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Pilot Officer Bill Leckie, AEM, KW (deceased) - Art prints and originals signed by Pilot Officer Bill Leckie, AEM, KW (deceased)

Bill Leckie

Bill Leckie
The signature of Pilot Officer Bill Leckie, AEM, KW (deceased)

10 / 2021Died : 10 / 2021

Pilot Officer Bill Leckie, AEM, KW (deceased)

Bill Leckie was born in Glasgow, Scotland on 23rd June 1921, joined the Royal Air Force in June 1941 and went to St Johns Wood on the 15th of September 1941. Bill Leckie started his flying training on the 4th of April 1942 at Stoke Orchard near Cheltenham in Tiger Moths. He went to Canada on the 26th of May 1942 at Monkton for further training until June before going on to Detroit and on to Pensacola, Florida on the 1st October 1942, flying Stearman and Catalina Flying boats until 31st March 1943 when Bill went to Prince Edward Island for further training. Back in the UK, Bill was expecting to join a Coastal Command squadron flying Catalinas but was transferred to Bomber Command and a conversion course on to Whitleys at Kinloss Scotland on the 22nd of February 1944, and joined 77 Squadron at Full Sutton on the 19th July 1944 on Halifaxes, flying 6 bombing missions, one being the bombing of the Flying Bomb Factory at Russesheim, before transferring to 148 Special Duties squadron on the 19th of August 1944 and going to Brindisi. Pilot Officer Bill Leckie was involved in the dropping of supplies (guns, ammunition and food) to the Polish during the Warsaw uprising. This was a costly mission and many aircraft were lost. (Bill was flying Halifax JD319 (FS - G). For his efforts in air-dropping supplies during this period, Bill Leckie was awarded the Polish Cross of Valour (KW). Pilot Officer Bill Leckie was also the Pilot for Operation Ebensburg on Sunday 8th April 1945. Halifax B.II Series 1 (Special) JP254 of 148 Special Duties Squadron carried out the misison to drop four SOE agents and their equipment near Alt Aussee salt mine in the Austrian Alps. Thier mission was to secure and protect 6,755 items of the worlds greatest works of art that had been looted and stored by the Germans as they swept across Europe. With the allied forces closing in, the Germans had planned to blow up the entire store to prevent the artworks from falling into the hands of the liberators. Once on the ground, the four agents linked up with local resistance fighters and the mine and its valuable contents were eventually secured, the explosives made safe and the entire cache taken into the safe keeping of the 80th US Infantry Division as the German occupation of Europe crumbled. Bill Leckie stayed with 148 Squadron until 18th May 1945 when he was posted to Cairo with 216 Squadron (Dakotas) of Transport Command and on 1st January 1946 to 78 Squadron flying Dakotas again until 1st June 1946 , finally leaving the RAF on the 18th September 1946. He died in October 2021.

Latest Pilot Officer Bill Leckie, AEM, KW (deceased) Signed Artwork Releases !
 Sunday 8th April 1945. Halifax B.II Series 1 (Special) JP254 of 148 Special Duties Squadron, RAF piloted by Pilot officer Bill Leckie is depicted approaching the drop zone near to the Alt Aussee salt mine in the Austrian Alps to drop four SOE agents and their equipment whose mission it was to secure and protect 6,755 items of the world's greatest works of art that had been looted and stored by the Germans as they swept across Europe.  With the allied forces closing in, the Germans had planned to blow up the entire store to prevent the artworks from falling into the hands of the liberators.  Once on the ground, the four agents linked up with local resistance fighters and the mine and its valuable contents were eventually secured, the explosives made safe and the entire cache taken into the safe keeping of the 80th US Infantry Division as the German occupation of Europe crumbled.

Operation Ebensburg by Ivan Berryman. (D)
 Halifax B.II Series 1 (Special) JP254 of 148 Special Duties Squadron, RAF is depicted over the drop zone near to the Alt Aussee salt mine in the Austrian Alps as two of the four SOE agents exit the bomber via the crew access door.  Their mission was to secure and protect 6,755 items of the world's greatest works of art that had been looted and stored by the Germans as they swept across Europe.  With the allied forces closing in, the Germans had planned to blow up the entire store to prevent the artworks from falling into the hands of the liberators. Once on the ground, the four agents linked up with local resistance fighters and the mine and its valuable contents were eventually secured, the explosives made safe and the entire cache taken into the safe keeping of the 80th US Infantry Division as the German occupation of Europe crumbled.

SOE Drop by Ivan Berryman. (C)
 At 3.30am on the 23rd June 1945, a Dakota of 357 (special duties) Squadron took off from Mingaladon airfield nr.  Rangoon , to travel the 600 miles, 300 of them behind enemy lines, to rescue a downed American Liberator crew deep in the jungles of Siam.  The Dakota was flown by pilot Fl Lt. Larry Lewis, who already held the DFM awarded to him for 33 ops as a rear gunner on   Wellingtons  in 1941. Two crews had already failed when Lewis was asked to attempt this hazardous mission. Flying between 5,000 - 6,000ft he flew over The Hump, a ridge of mountains running down the spine of   Burma  . Local villagers had cleared a rough airstrip 800yds long with Lewis finding it by the time dawn broke. With monsoon clouds gathering, the Liberator crew aboard and the Dakota sinking in the wet ground, he managed, just, to get airborne. Flying at zero feet and looking out for Japanese Zero fighters Lewis took a different course back. Although being fired on from the ground they managed to make it all the way to the airfield at Dum Dum nr.   Calcutta ,  India  . Lewis was awarded an immediate DFC. By the end of the war he had completed 63 ops, held the rank of Squadron Leader with his service from 1938-1945, and was awarded the Air Efficiency Medal.

Larry Lewis DFC by Graeme Lothian. (D)
 Having survived the bombing raid on Karlsruhe, it was the cruelest of ironies that Halifax III LK789 (MP-L) of 76 Sqn should fall victim to a lone German fighter that was lurking in the night skies above Norfolk.  Witnessed by another Halifax, LK785 (MP-T), the upward firing waist guns of Lt Wolfgang Wenning's Messerschmitt Me410 of II/KG51 found their mark, expertly exploiting the blind spot of the Halifax, sending LK789 down in flames near Welney, killing all but one of her crew.  Wenning's victory was to be short lived, however, the German being killed in a mid air collision with an RAF Airspeed Oxford just three days later during another intruder operation over the midlands.

Unseen and Deadly by Ivan Berryman. (AP)


Items Signed by Pilot Officer Bill Leckie, AEM, KW (deceased)

 Sunday 8th April 1945. Halifax B.II Series 1 (Special) JP254 of 148 Special Duties Squadron, RAF piloted by Pilot officer Bill Leckie is depicted approaching the drop zone near to the Alt Aussee salt mine in the Austrian Alps to drop four SOE agents......
Operation Ebensburg by Ivan Berryman.
Price : £40.00
Sunday 8th April 1945. Halifax B.II Series 1 (Special) JP254 of 148 Special Duties Squadron, RAF piloted by Pilot officer Bill Leckie is depicted approaching the drop zone near to the Alt Aussee salt mine in the Austrian Alps to drop four SOE agents......

Quantity:
 Sunday 8th April 1945. Halifax B.II Series 1 (Special) JP254 of 148 Special Duties Squadron, RAF piloted by Pilot officer Bill Leckie is depicted approaching the drop zone near to the Alt Aussee salt mine in the Austrian Alps to drop four SOE agents......
Operation Ebensburg by Ivan Berryman. (AP)
Price : £60.00
Sunday 8th April 1945. Halifax B.II Series 1 (Special) JP254 of 148 Special Duties Squadron, RAF piloted by Pilot officer Bill Leckie is depicted approaching the drop zone near to the Alt Aussee salt mine in the Austrian Alps to drop four SOE agents......

Quantity:
 Sunday 8th April 1945. Halifax B.II Series 1 (Special) JP254 of 148 Special Duties Squadron, RAF piloted by Pilot officer Bill Leckie is depicted approaching the drop zone near to the Alt Aussee salt mine in the Austrian Alps to drop four SOE agents......
Operation Ebensburg by Ivan Berryman. (D)
Price : £360.00
Sunday 8th April 1945. Halifax B.II Series 1 (Special) JP254 of 148 Special Duties Squadron, RAF piloted by Pilot officer Bill Leckie is depicted approaching the drop zone near to the Alt Aussee salt mine in the Austrian Alps to drop four SOE agents......

Quantity:
 Sunday 8th April 1945. Halifax B.II Series 1 (Special) JP254 of 148 Special Duties Squadron, RAF piloted by Pilot officer Bill Leckie is depicted approaching the drop zone near to the Alt Aussee salt mine in the Austrian Alps to drop four SOE agents......
Operation Ebensburg by Ivan Berryman. (P)
Price : £1800.00
Sunday 8th April 1945. Halifax B.II Series 1 (Special) JP254 of 148 Special Duties Squadron, RAF piloted by Pilot officer Bill Leckie is depicted approaching the drop zone near to the Alt Aussee salt mine in the Austrian Alps to drop four SOE agents......

Quantity:
 Having survived the bombing raid on Karlsruhe, it was the cruelest of ironies that Halifax III LK789 (MP-L) of 76 Sqn should fall victim to a lone German fighter that was lurking in the night skies above Norfolk.  Witnessed by another Halifax, LK785......
Unseen and Deadly by Ivan Berryman.
Price : £70.00
Having survived the bombing raid on Karlsruhe, it was the cruelest of ironies that Halifax III LK789 (MP-L) of 76 Sqn should fall victim to a lone German fighter that was lurking in the night skies above Norfolk. Witnessed by another Halifax, LK785......

Quantity:
 Having survived the bombing raid on Karlsruhe, it was the cruelest of ironies that Halifax III LK789 (MP-L) of 76 Sqn should fall victim to a lone German fighter that was lurking in the night skies above Norfolk.  Witnessed by another Halifax, LK785......
Unseen and Deadly by Ivan Berryman. (AP)
Price : £90.00
Having survived the bombing raid on Karlsruhe, it was the cruelest of ironies that Halifax III LK789 (MP-L) of 76 Sqn should fall victim to a lone German fighter that was lurking in the night skies above Norfolk. Witnessed by another Halifax, LK785......

Quantity:
 Halifax B.II Series 1 (Special) JP254 of 148 Special Duties Squadron, RAF is depicted over the drop zone near to the Alt Aussee salt mine in the Austrian Alps as two of the four SOE agents exit the bomber via the crew access door.  Their mission was......
SOE Drop by Ivan Berryman.
Price : £70.00
Halifax B.II Series 1 (Special) JP254 of 148 Special Duties Squadron, RAF is depicted over the drop zone near to the Alt Aussee salt mine in the Austrian Alps as two of the four SOE agents exit the bomber via the crew access door. Their mission was......

Quantity:
 Halifax B.II Series 1 (Special) JP254 of 148 Special Duties Squadron, RAF is depicted over the drop zone near to the Alt Aussee salt mine in the Austrian Alps as two of the four SOE agents exit the bomber via the crew access door.  Their mission was......
SOE Drop by Ivan Berryman. (AP)
Price : £90.00
Halifax B.II Series 1 (Special) JP254 of 148 Special Duties Squadron, RAF is depicted over the drop zone near to the Alt Aussee salt mine in the Austrian Alps as two of the four SOE agents exit the bomber via the crew access door. Their mission was......

Quantity:
 Halifax B.II Series 1 (Special) JP254 of 148 Special Duties Squadron, RAF is depicted over the drop zone near to the Alt Aussee salt mine in the Austrian Alps as two of the four SOE agents exit the bomber via the crew access door.  Their mission was......
SOE Drop by Ivan Berryman. (C)
Price : £420.00
Halifax B.II Series 1 (Special) JP254 of 148 Special Duties Squadron, RAF is depicted over the drop zone near to the Alt Aussee salt mine in the Austrian Alps as two of the four SOE agents exit the bomber via the crew access door. Their mission was......

Quantity:
 Halifax B.II Series 1 (Special) JP254 of 148 Special Duties Squadron, RAF is depicted over the drop zone near to the Alt Aussee salt mine in the Austrian Alps as two of the four SOE agents exit the bomber via the crew access door.  Their mission was......
SOE Drop by Ivan Berryman. (P)
Price : £1100.00
Halifax B.II Series 1 (Special) JP254 of 148 Special Duties Squadron, RAF is depicted over the drop zone near to the Alt Aussee salt mine in the Austrian Alps as two of the four SOE agents exit the bomber via the crew access door. Their mission was......

Quantity:
 One of 6,176 Halifaxes built during World War II, NA337(2P-X) was shot down over Norway on 23rd April 1945. In 1995 it was recovered from the lake that had been its watery home for fifty years and has now been restored by the Halifax Aircraft Associ......
Halifax Mk.III NA337 by Ivan Berryman. (D)
Price : £110.00
One of 6,176 Halifaxes built during World War II, NA337(2P-X) was shot down over Norway on 23rd April 1945. In 1995 it was recovered from the lake that had been its watery home for fifty years and has now been restored by the Halifax Aircraft Associ......

Quantity:
 One of 6,176 Halifaxes built during World War II, NA337(2P-X) was shot down over Norway on 23rd April 1945.  In 1995 it was recovered from the lake that had been its watery home for fifty years and has now been restored by the Halifax Aircraft Assoc......
Halifax Mk.III NA337 by Ivan Berryman. (XX)
Price : £80.00
One of 6,176 Halifaxes built during World War II, NA337(2P-X) was shot down over Norway on 23rd April 1945. In 1995 it was recovered from the lake that had been its watery home for fifty years and has now been restored by the Halifax Aircraft Assoc......

Quantity:
 Halifax Tugs Towing Hamilcar Gliders.  Halifax glider tugs of 644 Squadron based at Tarrant Rushton head out across the English Channel with their Hamilcar gliders as part of Operation Overlord in June 1944.  The mighty Hamilcar was capable of carry......
Operation Mallard by Ivan Berryman. (H)
Price : £100.00
Halifax Tugs Towing Hamilcar Gliders. Halifax glider tugs of 644 Squadron based at Tarrant Rushton head out across the English Channel with their Hamilcar gliders as part of Operation Overlord in June 1944. The mighty Hamilcar was capable of carry......

Quantity:
 At 3.30am on the 23rd June 1945, a Dakota of 357 (special duties) Squadron took off from Mingaladon airfield nr.  Rangoon , to travel the 600 miles, 300 of them behind enemy lines, to rescue a downed American Liberator crew deep in the jungles of   ......
Larry Lewis DFC by Graeme Lothian. (AP)
Price : £120.00
At 3.30am on the 23rd June 1945, a Dakota of 357 (special duties) Squadron took off from Mingaladon airfield nr. Rangoon , to travel the 600 miles, 300 of them behind enemy lines, to rescue a downed American Liberator crew deep in the jungles of ......

Quantity:
 At 3.30am on the 23rd June 1945, a Dakota of 357 (special duties) Squadron took off from Mingaladon airfield nr.  Rangoon , to travel the 600 miles, 300 of them behind enemy lines, to rescue a downed American Liberator crew deep in the jungles of Si......
Larry Lewis DFC by Graeme Lothian. (D)
Price : £110.00
At 3.30am on the 23rd June 1945, a Dakota of 357 (special duties) Squadron took off from Mingaladon airfield nr. Rangoon , to travel the 600 miles, 300 of them behind enemy lines, to rescue a downed American Liberator crew deep in the jungles of Si......

Quantity:
 Lancaster, Halifax, Stirling and Mosquito of Bomber Command. ......
Bombers by Keith Aspinall. (C)
Price : £45.00
Lancaster, Halifax, Stirling and Mosquito of Bomber Command. ......

Quantity:
Sadly, but two examples of the Handly page Halifax exist today - the unrestored W1048 at the RAF Museum at Hendon, and the Yorkshire Air Museums pristine LV907 Friday the 13th, a rebuild from the remains of HR792.......
A Friday in Winter by Keith Woodcock. (B)
Price : £40.00
Sadly, but two examples of the Handly page Halifax exist today - the unrestored W1048 at the RAF Museum at Hendon, and the Yorkshire Air Museums pristine LV907 Friday the 13th, a rebuild from the remains of HR792.......

Quantity:

Packs with at least one item featuring the signature of Pilot Officer Bill Leckie, AEM, KW (deceased)


Handley Page Halifax Print Pack.
Pack Price : £330.00
Saving : £305
Aviation Print Pack. ......

Titles in this pack :

Leading the Way by Gerald Coulson.
Halifax Legend by Robert Taylor
Friday the 13th by Ivan Berryman. (B)
Halifax Mk.III NA337 by Ivan Berryman. (D)

Quantity:
Crew Signed Halifax Aviation Prints by Gerald Coulson and Ivan Berryman.
Pack Price : £235.00
Saving : £95
Aviation Print Pack. ......

Titles in this pack :

Leading the Way by Gerald Coulson.
Halifax Mk.III NA337 by Ivan Berryman. (D)

Quantity:
Halifax Aircraft Aviation Print Pack by Ivan Berryman and Philip West.
Pack Price : £160.00
Saving : £145
Aviation Print Pack. ......

Titles in this pack :

Mutual Support by Philip West.
Halifax Mk.III NA337 by Ivan Berryman. (D)

Quantity:
Halifax Aviation Art Prints by Ivan Berryman.
Pack Price : £145.00
Saving : £115
Aviation Print Pack. ......

Titles in this pack :

Friday the 13th by Ivan Berryman.
Halifax Mk.III NA337 by Ivan Berryman. (D)

Quantity:
Pilot Officer Bill Leckie, AEM, KW (deceased)

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