Description
Physical description
Shape and material: Circular, cupronickel
Obverse design: Maltese Coat of Arms, being a shield flanked by laurel wreaths and surmounted by a crown.
Obverse text: "REPUBBLIKA TA' MALTA
1992"
Reverse design: The George Cross surmounted by a small Maltese Cross
Reverse text: "BĦALA XHIEDA TA' EROJIŻMU U DEDIKAZZJONI + TO BEAR WITNESS TO HEROISM AND DEVOTION
1942". (surrounds George Cross)
Ribbon colours: blue, red, white.
Ribbon pattern: BLUE/red/white/BLUE (both outer blue stripes are each 13 mm wide, while the central red and white stripes are 3 mm wide).
Suspension bar: Metal, with a relief of an olive branch and palm frond joined in the centre.
Edge engraving: "808429 SGT L DAVIES RAF"
The medal is contained in a box along with a card issued by the manufacturer stating that it is an authorised replica along with the serial number. The box fits into a white cardboard sleeve on which Len Davies has written in pen what the box contains.
History note
Leonard 'Len' Davies was born 17 November 1920 in Stockton-on-Tees. Feeling a sense of duty to his country at the outbreak of war, and the belief that one was better placed to control their own fate as a fighter pilot, he joined the Auxiliary Air Force in June 1939 at the age of 18 and began his training at RAF Thornaby with 608 Squadron.
In July 1940 he began flying Hurricanes after having chosen the aircraft over the Spitfire due to the suggestion of one of his friends, and in the same month was posted to 151 Squadron based at RAF North Weald. He began flying operationally in August 1940, at the height of the Battle of Britain, and was involved in the fighting throughout the month until he was shot down on 28 August. Wounded, he crash-landed at Eastchurch aerodrome, which was then under bomber attack, and while unconscious was rescued by ground staff who had to cut him from his straps as his plane had hit a crater and flipped over. Due to confusion at the Air Ministry, Davies's family was informed that he was missing in action and presumed dead, although they found out he was indeed alive shortly after.
After a period of two months in hospital he continued to fly for 151 Squadron until he was sent overseas and posted to 261 Squadron based in Malta in January 1941, where he flew operationally from until May 1941. During this period Malta was under siege and constant aerial attack, with the RAF seriously under-supplied and under-manned, demonstrated by his recollection that they were not to engage visible enemy aircraft unless they were actively attacking the island. Davies remembered this as the most stressful and difficult time of his service, more so than the Battle of Britain.
In June 1941 Davies was given a respite from combat and began flying aircraft delivery duties, first delivering fighter aircraft with Ferry Pool Takoradi from Ghana to Egypt and then with Aircraft Delivery Unit Middle East (ADUME) where he began flying twin-engine aircraft, in one instance delivering bombers to a squadron engaged in the First Battle of El Alamein. Perhaps one of his most notable exploits during this period was flying a special mission to China in May 1942, where he and his comrades delivered P40E Kittyhawks directly to General Claire Lee Chennault for his 'Flying Tigers' (1st American Volunteer Group), not before flying as personal fighter escorts to Colonel Robert Lee Scott Jr as he extracted evacuees and wounded personnel from Myitkyina in northern Burma. During this mission he and his comrades were possibly the first RAF pilots to fly fighter aircraft over the 'Hump' (Himalayas). On another occasion, a DB-7 Boston he was flying in piloted by his friend Jim Pickering had to make a force-landing on a beach in the Gulf of Oman, where with the help of local villagers they lived for eleven days before being picked up by the Royal Navy. This resulted in his family receiving a second telegram in which they were informed that he was missing.
From September 1942 to January 1944, Davies worked as an instructor with No. 1 Middle East Training School (METS) and No. 75 Operational Training Unit (OTU), training pilots of multiple nationalities how to fly various types of twin-engine aircraft (primarily Martin Baltimores and Bristol Blenheims). Returning to England in February 1944 after three years away, he joined 525 Squadron of Transport Command in April of the same year and began flying C47 Dakotas from RAF Lyneham. Transport duties ranged from flying service personnel of all branches to North Africa and India to evacuating casualties from Normandy and liberated POWs from the Far East, as well as flying post and freight.
By the end of the war Davies had flown 2,750.5 hours in 25 different types of aircraft. Five of the eight friends he had trained with at the beginning of the war had been killed, and this coupled with his own wartime experiences greatly influenced his decisions to reject religion for the rest of his life as well as become an ardent socialist, even rejecting a place at an Oxford University college due to their emphasis on religion. While recognising that his service was important and significant, he never saw himself as a hero and refused to wear his medals, which is reflected by the good condition that they are in as well as the fact that they were never attached to their ribbons (see OMD 8312 – 8316).
After the war Davies was awarded a place at Durham University (King's College, Newcastle) to study Mechanical Engineering, having received a grant via the Government Scheme for Further Education and Training for demobilised men and women, 1946. It was there on Fresher's Day that he met Amy Kathleen 'Katy' Garbutt, a former Wren who had also received a grant under the same scheme, and they married in 1948 (Garbutt's service papers and photographs can be found under Documents.26323). Together they had two children and Len worked as an engineer until retiring in 1980. Katy passed away in 2010, and Len in 2014, after having been extensively interviewed about his wartime experiences by his daughter and grandson. The decision was made to donate their material to IWM in 2016.
RAF ranks held by Davies:
Aircraftman 2nd Class: 09/06/1939
Leading Aircraftman: 10/06/1939
Sergeant: 29/06/1940
Flight Sergeant: 01/04/1941
Warrant Officer: 01/01/1942
Pilot Officer: 02/12/1942
Flying Officer: 02/06/1943
Flight Lieutenant: 02/12/1944
Inscription
MALTA GEORGE
CROSS.
50th Anniversary
medal
261 SQUADRON
RAF. 1941.
(HURRICANES)