Caterpillar Club Membership Certificate : Warrant Officer N Macdonald, 156 Squadron RAF

Rectangular laminated Caterpillar Club membership certificate in presentation sleeve. Printed in black on the certificate is: 'Caterpillar Club Certificate of Membership' underneath this is: 'W/O. N. MACDONALD is a member of the CATERPILLAR CLUB having saved his life by parachute'. The certificate is decorated with images of parachutes and aircraft and is signed by Leslie L. Irvin, the Honourable Secretary of the European Division of the Irving Air Chute Company.

The certificate is accompanied by a typed letter and a card from Leslie L. Irvin congratulating Macdonald on his admission into the Caterpillar Club and advising that due to wartime restrictions, membership badges for prisoners of war will be supplied after the war.

The Caterpillar Club was first formed in 1922 by the Irvin Air Chute Company. It offered membership to air personnel who successfully bailed out of a disabled aircraft using a parachute made from caterpillar-produced silk. Unofficial badges in the form of gold caterpillars along with membership certificates were awarded.

This Caterpillar Club badge is associated with the Second World War service of Flight Sergeant Norman Macdonald. Macdonald was born in Glasgow, Scotland before immigrating to Australia in 1937. He enlisted in the RAAF in Sydney on 11 October 1941 and qualified as an observer in March 1942.

Embarking for Canada on 25 May as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme Macdonald qualified as a navigator and promoted to sergeant. He embarked for the United Kingdom on 27 October, disembarking in Bournemouth on 5 November.

Attached to 460 Squadron RAAF as a flight sergeant on 29 June 1943, Macdonald flew 17 operations as a navigator before transferring to 156 Squadron RAF. He joined the crew of Lancaster JB472 as navigator and flew his first mission on 23 November - a night raid on Berlin. This was closely followed by another night mission to Berlin on 26 November.

On 2 December JB472 took off from Warboys airfield for their third raid on Berlin. In a report given by Macdonald after the war he describes what happened to their aircraft as they flew over eastern Germany:

'Attack by enemy fighter reported by rear gunner - pilot acknowledged, took evasive action and just then we were hit. Crew put on chutes aircraft in steep dive. At approx between 17 and 15, 000 feet violent explosion. I was sucked out the starboard side of aircraft. Regained consciousness at approx 4,000 feet opened 'chute landed ok. I believe pilot jettisoned bombs endeavouring to save crew and aircraft but aircraft crashed 20 miles north of Hannover. The next day I was captured in the goods yard of the village railway station by 2 German soldiers who were searching for me and taken to identify wreckage of aircraft from which German officials had removed the bodies of my 6 colleagues. Taken to Frankfurt for interrogation put into solitary confinement then to Stalag IVB.'

Statements taken from witnesses on the ground indicate they saw Lancaster JB472 approaching the village of Westenholz on fire and without one of its wings, which appeared to have exploded. The aircraft crashed with bombs still on board approximately 500 metres south of Westenholz.

Stalag IVB prisoner of war camp was located near the town of Muhlberg just off the Elbe river. Macdonald was interned from 18 December 1943 until he was liberated on 23 April 1945.

Macdonald returned to Australia and was formally discharged on demobilisation on 2 March 1946. Although he officially became a member of the club in April 1945, as detailed in the letter that accompanied this membership certificate, the badge was not presented to Macdonald until after the war as badges for prisoners of war were unable to be made until after the war ended due to wartime restrictions.