Desmond Ossiter Sands DFC 1911-1999

Pilot-Officer Desmond Ossiter Sands was  awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for gallantry over Augsburg. His squadron leader, J. D. Nettleton, received the Victoria Cross.
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Pilot-Officer Sands was the navigator to Nettleton's plane, and it was the only one of the six Lancasters that got back, after having done its job despite terrific opposition, the raid involving a flight of 1,000 miles over
hostile country.
The target was one of great military importance, and the Lancaster did its job, flying as low as 50 feet from the surface. Desmond Sands went to London with his siste and was a partner in an architectural firm there at the time of his enlistment in 1940. He was commissioned in 1941, and participated in many raids over Germany, including the Ruhr, Hamburg and Kiel.