Medals of bravery won by a World War I fighter pilot who scored 16 kills are being auctioned for £22,000

Medals of bravery won by a World War I fighter pilot who scored 16 kills have been auctioned for £22,000.

Sergeant Frank Johnson’s kill record is the highest by a surviving NCO fighter pilot during World War I.

He regularly took on several German fighters at once, once firing 100 rounds at his opponent from just 15 yards away in a breathtaking dogfight.

Sergeant Johnson received a Distinguished Conduct Medal and Bar for his exploits over France in 1917 and 1918.

They went under the hammer at the London auction house Noonans.

Medals of bravery won by World War I fighter pilot Sergeant Frank Johnson, who scored 16 kills, have been auctioned for £22,000

Sergeant Frank Johnson’s (pictured) kill count is the highest of any surviving NCO fighter pilot during WWI

Mark Quayle, Specialist at Noonans, said: “This is an exceptional group of awards for an aviator who started in the back seat and, having succeeded there, worked his way forward to become one of the most aggressive fighter pilots of the First World War .

“Often he came within 50 meters of the enemy plane, once he shot down an aircraft at a distance of 15 meters.”

Sergeant Johnson was born in Oldham, Lancashire in 1896 and enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps in 1915.

He was trained as an observer and air gunner and in 1916 carried out reconnaissance tasks over France in two-seat FE2b biplanes.

He received his first DCM for “Dedication to Duty” when he was attacked by three enemy machines and one of them shot down.

In 1917 he trained as a pilot and joined No 20 Squadron flying Bristol F.2 Fighters.

By April 1918 he had claimed 16 victories, including two during a patrol over Moorslede in December 1917.

Most of its kills were Albatross biplanes, the mainstay of German air power as they could climb quickly, were powered by powerful Mercedes or Benz engines, and were armed with twin Spandau machine guns.

His second DCM praised his “conspicuous bravery” in his encounters with enemy aircraft.

Sergeant Johnson had homework in the final months of the war and later worked as a motor mechanic, although he joined the Class E Reserve at RAF Cardington in 1939 when World War II broke out.

The fighter pilot died in Oldham in 1961.

Sergeant Johnson’s medal group, sold by a private collector, consists of the Distinguished Conduct Medal with Second Award Bar, British War and Victory Medals.

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