914-15 Star (Flt. Cr., R.N.A.S.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Sq. Cr., R.N.A.S.); War Medal 1939-45; Jubilee 1935; Coronation 1937; Republic of Argentina Ministry of Marine Gold Medal, the reverse centre with embossed inscription, ‘Agregado Aeronautico Britanico Capitan de Navio Arnold John Miley, 1936-1942’, in its Jose F. Piana, Buenos Airies case of issue; Brazilian Republic Anniversary Medal 1939; Chilean Order of Merit, Commander’s neck badge, silver, gilt and enamel, in Bertrand, Paris case of issue, together with another Argentinian presentation award, possibly to mark the Buenos Airies Conference of December 1936, gold and enamel, the reverse named in relief on a blue enamel ground, ‘Coronel Arnold J. Miley’, in its Rossi, Buenos Airies leather case of issue, the Chilean piece with one or two chipped arm points, contact marks, otherwise generally very fine and better (11) £3000-3500 Footnote O.B.E. London Gazette 1 January 1919. Arnold John Miley was born in 1890, the son of a doctor from St. Mary Bourne, Andover. Educated at the Royal Naval College Dartmouth, he was appointed a Lieutenant in March 1911 and commenced a pilot’s course in the fledgling Royal Naval Air Service at Eastchurch in June 1913. The outbreak of hostilities found him employed as a Flight Lieutenant at the Naval Air Station, Calshot, an appointment that led to his selection for the famous Cuxhaven Raid of Christmas Day 1914, the world’s first carrier air strike. The operation, in essence an air reconnaissance of the Heligoland Bight, including Cuxhaven, was made by nine seaplanes, Miley piloting an Admiralty Type 74 “Folder” aircraft (No. 120) - the naval pilots and aircraft were conveyed to a point about 12 miles to the north of Heligoland before being lowered onto the water from the seaplane carriers Empress, Engadine and Riviera. Miley’s subsequent experiences in that memorable operation are described in R. D. Layman’s definitive account, The Cuxhaven Raid: ‘Flight Lieutenant Arnold J. Miley, in Engadine’s Folder No. 120, reached the coastline at 8.10 a.m. and found the fog, although thick, did not totally restrict his view. He crossed and recrossed a railway line, observing nothing more than two villages, many ploughed fields and a number of farms. ‘In spite of covering a good deal of ground I found no [airship] sheds and no fortified places worth attacking.’ At 8.30 he turned north and recrossed the coastline, coming under fire from a shore battery he could not see. Miley apparently tried to carry out the requested reconnaissance of Wilhelmshaven but missed it in the fog, emerging in the vicinity of the Jade entrance. For the next 20 minutes or so, until he reached Wangeroog, he was fired at by a variety of ships in the Jade and the Weser and Schillig Roads. He identified them as three light cruisers at the Weser’s mouth, two more steaming up the river, and another two entering the Jade; a battle cruiser at Schillig Roads, and a destroyer flotilla entering the Jade. ‘All ships challenged me with a searchlight,’ he reported, ‘and all fired with anti-aircraft guns, apparently, as I was too high for the elevation of any ordinary naval guns and all shells ... were time-fused.’ At 9.05 a.m. Miley was five miles north of Wangeroog, where