MEN BEHIND THE MEDALS LIONEL COLES
Next night it was back to the ‘Big
City’ and two nights later the crew
made its fifth and final visit to the
German capital. Weather again
hampered the Pathfinders and
the results were disappointing.
A return to Essen on the night
of April 3 achieved much better
results. The Krupps factory
complex was the main objective
and damage was widespread.
By the middle of April the
Dierkes crew were approaching
the end of their tour but there was
no let up and no ‘soft’ targets to
ease them to the ‘magic number’
of 30 operations – a milestone
reached by only a few crews. They
attacked Kiel and then, on two
successive nights, it was back to
‘Happy Valley’ – the Ruhr – this
time to Duisburg. They were
attacked by an enemy night-
fighter but good co-ordination
by the gunners and violent
evasive action by Dierkes sawthe Lancaster escape with minor
damage and they pressed on.
On the night of April 13, the
crew headed for the dockyards of
La Spezia in Italy. They returned
with an excellent bombing photo
showing large fires, and added a
fifth bombing certificate to their
logbooks. After almost ten hours
in the air, their Lancaster landed
back at Syerston. It was the final
sortie of their tour.Highest praise
Under the leadership of Bill
Dierkes, the crew had achieved
superb results. Much of this
success was down to stability
within the crew: with the exception
of having to replace one of the
gunners, they had remained
together throughout the whole
tour, which clearly paid handsome
dividends.
Five bombing certificates
were testament to their skill anddetermination. The award of
decorations to the six permanent
members of the crew, a very rare
event, was the clearest evidence of
success – five DFCs, including one
to Lionel Coles, and the DFM for
Sgt I Pettigrew, the flight engineer.
The citation for Coles’ DFC
concluded: “His dauntless courage
and fine fighting spirit has been
worthy of the highest praise.”
At the end of April the crew
split up and headed off to various
training units. Coles left to join
the Communications and Gunnery
Flight of 10 OTU at Abingdon,
Oxfordshire, where he flew in
Whitleys and Westland Lysanders.
He flew almost daily until July 6
when he received the devastating
news that his brother Bert, a
navigator on 35 Squadron, had
been killed returning in a Halifax
from a raid on Dortmund. The rear
gunner had survived but the rest
of the crew had perished.Lionel and his brother had
attacked the same target on a
number of nights and this shared
danger made their relationship
even closer: he immediately left
for home to be with his grieving
parents.
After a month he returned to
Abingdon and was transferred to
the Airmanship Section, where
he only flew only occasionally. It
seems entirely likely the RAF were
conscious of the price paid by the
Coles family and decided to screen
the youngest son from any further
operations.
In October Lionel attended an
investiture at Buckingham Palace
accompanied by his parents. No
doubt their feelings of pride were
tinged with great sadness at the
loss of two other sons.
Lionel remained at Abingdon until
the end of the war when, aged 23, he
returned to civilian life. He passed
away in his early 90s.The Dierkes crew of 61 Squadron, 1943 – Coles
is second from left. ALL IMAGES VIA AUTHOR
UNLESS NOTED“In October Lionel attended an investiture at Buckingham Palace accompanied
by his parents. No doubt their feelings of pride were tinged with great sadness
at the loss of two other sons”24 FLYPAST May 201520-26_Medals_fpSBB.indd 24 09/03/2015 10:07