Radio Operators and Air Gunners breast badge : Luftwaffe

Radio Operators and Air Gunners breast badge. Silver finished vertical oval shaped wreath with a voided centre, vertically divided, the (wearer's) right half being of laurel leaves and the left of oak leaves, joined at the bottom by a swastika. Rivetted over the wreath is a bronze figure of a diving eagle clutching a pair of arrow headed lightning bolts in its talons. On the reverse is a hinged vertical pin and clasp and the impressed maker's marking 'B&N L'.

The Wireless-Operator / Air Gunner Badge (Fliegerschutenabzeichen fur Bordfunker) was an aircrew qualification badge introduced in March 1936. To qualify for the badge, the recipient was required to have successfully completed two months flying service with a non-operational unit, or to have undertaken a minimum of five operational missions as an air gunner or radio operator. Qualification was automatic if the recipient was wounded in the course of any of these flights.

Collected by 402215 Flight Lieutenant George Alfred Archer, a shipping clerk with the Cunard Line, who enlisted in the RAAF in Sydney on 22 July 1940 and sailed for flight crew training in Canada on 28 December. After qualifying as an Observer the following May he embarked for the United Kingdom. He was attached to 104 Squadron RAF based at Driffield, and then 158 Squadron at Eastmoor, near York.

Archer, flying as the Observer in Halifax II bomber W1040 NP-G was shot down near the farming village of Schoonrevoerd, near Utrecht in the Netherlands during a raid on Duisberg on the night of 21/22 July1942. His aircraft had been attacked by a German Me 110 night fighter which had already killed the mid-upper and rear gunners. Archer later reported that the Halifax was diving rapidly but under control, although the fuselage and a port and starboard engine were on fire. The captain ordered the surving crew to bale out and remained in the aircraft to try to hold it steady as they jumped clear. Although the co-pilot did not survive the crash, Archer was later amazed to find that the captain, Flight Lieutenant F Hardy, had done so, although his injuries were so severe that he was repatriated by the Germans to England in 1943.

Although Archer hid after his successful bale-out he was discovered by two Dutch men and handed over to the German authorities. Archer was imprisoned in a number of prisoner of war camps at Dulag Luft Oberursal near Frankfurt, Stalag Luft 3, Luckenwalde, and Oflag XXIB at Schubin, Poland. The Russian Army liberated the camp on 21 April 1945. On a routine scavenging detail for food at the end of April Archer souvenired a number of German badges from an abandoned shop in the local town. He returned to Australia and after medical rehabilitation was discharged on 5 June 1946.