A RARE WW1 HANDLEY PAGE CREW MEMBER’S D.S.M. GROUP AWARDED TO SERGEANT, ROYAL AIR FORCE, LATE ROYAL NAVAL AIR SERVICE, WHO, HAVING PARTICIPATED IN A RECORD FLIGHT FROM MANSTON TO MUDROS, WAS PRESENT IN THE ATTACK AGAINST THE GOEBEN AND TURKISH WAR OFFICE AT CONSTANTINOPLE IN JULY 1917 - AN EVENT WHICH RESULTED IN THEIR SINKING THE LARGEST SHIP, BY AIR, DURING THE GREAT WAR

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE MEDAL, G.V.R. ‘F. 9156 B. CROMACK, LG. MECHN., R.N.A.S., MUDROS, 9 JULY 1917’; BRITISH WAR MEDAL 1914-20 ‘209156 SGT. B. CORMACK, R.A.F.’, NOTE SURNAME SPELLING; VICTORY MEDAL 1914-19 ‘209156 SGT. B. CROMACK, R.A.F.’

D.S.M. London Gazette 31 August 1917. The original Recommendation states:

‘For the Air Raid on Constantinople including SMS Goeben 9 July 1917, in RNAS Handley Page 0/100 No. 3124. This rating (with Chief Petty Officer J. L. Adams) accompanied the machine from Hendon to Mudros and were largely responsible by their unremitting care for the good performance of the machine.’ The former German battle cruiser Goeben (now the Turkish ship Yavuz Sultan Selim) was found surrounded by smaller craft including submarines and destroyers, undergoing repairs in Stenia Bay. The Handley Page attacked the Goeben from 800ft, but although it appeared at the time that some of the eight 112lb bombs dropped hit the battle cruiser, little damage was done. Hits were made on the destroyer Yadigar-i-Millet, and an explosion and fire followed which sank the ship. The Handley Page then flew to the upper waters of the Golden Horn and dropped two bombs on the SS General which was apparently the German HQ and afterwards attacked the Turkish War Office with the last two bombs, though little damage was done. The Handley Page arrived safely back at Mudros at 0340hrs.'

Benjamin Cromack was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, in July 1894. A sheet metal worker by trade, he enlisted in the Royal Naval Air Service as an Air Mechanic 1st Class in November 1915, and initially served at R.N.A.S. Hendon and Manston, gaining advancement to Leading Mechanic at the end of 1916. It was in this latter capacity, in late May 1917, that he was selected to join the Handley Page 0/100 crew of Flight Lieutenant Kenneth Savory D.S.O. - no ordinary appointment, for said aircraft and crew were………

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Condition VF. ‘Sgt’ on the BWM with several over hits of full stops during the naming process. Rest of naming fine. Sold together with file of copied research including action reports, service papers, photographs etc. Ex DNW 2013 and Spink 2023.

The D.S.C. to Captain McClelland, Cromack’s co-pilot during the Goeben action was sold at DNW in 2004.

A fine and are aviators D.S.M. group.