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| Signatures on this item | |
| *The value given for each signature has been calculated by us based on the historical significance and rarity of the signature. Values of many pilot signatures have risen in recent years and will likely continue to rise as they become more and more rare. | |
| Name | Info |
  Air Marshal Sir Ivor Broom KCB CBE DSO DFC AFC (deceased) *Signature Value : £50 | Entering the RAF in 1940 he joined No 114 Squadron as a sergeant pilot flying Blenheims. After 12 operations he and his crew were allocated to No 105 Squadron and then No 107 Squadron, the last remaining Blenheim Squadron in Malta. The Squadron remained there without relief for five months carrying out low level attacks on the shipping. Very few of the original crews survived the detachment, in fact he was commissioned during this period, when 107 Squadron had lost all their officers and for a short time was the only officer, other than the CO, in the Squadron. At the end of this tour he was awarded the DFC. In early 1943 he became one of the first Mosquito instructors in the Pathfinder Force and later moved to No 571 Squadron with the Light Night Strike Force. He then formed No 163 Squadron as acting Wing Commander. He was awarded a bar to his DFC for a low level moonlight mining attack on the Dormund - Ems Canal from 50ft and then a second bar for getting a 4000lb bomb into the mouth of a railway tunnel during the final German Ardennes offensive. During his time on Mosquitoes his navigator was Tommy Broom, together they formed an inseparable combination. Remaining with the RAF after WWII and in accordance with peacetime rules for a much smaller Air Force he was reduced in rank first to Squadron Leader and then to Flight Lieutenant in 1948. Promoted to Air Marshal in 1974 he became the Head of the UK National Air Traffic Services and was the first serving officer to be appointed to the Board of the Civil Aviation Authority. Retiring from the RAF in 1979 he has been actively engaged in civil aviation since then. He died 24th January 2003. |
| Flight Lieutenant F S Fred Stevens *Signature Value : £10 | After training in Australia and Canada, Fred Stevens found himself in October 1941 flying Bolton Paul Defiants, converting shortly after to Beaufighters, which he throughout 1942. In early 1943 he converted to the Mosquito Mk2 Night Fighter with A1 radar. This was with 456 Squadron (RAAF), they later re-equipped with the Mosquito Night Fighter Mk17. Before D-Day they transferred to Ford in West Sussex for the build up to the invasion, carrying out numerous operations. Later Fred and 456 were involved with attacking V1s at night. |
| Flight Lieutenant S J Stan Williams *Signature Value : £15 | Joining the RAAF in May 1941, Stan Williams left for the U.K. via the U.S., arriving in England after a five month trip. Initially flying Blenheims and Beaufighters, he eventually joined 456 Squadron (RAAF) in 1943 on Mosquitoes, flying out of RAF Ford. The role of 456 at this time was to include Ranger and Intruder missions, as well as night defense, especially prior to D-Day. They also defended against V1s at night. Their last mission of the war was against He177s towing glider bombs en-route to Scapa Flow, they destroyed the lot. |
 Group Captain Brian Black Jack Walker (deceased) *Signature Value : £35 | Brian Walker joined the RAAF in 1935. The outbreak of World War Two found him with 25 Squadron RAAF flying Wirraways. After a period of instructing he went to 12 Squadron before joining 30 Squadron RAAF as Command Officer. This was the first RAAF Beaufighter Squadron. He then went north to New Guinea where his exploits on Beaufighters are legendary. In 1944 he was seconded to de Havilland as test pilot on Mosquitoes. At the end of the year, until the conclusion of the war, he commanded No. 1 Fighter Wing in Darwin flying Spitfires and Mustangs. Brian Walker passed away on 21st April 1997, aged 84. |
 Squadron Leader Bob Cowper DFC* (deceased) *Signature Value : £15 | Joining 153 Sqn flying Defiants, changing to Beaufighters. In 1943 he flew Beaufighters in Malta. With 89 Sqn he crashed in Tunisia, having to walk home 65 miles through the Sahara Desert. Went from 89 Sqn to 108 Sqn and then as an instructor teaching night flying. Joined 456 Sqn RAAF before D-Day, finishing the war on Intruder missions and 6 air victories. He became acting CO of 456 Sqn. Bob Cowper first trained in de Havilland Tiger Moths and continued training in Yorkton, Canada where he gained his wings flying a Harvard trainer before sailing to the UK. In August 1941, he trained as a night-fighter pilot at RAF East Fortune near Edinburgh before being posted to Ballyhalbert, County Down, Northern Ireland. Initially flying Boulton Defiant night-fighters but later Bristol Beaufighters, he flew night sorties to protect not only Ireland but the Atlantic convoys carrying troops and supplies to Europe from North America. Bob was posted in December 1943 to Malta with RAAF 456 Squadron. Having picked up a brand new Beaufighter from RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire, he and his Scottish navigator Watson were on a secret mission between Gibraltar and Malta in January 1943 when they got lost in darkness and heavy cloud, with an inoperable radio and virtually out of fuel, and crash-landed in pitch darkness and without wheels in the Sahara desert. Guessing correctly that they were behind enemy lines, they torched the Beaufighter as per their training because it contained state-of-the-art radar technology they did not want to fall into enemy hands. They had one box of matches and they used every one because there was so little fuel left in the tank to ignite. 'We decided to start walking to Tripoli but noticed we were being trailed by sword-wielding Arabs on horseback. After firing my service pistol, I yelled that I was Australian and they were not hostile at all.' The Arabs sheltered them in tents for five days before a Hussar corporal from the British 'Desert Rats' picked them up. Within weeks, Cowper and Watson were back in the air, flying out of Malta and bombing and strafing enemy planes over Sicily. Cowper also played a major air role during Operation Husky, the allied invasion of Sicily on July 9th-10th, 1943. On July 11, since Watson was down with dysentery, Cowper had the RAF navigator Farquharson, from Bendochy, Perthshire, behind him when they had a dogfight with a Luftwaffe Junkers Ju88 fighter-bomber they had seen attacking allied ships. Cowper blew it to pieces in a fireball but some of those pieces hit his own Beaufighter and sent it spiralling into the Mediterranean. Cowper called on Farquharson to get out of the bottom hatch before him but apparently he never did. He was missing in action, presumed dead. Cowper parachuted into the ocean, where his automatic mini-dinghy inflated and he drifted all night, exhausted and expecting to die. In the morning, he spotted a ship 'lit up like a Christmas tree' which he assumed was a hospital ship since no others would have their lights on in a combat zone. It was the hospital ship HMHS Aba. Its captain saw his flare and he scrambled ashore with a broken nose and shrapnel in his legs, demanding to be returned to Malta to get back in the battle. He did, and was flying again within a week, wearing a reinforced oxygen mask over his broken nose and shooting down another Ju88 off Sicily, this time with Watson back behind him. The two buddies went on to fly against the Germans in support of the allied thrust towards Berlin. Flying a Mosquito, he shot down four German planes over the beaches of Normandy while his comrades in RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force) 456 squadron - Australia's only night-fighter unit - accounted for a total of 35 enemy aircraft. In the weeks after D-Day, Cowper and his squadron also shot down 24 German V-1 flying bombs, probably saving countless lives in and around London. Sadly Bob passed away on 19th June 2016. |
 Squadron Leader Terry Kearns (deceased) *Signature Value : £60 | New Zealander Derek Terry Kearns joined the RNZAF in December 1940, transferring to England in 1941 to join 75 (NZ) Squadron, flying Wellingtons. In 1942 he took part in the first 1000 bomber raids before joining 156 Squadron Pathfinders. After a period as an instructor, he joined 617 Squadron at Warboys on operations. He flew the Mosquito FBVI on precision low-level target marking throughout 1944. He took part in most of 617s major operations, including raids on the Samur rail tunnel, and the V1 rocket sites. He died in 1996 aged 75. |
| The Aircraft : | |
| Name | Info |
| Mosquito | Used as a night fighter, fighter bomber, bomber and Photo-reconnaissance, with a crew of two, Maximum speed was 425 mph, at 30,300 feet, 380mph at 17,000ft. and a ceiling of 36,000feet, maximum range 3,500 miles. the Mosquito was armed with four 20mm Hospano cannon in belly and four .303 inch browning machine guns in nose. Coastal strike aircraft had eight 3-inch Rockets under the wings, and one 57mm shell gun in belly. The Mossie at it was known made its first flight on 25th November 1940, and the mosquito made its first operational flight for the Royal Air Force as a reconnaissance unit based at Benson. In early 1942, a modified version (mark II) operated as a night fighter with 157 and 23 squadron's. In April 1943 the first De Haviland Mosquito saw service in the Far east and in 1944 The Mosquito was used at Coastal Command in its strike wings. Bomber Commands offensive against Germany saw many Mosquitos, used as photo Reconnaissance aircraft, Fighter Escorts, and Path Finders. The Mosquito stayed in service with the Royal Air Force until 1955. and a total of 7781 mosquito's were built. |
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