Corgi AA39502 Short Stirling Mk1 OJ-H 149 Sqn Middleton VC Bomber Model 1/72
Please be advised that the box of this item is badly damaged on one corner, hence the reduction in price.
This is a Corgi's AA39502 1/72nd Scale diecast model of the Short Stirling, one of the UKs leading Bombers from World War 2
This model depicts the aircraft flown by Rawdon Ron Middleton who was born on the 22nd July 1916 in Sydney Australia, enlisted in the Royal Australian Airforce in October 1940. Middleton was posted to RAF 149 Squadron in 1942 starting as a second pilot before being given command of his own Stirling later that year. His first raid was to bomb the Fiat works at Turin. After a perilous flight across the alps the crew had to overfly the target three times at low level to identify it. In doing so the aircraft was badly damaged by flak and Middleton was seriously injured. Despite being injured Middleton supported his crew in re-directing the aircraft back to Britain promising to get his crew home. When they reached the English coast he ordered the crew to bail out then steered the aircraft into the sea to avoid endangering any civilians. Sadly his body was then later washed ashore. He was later posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his devotion to duty.
The Short Stirling was the first British four-engined heavy bomber of the World War Two. Designed and built by Short Brothers to an Air Ministry specification from 1936, it entered service in 1941. Its front-line operational career was relatively short being relegated to second line duties from 1943 onwards when the superior Handley Page Halifax and Avro Lancaster, took over its role. 1941 and January 1942, Interestingly, Stirlings took part in the operations over Arnhem in 1944, mainly towing gliders.