Material mainly relating to the Second World War and the Battle of Britain, from the papers of Flying Office Robert French Helm, Royal Air Force, including autograph material, photographs, tables.

Author: 
Flying Officer Robert French Helm (1913-1995), Royal Air Force [The Battle of Britain]
Publication details: 
The photographs date from the 1940s; the rest of the material circa 1960.
£400.00
SKU: 12256

Helm's promotion on 3 September 1940 to the rank of Flying Officer (41020) is recorded in the London Gazette, 15 October 1940. After the war he joined the International Civil Aviation Authority, working in Iran and Zambia, and was elected to the Membership of the Institute of Navigation, Royal Geological Society, in 1971. A total of 59pp., 8vo, of pencil notes and tables by Helm, relating to the RAF in the Second World War, with 6 original photographs. With occasional damp damage, and some disorder to the manuscript pages, which include 31pp., 8vo, of autograph notes by Helm in pencil, under headings including 'The Second World War. Early Days.', 'The Build-up to War', 'The Men and Women'. The tables, also in Helm's autograph, total 28pp., 8vo, under headings including 'HCU, OTU, MU, SD, AS and EFTS Units Based in Yorkshire', 'T.D.S., F.T.S., RSO, AAP and (N)MAO, (N)ALN', ''RAF Fighter Squadrons Bases Used in WWII', 'RAF Bomber Squadrons & Bases used during W.W.II' Six black and white photographs. The largest, 21 x 16cm. (with damp damage to its card mount), shows two men posing in RAF uniforms in front of a flower bed. Another, 17 x 12cm., has the typewritten caption on the reverse: 'The control column and the cockpit of the trainer hart in which Holland crashed on the air to ground ranges at Abu-Sueir. April 1939.' Another shows eleven pilots posing in front of a biplane, on which a pilot is perching. The fourth shows ten aircraftmen posing in front of a flat barren landscape. The fifth shows what appears to be an aerodrome building, with a flag of St George flying above it. The last photograph, with damp damage, shows two RAF planes in a hangar. Also present are 7pp., 8vo, of photocopies from M. J. F. Bowyer's 'Action Stations: Military Airfields of Yorkshire' (1990).