Sgt Leonard Bird was an Air Gunner with No 47 & 218 Squadrons of RAF Bomber Command. He commenced operational flying with 47 Sqd 
(Vickers Wellesley MkI ) in 1940 and completed 50 overseas operations with the unit. On 7th February 1941 during a sortie over Italian Eritrea, at Mendefera, his aircraft was shot down in flames by 
Italian Fiat CR.42 Falco Bi-Plane Fighter Ace,
Maresciallo Aroldo Soffritti. The aircraft immediately entered a spin and crashed at Adi Ugri. Bird managed a miraculous low level bail out at only a few hundred feet, but the pilot Sgt Edwin Blofield and the Nav/Obs P/O Ernie Bainbridge were both killed in the crash. Len Bird was then taken prisoner by the Italian forces. He was only a P.O.W. for under two months as he was liberated by the British Occupation of Abyssinia in April 1941. He then rejoined 47 Squadron and carried on operations from 16th June 1942 until 18th September 1941 when he was posted back to the UK.
He then transferred to 218 Squadron on Short Stirlings and on 23rd June began a further series of 10 ops over France & Germany.
On his second sortie with 218 on 25th June 1942, he shot down an ME110 night fighter over Bremen (confirmed) His final (60th) sortie to the target of Mainz finished early when just 15 minutes after take off and at 3,000 feet the starboard outer engine of the Stirling Bomber, (W7568), caught fire. Despite the crews' efforts to extinguish the fire it began to spread toward the main wing fuel tanks and electrical wiring in the wing. The bomb load was jettisoned, and P/O John Abberton ordered the crew including Len Bird to bail out. At about 22:55hrs the burning Sterling crashed into a woodland track at Wiltonhill Wood near Brandon in Suffolk killing the pilot and his Irish observer Sgt John Haggan Jeffrey. Thus, Len Bird again luckily managed to save his life.A REALLY UNUSUAL AWARD TO A HIGHLY RESILIENT AIRMAN.Complete with all relevant copy papers & recommendations etc and full details of the Italian ace who shot him down.