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Flt Lt Don Briggs DFM Signed Naval Art
Flt Lt Don Briggs DFM
Don Briggs spent two years at RAF Halton qualifying as an engine fitter before serving on RAF flying units until he volunteered in December 1943 for the new aircrew trade of Flight Engineer. After a period of training he joined No.156 Squadron equipped with the Lancaster. The unit was part of Bomber Command's Pathfinder Force. The flight engineer was the pilot's mate who managed the engines, fuel systems and the ancillary equipment. He teamed up with Flying Officer Bill Neale and they were to complete sixty-two bombing operations together. Their first sortie was on June 11th, 1944 when Bomber Command was attacking targets in support of the Allied landings in Normandy. Railway marshalling yards, supply dumps and construction sites for the V-1 flying bombs and storage sites for the V-2 rocket were their primary targets. By late August, Bomber Command resumed its campaign against the industrial cities in Germany and Briggs attacked Russelheim, Kiel, Stettin and cities in the Ruhr. His crew marked targets with flares to allow the main force to mount accurate attacks. After the war, Briggs flew long-range transport sorties in York aircraft (based on the Lancaster) before spending three years at the Empire Test Pilot's School at Farnborough. In July 1951 he started training as a pilot and, after converting to jets, he joined the newly-formed No.10 Squadron to fly the twin-engine Canberra bomber. In August 1955 he trained on the first of the RAF's V-bombers, the Valiant. He joined the first squadron, No.138, and a year later he transferred to No.49 Squadron, which was being formed for the task of conducting the nuclear weapons trials in the Pacific. Operation Grapple was mounted in 1957 to test Britain's first thermonuclear megaton weapon, the Hydrogen Bomb. The site chosen for the test was Malden Island 400 miles south of Christmas Island in the South Pacific. Briggs was the second pilot in the crew of Squadron Leader Arthur Steele. They flew their Valiant bomber to the newly constructed airfield on March 18, 1957 and began a period of intensive training. On May 15th, No.49 Sqn's commanding officer, Wing Commander Ken Hubbard, dropped the first weapon successfully. For the second drop on May 31st, Steele, Briggs and their crew flew the reserve aircraft and for the third and final test, they were tasked for the sortie. On June 19th, they took off and climbed to 45,000 feet, and carried out a practice run over the target before clearance to drop the bomb was given. Fifty seconds after release, the bomb exploded at the pre-determined height of 8,000 feet. Steele and Briggs had erected the anti-flash screens in the cockpit of their aircraft before making a precisely executed turn away from the explosion and before the shock wave was felt in the aircraft. The drop was completely successful. A few days after their flight, the squadron returned to Wittering. By the end of the year, Briggs had completed a Valiant captain's course and he transferred to No.138 Squadron where he spent the next three years. This was followed by almost three years as a pilot instructor on Valiants and it was during this period he also converted to the Victor bomber. In 1964 he trained as a flying instructor and spent three years instructing trainee pilots at an RAF flying school near Newark. In January 1967 he converted to the third of the RAF's V-bombers, the Vulcan, and was to spend the next five years as an instructor on the iconic delta-wing aircraft before joining No 9 Squadron shortly before it moved to its new base in Cyprus. After 34 years service, he retired at the end of 1973. There were 88 Vulcan 2s produced and Briggs flew 57 of them during his seven years with the force. He spent 15 years at the Oxford Air Training School training pupils to become commercial airline pilots. He retired aged 65 when he joined the RAF Microlight Association at Halton where his RAF career had begun and where he became the chief flying instructor. Finally, at the age of 84 he decided to finish his flying career having flown 71 different types of aircraft and gliders. He died in July 2018.
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| Distinguished Flying Medal |
| Flt Lt Don Briggs DFM - Signed Naval Art Naval Crew Signatures |
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Vulcan Sunset by Geoff Lea. Vulcan B2 bomber XM602 in its white paint scheme of the early 1960s. Delivered in November 1963 to No.12 Sqn, it subsequently formed part of the Coningsby Wing which moved to Cottesmore in 1964. This aircraft exchanged to the Waddington Wing in 1968, and joined 9 Sqn, 50 Sqn and 101 Sqn in 1975, 1979 and 1980 respectively. XM602 was preserved at St. Athan in 1982, but was eventually scrapped in 1993, with the nose section recovered by the Avro Aircraft Heritage Society. |
Avro Lancaster B.1 by Ivan Berryman. R5689 (VN-N) - a Lancaster B.1 of 50 Squadron based at Swinderby. This aircraft crash-landed in Lincolnshire while returning from a mission on 19th September 1942, after both port engines failed as the aircraft was preparing to land. The aircraft never flew again. The crew on the final mission were : Sgt E J Morley RAAF, P/O G W M Harrison, Sgt H Male, Sgt S C Garrett, Sgt J W Dalby, Sgt J Fraser and Sgt J R Gibbons RCAF, the sole member of the crew killed in the crash. |
Lancaster Lift-Off by Gerald Coulson. Sold out at publisher. We have the last 170 remaining prints. |
Outbound Lancaster by Gerald Coulson. An all time classic image of the Lancaster bomber of Bomber command at altitude crossing the coast on its way to another bombing mission in Europe. In this atmospheric classic image, Gerald Coulson has shown this stalwart of the Royal Air Forces Bomber Command during the second world war. A superb partner painting to the other classic Gerald Coulson image, Off Duty Lancaster. |
Falklands Vulcan by Ivan Berryman. The legendary Vulcan bomber en route to the Falklands on what was the longest bombing mission in history. The Black Buck missions began on Ascension Island, 7500 kilometres from the target, requiring multiple refuels and impeccable planning. |
Vulcan at Ascension, 1982 by Ivan Berryman. (P) During the Falklands conflict in 1982, the tiny mid-Atlantic volcanic island of Ascension became the starting point for the Black Buck missions - a relay of tanker aircraft refueling two Vulcan bombers to attack Argentine positions and damage the runway at Port Stanley to prevent the use of fast jets. At the time these were the longest range bombing missions in history. |
Vulcan Refuel by Ivan Berryman. Vulcan B2 XM607 of No.44 Sqn refuels from a Victor tanker of No.55 Sqn. One of several fuel stops in the 16 hour mission to the Falklands and back. |
Ascension Departure by Ivan Berryman. (P) During the Falklands conflict in 1982, the tiny mid-Atlantic volcanic island of Ascension became the starting point for the Black Buck missions - a relay of tanker aircraft refueling two Vulcan bombers to attack Argentine positions and damage the runway at Port Stanley to prevent the use of fast jets. At the time these were the longest range bombing missions in history. |
Vulcan Return by Ivan Berryman. A Vulcan bomber returns from one of the Black Buck missions to the Falklands, preparing to touch down at RAF Ascension Island after what was the longest range bombing mission in history. |
Lancaster Dawn by Anthony Saunders. Depicts a 103 squadron Lancaster returning from a night-time bombing mission. |
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