[SERVICE BIOGRAPHY]
David Hewlett joined the RAF in 1941 and initially trained as a Sgt U/T Pilot at the Tuscaloosa Flying Training School in Alabama, USA where he qualified as a Sergeant Pilot in November 1941.
During the 1941-1943 period the school successfully trained 1,273 RAF flight cadets as part of the Anglo-American Arnold Scheme.
Upon his return to the United Kingdom and after further training on No.28 advanced flying intake at RAF South Cerney, near Cirencester in Gloucestershire in summer of 1942 he continued training on the then integral 102 Sqd Heavy O.C.U.
At the completion of his training he eventually joined the fully operational crews of No.102 Squadron as a Sergeant Pilot at RAF Pocklington in Yorkshire flying Halifax bombers.
It was while serving on this squadron that he was commissioned as 145142 P/O D.J. Hewlett and later awarded his Distinguished Flying Cross as a Flying Officer which was listed in the London Gazette of 11th February 1944. The award was made at the end of his first tour of thirty sorties all of which were seriously challenging night bombing operations to some of the most heavily defended targets in Germany including Berlin.
[102 SQUADRON R.A.F.]
The squadron was initially involved in propaganda leaflet dropping at the start of the war, but it soon became engaged in the main bombing campaign of Germany & occupied Europe. The unit was tasked to attack many of the most heavily defended German targets and as a result 102 Squadron sustained the second most serious aircraft and aircrew loss rates of any squadron in Bomber Command for the whole of WW2.
Despite Dave Hewlett and his crew of six flying many very risky sorties against alarmingly poor odds they miraculously survived their tour together and all but one of them, Andy Reilly, survived the war.
[Battle of The Ruhr-March to July 1943] 
The usual crewmen were:
Sgt Harry “Blackie” Blackaller (Navigator)
Sgt Eric “Joe” Holliday (Engineer)
Flt/Sgt Norman “Chiefie” Beale (Wireless Operator)
*Sgt A “Andy” Reilly (Rear Gunner).
(*Late killed in action over Salzbergen 6/3/1945 in a 514 Squadron Lancaster ME365 JI-T. This aircraft was seen to explode over the target at 12:04hrs)
Sgt D. “Paddy” Hall (Mid-Upper Gunner)
Sgt Tom “Sid” Wingham (Bomb Aimer)
Also, J. “Jimmy” Nightingale (Wireless Op & Electronics Specialist Oboe & H2S). (He Replaced Norman Beale who had done 50 ops)
[THE CREW & THEIR REGULAR AIRCRAFT]
They regularly flew *Halifax DB835, DY-X “X-XRay” and Dave Hewlett’s bomb aimer, Tom “Sid” Wingham, wrote a chapter in the well known book “Bombs Away” by Martin Bowman, in which he describes a near fatal incident over Dortmund on the night of 29/30 March 1943 when their aircraft was badly hit by flak after being coned, probably by radar searchlights.
[AN ALMOST FATAL RAID TO DORTMUND, 23rd/24th MAY 1943]
On this raid to Dortmund their aircraft sustained very serious damage to the wings and fuselage with with 20 sizeable holes....and also experienced further damage to the electrical circuits which then involuntarily auto-operated the engine fire extinguisher system and proceeded to shut down three of the engines.
The shut down of three of the four engines initiated a catastrophic and swift decent with the aircraft losing over 10,000 feet in height in just a few moments. Dave Hewlett then ordered the crew to prepare to bail out....But during this plummeting and near fatal decent over the Ruhr Valley, which finally levelled out at 7,000 feet, Dave Hewlett bloke all the rules on engine restarting after extinguisher use and quite miraculously managed to clear out the fire retardant foam from the cylinders and restarted all of the three previously stone dead engines!
They yet again returned to RAF Pocklington only to be “told off” by an incredulous Engineering Officer who after inspecting the aircrafts badly shot up condition just blankly “quoted the rules” on engine restarts.
*( This aircraft was finally lost to a famous German night fighter ace in August 1943 by which time the men of the Hewlett crew had gone their separate ways.)
These highly accurate auto triangulating triple / multi beam searchlights were linked to the anti-aircraft gun “Flak” batteries with lethal effect.
They were known by the bomber crews as “Blu-uns” due to the blue colour of their sky searching beams.
Once an aircraft was “coned” (locked onto) by these multiple blue beams they would closely follow the track of the aircraft, and despite attempts at violent evading manoeuvres, they were almost impossible to escape with many of our attacking aircraft and crews being lost to these lethal systems.
A Really Excellent “Battle of The Ruhr” DFC group with original papers & photos.
SOLD