World War Two Spitfire Pilots Casualty Medal Group to a Flying Officer Pilot who served with 249 Squadron during the defense of Malta. The medals were awarded to 60093 John Charles Mortimer-Booth who came from Itchingfield in West Sussex and who was 26 years old when he died. Named Air Council Condolence Slip. Named Air Ministry Medal Box Sent to Miss D. Booth at Plashwood Green Moor, Mortlye, Sheffield. John Booth was killed along with five other pilots from 249 squadron and 126 squadron during a German raid on Rabat when the pilots billet at the Hotel Point de Vue in Rabat received a direct hit. John and his brother Geoffrey Richard-Mortimer Booth (Midshipman HMS Kelly sunk in May 1941) are commemorated on the Itchingfield, West Sussex World War Two Memorial. Details about John from the website for the memorial are as follows. John Mortimer-Booth was schooled at Christs Hospital, leaving in 1934. At the outbreak of the war he signed up for the RAFVR and was commissioned a pilot on 15th January 1941. On 16 May 1940, 249 squadron reformed as a fighter squadron at RAF Church Fenton. Equipped with Hurricanes, the unit fought in the Battle of Britain and, beginning in December 1940, in offensive missions over France. In May 1941, No. 249 was transferred to Malta by aircraft carrier. There it formed part of the fighter defences, converting to Spitfires in February 1942. By March 1943 John was a member of 249 Squadron, based at RAF Ta Kali/Qali in Malta. The War Diary for 21st March 1942 reads as follows. Raids on Ta Qali continued today with increased intensity. In massive and widespread attacks this afternoon, communities surrounding the air base also suffered badly, as the enemy extended their targets to Mosta and surrounding communities of Rabat, Imtarfa and Balzan. Casualties known so far are 20 military and 61 civilians killed and over 100 wounded. 22 civilians were killed in Rabat; 30 were killed and 45 wounded in Mosta, where a large number of bombs fell. Todays raids bring the total number of bombs dropped on Ta Qali in the last 48 hours to 1600. Since Thursday night over 300 tons of bombs have left huge craters across the airfield, now said to resemble the surface of the moon. One of the bombs that fell on Rabat hit the Point de Vue guest house which was being used as off-base accommodation for pilots. John Mortimer-Booth was killed in this attack and is buried in Malta (Capuccini) Naval Cemetery. Details about the squadron and the raids on Malta including an eye witness account of the bomb which fell on the hotel and killed John Booth and the other pilots can be found on the Malta Times website. A rare photograph of Valletta under attack, taken by one of the enemy aircraft on the evening of April 7, 1942, features in the first of 13 issues that will comprise volume five of Malta At War. The picture in question shows bomb explosions along the length of the city, with huge columns of smoke shrouding the buildings, including the Royal Opera House, the Auberge de France (where, later, the headquarters of the General Workers’ Union was built), the Magisterial Palace, the market and other prominent landmarks, as well as the scouts headquarters at Sarria, Floriana. Various ships were sunk in Grand Harbour, including the Talabot and Pampas, which had been hit a fortnight earlier in mass attacks by the Luftwaffe, determined to destroy the two survivors of a convoy from Alexandria that had been safely delivered by the Royal Navy after defeating a vastly superior Italian Navy squadron in the Second Battle of Sirte. March 1942 had seen the Luftwaffe unleash a massive blitz to neutralise the island’s offensive against the Axis convoys carrying troops and supplies to the Afrika Korps whose commander, General Erwin Rommel, was envisaging an offensive to advance from Cyrenaica into Egypt. The German fighters and bombers carried out the first carpet bombing of the war against the airfields and also targeted the anti-aircraft sites. The first Spitfires to operate outside Britain had arrived a few weeks earlier but were too few to contain the formidable and vastly more numerous assembly of German aircraft that daily carried out hundreds of sorties, sowing high-calibre bombs over the airfields and the dockyard and against ships in harbour. Among the historic buildings destroyed was the chapel of Tal-uiea in the bay where St Paul is reputed to have landed. Three paintings depicting the shipwreck dating to 1615 were almost irreparably destroyed. These were recovered from under the rubble and, with dedication, were restored after the war and now hang inside the rebuilt chapel. The full illustrated story features in this issue of Malta At War. One of the wartime fighter aces, the Canadian Flight Lieutenant Buck McNair, describes the tragic death of six of his brother fighter pilots at Rabat when their billet at the Hotel Point de Vue received a direct hit. SPITFIRE PILOTS DAY IN HELL. One 1000kg bomb landed in front of the Point de Vue Hotel in Rabat, being used as a billet for RAF fighter pilots. Buck McNair had just arrived back at the hotel when the bomb exploded. When I came to, I didnt know where I was. I didnt feel I was dead, but I didnt feel whole. My eyes were open, but my jaws and chest didnt seem to be thereI felt for my tin hat, then I started to be able to see just as if the sun was coming up after a great darkness. I felt carefully with my fingers and found that I had a face and a chest, so I felt better. As I became more conscious, I found I was upstairs; but I knew I shouldnt be upstairs. I should be downstairs. Then I realized I had been blown upstairs either through a door or through an opening at the turn of the staircase. Id been thrown up 20 or 30 feet. I went out onto the roof and back down the main staircase which was barely hanging in place. I saw the bodies lying at the foot of it. They were in a heap. There was no blood. The raid was still on the All Clear hadnt sounded. But everything seemed very quiet. Heavy dust covered the bodies. I looked at them studied them. One was headless, the head had been cut cleanly away from the top of the shoulders. I didnt see the head, but I could recognize the man by his very broad shoulders. I heard a moan, so I put my hand gently on the bodies to feel which of them was alive. One of them I noticed had a hole, more than a foot wide, right through the abdomen. Anothers head was split wide open into two halves, from back to front, by a piece of shrapnel. The face had expanded to twice its size. How the man managed still to be alive I didnt know. I thought of shooting him with my revolver. As I felt for it, I heard Bud Connells voice behind me. Look at this mess! I put my hand against the wall, but it slithered down it. It had seemed dry with all the dust, but when I took my hand away I found it was covered with blood with bits of meat stuck to it like at the butchers when theyre chopping up meat and cleaning up a joint. I turned to Bud. For Gods sake, I said, dont come in here. Then I noticed that my battledress and trousers were torn and ripped. It seemed natural to see him. He had been in the building with us, but he didnt say anything about me being there. He didnt seem to want to talk Now an ambulance and a doctor arrived. The doc asked me to help him with the bodies. I said Get someone else, Ive seen enough. The realization of what had happened began to dawn very slowly My left arm had gone out of joint when I was blown upstairs by the bomb, but I had shoved it back in place. I did get one chappie on to a stretcher. He was still alive but I couldn’t recognise him. I put a cloth over his face and then a stupid orderly took it off. It was the most horrible sight I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen chappies with heads off and gaping wounds and horrible burns… One of the victims, an American nicknamed Junior because of his age, lost a leg and was blinded and died later in hospital. Several other Maltese were killed at Rabat, including two of the internees who had remained behind at St Agatha internment camp after the others had all been sent to Uganda. The Pont De Vue hotel is still operating and they hold memorial services and reenactments for the pilots killed on 21st March 1942 – see photo from their website above. Worthy of more research especially into his service as a fighter pilot. Please let me know if you need any additional photos or details. Please see my other listings of British and foreign Medals and Militaria. Thanks and kind regards. The item “WW2 RAF Spitfire Pilot Casualty Medal Group 249 Squadron Malta Booth -Sussex” is in sale since Thursday, December 12, 2019. This item is in the category “Collectables\Militaria\World War II (1939-1945)\Medals/ Ribbons”. The seller is “harrypitt69″ and is located in Nottingham. This item can be shipped worldwide.
- Modified Item: No
- Country/Region of Manufacture: United Kingdom
- Country/ Organization: Great Britain
- Issued/ Not-Issued: Issued
- Type: Medals & Ribbons
- Conflict: World War II (1939-1945)
- Service: Air Force
- Era: 1914-1945
