Second World War Burma Command Casualty Evacuation Pilot’s group with flying log book, awarded to Flying Officer G.B. Anderton, Royal Air Force. Anderton began pilot training in November 1942 out in Saskatchewan in Canada before moving on to Salisbury in Southern Rhodesia where he gained his pilot wings in July 1944. As a qualified pilot in single engined aircraft, he was then sent to the Sudan to qualify as a fighter pilot in Hurricanes, but owing to the war requirements then found himself operational from February 1945 as part of No.224 Group Communication Squadron with the Casualty Evacuation Flight flying in L5 Sentinel aircraft over Burma. He then flew numerous casualty evacuation sorties through to the end of the war.
Group of 4: 1939-1945 Star; Burma Star; Defence Medal; War Medal, Mounted swing style as worn.
Condition: slight contact wear, Very Fine.
Together with the following:
Recipient’s wartime cloth Pilot’s wings.
Hand coloured photograph of the recipient taken in wartime when a pilot in uniform, and another in later life.
Royal Air Force Pilot’s Flying Log Book, cover inscribed to ‘Anderton G.B. F.O. - Malaya Burma’, inside page similarly inscribed, covering the period from 19 November 1942 through to 31 December 1946. This log book is in poor condition, many pages loose and out of sequence, though they appear to be complete. The spine is now damaged and there is evidence of water damage.
Anderton was originally appointed under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan as a Flying Cadet with No.25 Elementary Flying Training School out in Saskatchewan in Canada from November 1942, and where he learned to fly in Cornell aircraft, flying his first solo on type on 30th November. His course came to an end in February 1943. By the beginning of March 1943, whilst remaining with this training school, he continued his training with ‘Y’ Flight of No.2 Squadron of this unit and learned to fly in the Harvard. He qualified as a Safety Pilot on this type of aircraft on 24th April 1943.
Having then crossed the Atlantic, as of the beginning of May 1944 he was with No.20 Service Flying Training School at Salisbury in Southern Rhodesia, where he progressed in his training on the Harvard aircraft as part of No.6 Flight in ‘Y’ Group, and gained his Pilot’s Flying Wings on 28th July 1944, he having qualified as a fighter pilot.
As such he was posted to the Middle East to Gordon’s Tree near to Khartoum in the Sudan to learn to fly the Hurricane as part of No.71 Operational Training Unit with ‘D’ Flight. By November 1944 he was rated as an ‘average’ fighter pilot and deemed suitable for operational service. As such he was then posted out to the Far East to India and then Burma where he began operations in mid January 1945, but owing for the need for pilots for other aircraft, then found himself posted to No.224 Group Communication Squadron as a part of the Casualty Evacuation Flight flying in L5 Sentinel aircraft. Having moved to Akyab Island, he experienced a forced landing on the beach on 31st January, and then began operating from Akyab island, flying two casualty evacuation flights on 1st February, and then began flying more of the same throughout the remainder of February and through March and into April, when he moved with his unit to Ramree and continued from there. He would also operated from other airfields as and when required. He continued as such until the end of the war when he found himself posted with his unit to Malaya Command in September 1945, and as such he then flew with Air Headquarters Malaya Communication Squadron in Sentinel aircraft through to the end of April 1946, operating from China Bay.
Anderton then returned to the United Kingdom and last flew in Proctor aircraft with to No.12 Group Communication Flight during August to December 1946 when he left the service.
