SKINNER, Flight Lieutenant Frederick Weber (J17092) - Distinguished Flying Cross - No.420 Squadron - Award effective 5 July 1945 as per London Gazette dated 17 July 1945 and AFRO 1558/45 dated 5 October 1945. Born 1919 in Morris, Manitoba; home there (store clerk and manager; former member of Royal Canadian Artillery); enlisted in Winnipeg, 16 April 1941. Trained at No.2 WS (graduated 15 September 1941) and No.5 BGS (graduated 2 March 1942). Commissioned 1943. Award presented 11 June 1949. No citation other than "in recognition of gallantry and devotion to duty in the execution of air operations against the enemy". See DHist file 181.009 D.1746 (PAC RG.24 Vol.20608); recommended 3 March 1945 when he was Squadron Signals Leader and was on his second tour. First tour (27 sorties) had been 30 September 1942 to 27 May 1943 and had included a low-level raid on Milan (16 April 1943). Second tour had so far run 30 December 1944 to 14 March 1945 (11 sorties), and both totalled 214 hours 30 minutes:
Flight Lieutenant Skinner completed his first tour on Wellingtons, Stirlings and early Lancasters in 1942 to such difficult targets as Essen, Duisburg, Aachen, Osnabruck, Kiel, Genoa, Turin, Stuttgart and Berlin. He then did a non-operational tour as instructor and then returned to a second tour, attacking such targets as Cologne, Ludwigshaven, Essen and Hamburg. In addition to operating, Flight Lieutenant Skinner has been Signals Leader and has done a particularly fine administrative and organizing job in developing a section that is an asset to the squadron in the excellent training given to the crews, and in inspiring leadership with which they are maintained.
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