The fascinating Second World War Fleet Air Arm Swordfish Pilot September 1940 Prisoner of War Mention in Despatches Award Certificate, and two flying log books, as issued to Lieutenant Commander (Air) E.W. Lockwood, Fleet Air Arm, Royal Navy, formerly a Pilot Officer in the Royal Air Force. Lockwood was a pre-war pilot, who transferred into the Royal Navy from the Royal Air Force in October 1938. With the outbreak of the war he was a Swordfish Torpedo Bomber pilot with 813 Naval Air Squadron and operating from the aircraft carrier Eagle when out in the Far East. Though the remainder of 1939 and through to mid 1940 he operated in the Indian Ocean, and then passed through the Suez Canal for operations in the Eastern Mediterranean. Lockwood flew in two attacks on Tobruk Harbour on 5th and 20th July 1940, during which Italian warships and merchant vessels were sunk and damaged. He also searched and observed the Italian Fleet during the Battle of Calabria, and provided escort for a convoy to Greece, in addition not conducting the more routine search and anti-submarine / shipping patrols. By the end of August 1940, he had completed 152 carrier deck landings. However on 1st September he had taken off from Eagle together with Sub Lieutenant Kite and Acting Leading Naval Airman Simpson on a search mission when his aircraft failed to return, presumably owing to engine trouble, it came down in the sea, and he and his crew took to the dinghy. After eight days in the dinghy, which qualified them for the Goldfish Club, they made land near Tobruk on 8th September, and were taken prisoner of war by the Italians on 9th September. For his gallant and distinguished services in aerial operations against the enemy when operating from Eagle with 813 Naval Air Squadron, he was awarded a Mention in Despatches in September 1940. During his time in captivity he was held in Italy and then from October 1943 in Germany, and is recorded as having assisted in the construction of an escape tunnel at Campo 78 in Sulmona, and then assisted in cutting a hole in the cattle truck during the train journey to Germany, from which four officers escaped. Lockwood was released from captivity in April 1945, and would later return to the air, remaining in the service through to March 1958.
Mention in Despatches Award Certificate, issued to: ‘Lieutenant (A) Edmund William Lockwood R.N. H.M.S. Eagle’, dated 11th September 1940.
Together with the recipient’s two flying log books:
1) Royal Air Force Pilot’s Flying Log Book, inscribed to ‘E. W. Lockwood’, covering the period 21st December 1936 through to 5th May 1947.
2) Royal Air Force Pilot’s Flying Log Book, inscribed to ‘E. W. Lockwood’, covering the period 17th August 1951 through to 10th March 1955.
Edmund William Lockwood was born on 6th June 1916 and was living in Colwyn Bay, north Wales when he enlisted into the Royal Air Force as a Cadet Pilot, then immediately reported for flying training as a pilot on 21st December 1936, and flew his first solo in a B2 aircraft on 13th January 1937 when with Brough School. Lockwood was granted a short service commission as an Acting Pilot Officer on probation into the Royal Air Force on 8th March 1937. Lockwood then advanced onto Hart aircraft with No.7 Flight of No.5 Flying Training School from April 1937, and flew his first solo on this type of aircraft on 6th April, also gaining experience in the Audax. Having completed his training with the Advanced Training Squadron, he gained his Pilot’s Wings on 26th June 1937.
On 26th October 1937 he transferred to No.110 Bomber Squadron at R.A.F. Waddington, flying Hind’s. In February 1937 he converted with his squadron to Blenheim’s, and finished his period of probation as an Acting Pilot Officer when confirmed in the rank of Pilot Officer on 21st December 1937. Lockwood had however decided to relinquish his short service commission in the Royal Air Force in order to transfer into the Royal Navy for service as a Pilot in the Fleet Air Arm, and as such transferred on 17th October 1938, with his Royal Air Force commission being officially ended on 20th October. This was part of a general transfer of officers who were already qualified pilots, and in April 1939 the Fleet Air Arm, who pilots had originally been Royal Air Force, then found itself returned to Admiralty control.
In the meantime, Lockwood had been confirmed in the naval rank of Sub Lieutenant (Air) with seniority back dated to 21st December 1937, and had been posted to Gosport as a member of the Floatplane Training Flight gaining experience in both Swordfish and Shark aircraft, and learning catapult takeoffs. He then progressed in his training as a Torpedo Surface Reconnaissance Pilot, being posted to No.811 Naval Air Squadron at Donibristle on 6th January 1939, he then flew predominantly in Swordfish torpedo bomber bi-planes, and gained experience in take-offs and landings from aircraft carriers.
On 21st February 1939 Lockwood was posted to the Fleet Air Arm Pool at Gosport, and then appointed to No.813 Naval Air Squadron aboard the aircraft carrier Eagle, and was posted out to China, where this vessel was on the outbreak of the Second World War, with his squadron being also equipped with Swordfish aircraft. Lockwood notes in his diary that war was declared on Germany on 3rd September 1939, when Eagle was undergoing a short refit at Singapore.
With the outbreak of the war, Eagle which had been at Singapore, then put to sea searching for German merchant ships in company with the light cruiser Birmingham and escorted by the destroyer Daring. A Swordfish discovered the freighter SS Franken south of the port of Padang on Sumatra and Birmingham was ordered to intercept it while Eagle continued her air patrols. Eagle arrived in Colombo, Ceylon, on 10th September and until 5th October she searched the Indian Ocean for German ships between the west coast of India and the Maldive Islands with the light cruiser Liverpool.
On 5th September Lockwood flew his first wartime sortie, a patrol of the coast line searching for enemy merchant ships, which was flown over the coast of Sumatra. He conducted a similar sortie over the Indian Ocean on 7th September, with his three man crew consisting at this stage of himself with a Sub Lieutenant R.G.D. Kite and a Naval Airman S. Simpson. On 9th September he flew an anti-submarine patrol, and on the 11th and 21st September flew evening patrols off the aircraft carrier. In total he completed 7 carrier deck landings that month.
Eagle was then assigned to Force I together with the heavy cruisers Cornwall and Dorsetshire, to search the Indian Ocean for the pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee and other German commerce raiders. During the remainder of October 1939 Lockwood found himself on what would become routine sorties, namely patrols whether in protection of the aircraft carrier or else further afield in search of submarines. He completed a total of 12 deck landings that month, having by the end of the month completed in all some 73 deck landings. More followed with 9 further deck landings during November, and by 8th December he was off Diego Suarez in Madagascar, and four days later was conducting an anti-submarine patrol off the coast of South Africa. In mid-December Eagle had her boilers and bottom cleaned during a period of maintenance in Durban, leaving there on the 22nd December, with Lockwood conducting an anti-submarine patrol during the process of leaving the harbour. Lockwood had been promoted to Lieutenant (Air) on 13th December 1939. By the end of the month, Lockwood had completed a further 15 deck landings, in all he had completed 97 deck landings.
Eagle continued to patrol the Indian Ocean in 1940. Lockwood began the New Year on 1st January with a dawn patrol which was cut short owing to foul weather. On the final day of that month he flew an anti-submarine patrol off the east coast of Ceylon. On 4th February whilst in the Gulf of Aden he experiencing what he put down as a frightening landing, and on the 10th February made a forced landing on the deck owing to oil pressure issues. By the end of March he had completed at total of 125 carrier deck landings. In the meantime, Eagle had escorted a large Australian troop convoy to Suez, and in the vicinity of the Nicobar Islands on 14th March, a 250 lb (110 kg) bomb accidentally exploded, killing 14 men
Eagle escorted a large Australian troop convoy to Suez early in the year. While in the vicinity of the Nicobar Islands on 14th March, a 250 lb (110 kg) bomb accidentally exploded, killing 14 men. The damage to the ship was mostly confined to the bomb magazines, although two generators were knocked out. The explosion flashed upwards through the port bomb lift and ignited the wing on one Swordfish stowed in the hangar. All but four of the aircraft were damaged by the corrosive salt-water spray system when the fire was doused. She was repaired at Singapore between 15th March and 9th May when the ship sailed for Colombo en route to the Mediterranean, which she reached on 26th May. In June three crated Gloster Sea Gladiators were found in storage at Dekheila and these aircraft became the only fighters available for the entire fleet in the Eastern Mediterranean. Lockwood flew in one of these over Suez and Dekheila on 16th June, and by the end of that month had completed a total of 138 carrier deck landings. From July, Lockwood was with Eagle on active service at Dekheila and operating off the south Italian coast and then on 5th July flew in a torpedo attack on Tobruk Harbour. His crew considered of a Midshipman Woodley and Airman Patterson. He noted that the attack was made a night and that six ships were sunk and damaged and that all aircraft returned safely. The aircraft had flown from a shore base for this attack, and were embarked back on board Eagle some two days later. This attack sank the Italian destroyer Zeffiro and the freighter SS Manzoni, and blew the bow off the destroyer Euro. Two other merchantmen had to be beached before they sank.
Then on the 9th July he flew in a successful search for the Italian Fleet during what was the Battle of Calabria. Then on the evening of 10 July, Eagle's aircraft attacked Augusta harbour in Sicily, sinking the destroyer Leone Pancaldo. Lockwood who was by now back with his usual crew consisting of Sub Lieutenant Kita and Naval Airman Simpson, did not participate in the 10th July attack, but having once again flown ashore to Sidi Barrani, was one of six aircraft that again attacked Tobruk Harbour on the night of 20th July, during which they sank the destroyers Nembo and Ostro as well as the freighter SS Sereno. Lockwood notes in his log book that during this sortie Petty Officer Wynn was killed and a Lieutenant Brown was wounded, and that five ships were sunk or damaged. He was in the air on 29th July and once again operating from Eagle when he flew as distant cover to a convoy bound for Greece. By the end of the month he had completed 150 carrier deck landings.
Two more anti-submarine patrols occurred during August, and he also conducted night landing practice on the carrier, but on 1st September he took off from Eagle together with Sub Lieutenant Kite and Acting Leading Naval Airman Simpson on a search mission when his aircraft failed to return, presumably owing to engine trouble, it came down in the sea, and he and his crew took to the dinghy. After eight days in the dinghy, they made land near Tobruk on 8th September, and were taken prisoner of war by the Italians on 9th September. Lockwood was released from captivity in April 1945, and would not take to the air again until 4th August 1945.
Lockwood was awarded a Mention in Despatches for gallant and distinguished services whilst operating with 813 Naval Air Squadron, the award being published in the London Gazette for 11th September 1940, by which time he had been taken prisoner.
In the meantime he was incarcerated in Italy initially as Campo 78 in Sulmona from 31st October 1940 through to April 1942, where his POW Questionnaire notes that he assisted in the construction of an escape tunnel. The tunnel was found before it could be used. He was moved to Campo 35 a Padua where he remained through to August 1943, being then moved to Campo 19 at Bologna, he was there on the occasion that the Italian Armistice was signed on 3rd September 1943, and was one of those prisoners who then found themselves taken over by the Germans, and shipped to Germany with his POW Questionnaire recording that he assisted in a cutting a hole in the cattle truck during the train journey to Germany, and that four officers escaped before the hole was discovered. Lockwood was then held in Stalag 5(A) at Weinsburg during September to October 1943, when he was moved to the camp at Marlag und Milag Nord in Westertimke where he was held through to his liberation from captivity.
Lockwood returned to the air with the Fleet Air Arm Refresher Course at Lee-on-Solent in August 1945, and was then posed to 720 Naval Air Squadron at Ford in September 1945, where he flew the Anson and Reliant aircraft. In June 1946 he switched to 811 Naval Air Squadron flying in the Mosquito, having by then been appointed to command a flight. Lockwood was posted for duty at the Admiralty from 5th may 1947, and was then sent out on loan to the Royal Australian Navy to work ashore at the Navy Office in Melbourne, Australia, being in this period promoted to Lieutenant Commander (Air) on 21st August 1947.
Lockwood did not fly again under August 1951 when he was posted to attend a Refresher Flying Course though to 14th September, flying the Harvard and Firefly aircraft. He was then posted for duty at R.N.A.S. Culham, but only go the occasional flying opportunities as he was employed on ground duties. On 8th June 1954 he was posted to Paisley in Scotland when appointed for duty with H.M.S. Sanderling, the naval air base there at Abbotsinch Airfield, which would later become Renfrew Airport. At the tim that he served there it was a naval aircraft storage yard. This was Lockwood’s last posting, and he flew for the last time in service from there on 10th March 1955. Lockwood retired from the service on 1st March 1958. Lockwood latterly lived in Hinchley Wood, near Easher, Surrey, and died on 30th November 1989 in Wandsworth, London.
The recipient, who would have been a member of the Goldfish Club for his having taken to his dinghy after coming down in the sea on 1st September 1940, is otherwise entitled to the 1939-1945 Star, Africa Star, and War Medal with Mention in Despatches Oakleaf.