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| Signatures on this item | |
| *The value given for each signature has been calculated by us based on the historical significance and rarity of the signature. Values of many pilot signatures have risen in recent years and will likely continue to rise as they become more and more rare. | |
| Name | Info |
  Flight Lieutenant Derek Lovell (deceased) *Signature Value : £40 | Volunteered for the RAFVR in January 1941. He trained in Canada on Tiger Moths and Oxfords. He received his wings in April 1942 and was posted to Central Flying School. Following graduation, he taught Fleet Air Arm trainees on Harvards. He returned to the UK in March 1943 and flew Masters at AFU and Hurricanes at OTU. He taught Lancaster crews fighter evasion prior to posting to 84 GSU to fly Typhoons. He joined 197 Squadron at Needs Oar Point in the New Forest in June 1944 and was involved in close support operations and tactical dive bombing and low level bombing throughout the Normandy campaign and on through to VE-Day. He completed 135 operations and in August 1945 was posted to an OTU to instruct on Typhoons and Tempest Vs. He was demobbed in June 1946 and flew weekends in the VR on Tiger Moths and later Chipmunks. He was called up on the G Reserve in July 1951 and flew Harvards, Spitfire XXIIs and then Vampire Vs. He stood down in September as the Korea situation eased. He passed away on March 1st, 2019. |
 Flight Lieutenant John Thorburn *Signature Value : £20 | Joining the RAF in 1942 he completed pilot training an was posted to No.613 Sqn in Wales flying Spitfires on fighter patrols and anti-aircraft operations. After transferring to No.80 Sqn equipped with Tempests he flew in support of the Normandy invasion and the subsequent Allied advance through occupied Europe. His unit also took up ant-V-1 flying bomb duties and after moving to the continent in late 1944, resumed fighter operations until the end of the war. |
  Flt. Lt. George Wood *Signature Value : £35 | Whilst with 263 Sqn flying a twin-engined Whirlwind he was shot down over Morlaix airfield on 30th October 1943 and successfully evaded capture and made it back to the UK with the help of the Résistance. He rejoined 197 Sqn flying Typhoons for the rest of the war. |
 Flying Officer Ron Pottinger *Signature Value : £25 | Called up in October 1939 he server with the Royal Fusiliers before transferring to the RAF. Joining No.3 Sqn at Manston in 1943 he flew Typhoons on patrols over the near continent, anti-shipping missions and escort duties for Mitchells, Marauders and Bostons, claiming and LeO451 and ditching in the River Blackwater with engine trouble. After re-equipping with Tempests in March 1944, he moved to Volkel in Holland flying in support of the Allied landings on D-Day before operating against the V-1 flying bombs, claiming 4 and 3 shared. On 1st January 1945 he was shot down by flak over Germany spending the remainder of the war in Stalag III-A in with Roland Bee Beamont. |
  Warrant Officer Norman Samuels *Signature Value : £50 | Initially flying Typhoons with 193 Sqn, Norman then transferred to 610 Sqn flying Spitfires on fighter sweeps over France, heavy-bomber missions, and operations against VIs. Returning to ground attack Typhoons over Europe with 193 Sqn, he was shot down in March 1945 and taken prisoner of war. Mr Samuels was born in Newbury in 1921 and grew up in the West Berkshire market town. In 1940, aged 19, he joined the Royal Air Force Oxford University Air Squadron. At that time the UK had no place for trainee pilots. So, after six weeks of basic training he was sent to America to learn to fly under the Arnold Scheme, a training programme run by United States Army Air Corps General 'Hap' Arnold. In 1941, at ease in the cockpit of almost any flying machine, he says, he was sent back to the UK. He said: I joined 193 Squadron in Devon, and that was where I met my future wife, Barbara Lean, on Christmas Day 1942. A Spitfire squadron had lost six of its 12 pilots in one day, so they moved us across to 610 Squadron. They were marvellous planes to fly, and I enjoyed every moment. We had Spitfire MkVs then - they weren't fast enough for war really at that time. We cleaned them with car polish, and that gave us an extra 5mph, then they clipped the wings and that gave us another 5mph. Of course we were still 100mph short of the Germans' speeds, but what could you do? He helped defend London, and fought over Beachy Head, but with losses elsewhere he was drafted back to 193 Squadron, which was by now in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1944. After surviving the ill-fated Battle of Arnhem in Holland in September, 1944, his luck ran out in a Typhoon near the same town in 1945, just weeks before the end of the war. He said: It was the last push by the Germans and on March 18 I was shot down. I'd already fought in the Battle of Arnhem, when we suffered heavy losses. Going back, I wasn't so lucky. He continued: I didn't have time to think if I was going to die. I must have been knocked out clean by my gun sight. I'd put rubber on it because I was always hitting it with my hand. I'd seen men die in crashes; they hit their head and it killed them. The rubber must have saved my life. To be honest looking back I should have died many times over. I ended up walking through Germany, got on a train, and that was bombed by the Allies. I walked and walked, right up to the Baltic Rhine, I scavenged for food and did what I could to survive. It was a long time between being shot down and being captured. Every day was 'live or die'. The Germans eventually caught up with him and sent him to Stalag Luft I, a camp filled with about 9,000 PoWs. He said: I had lost weight by the time I arrived, and we didn't have a lot of food. I remember a battle with a Welshman who kept stealing my bread. Luckily I was only there a few weeks before we were liberated, by the Americans, on my wife's birthday, April 30, 1945. I started the war with the Americans, and finished it with the Americans. After the war he worked as an engineer for the Southern Electricity Board. |
 Warrant Officer Tom Carter *Signature Value : £20 | Having joined the RAF in 1942 he trained on Hurricanes and Spitfires before being posted to No.263 Sqn, part of 2nd Tactical Air Force, equipped with Typhoons. After D-Day he flew on escort, ground attack and dive-bombing operations in support of the Allied advance throughout north-west Europe until the end of the war, and remained in the RAF to fly Shackletons with Coastal Command and Beverleys with Transport Command. |
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Pottinger, Ron
