RNZAF Squadron Leader Leonard Henry Trent Signature Set
Group Captain Leonard Henry Trent, VC, DFC (14 April 1915 – 19 May 1986) was a New Zealand aviator, senior Royal Air Force officer, and recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
Born in Nelson, Trent obtained a short-term commission in the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1938 after receiving flight training in New Zealand.
After travelling to England, he was posted to No. 15 Squadron RAF and was sent to France shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War, flying Fairey Battles on photo-reconnaissance missions into Germany. After his squadron returned to England and converted to Bristol Blenheims, he flew several bombing missions during the Battle of France for which he was later awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC).
Afterward he spent several months on instructing duties before being posted to No. 487 (NZ) Squadron in August 1942, which operated Lockheed Venturas.
H was awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery and dedication to duty during a bombing raid on a power-house in Holland in May 1943. Squadron leader Trent was in one of ten Ventura bombers which set out on the raid but, because of a series of problems and bad luck, they were left virtually at the mercy of anti-aircraft fire and enemy fighters during the whole of their route over enemy territory. Trent's was the only one of the raiders to get to the target and, although his bombs overshot, blast damage was done to the power-house.
On the way back, his plane was shot down and he spent the rest of the war in captivity. He was one of the men who made a mass but unsuccessful breakout from Stalag Luft III war prison in March 1944. This escape was the subject of Paul Brickhill's book, "The Great Escape". Trent was in the RNZAF from 1944 to 1947. He continued to serve with the RAF and was commander of No. 214 Squadron during the Suez Crisis until his retirement in 1965.
He retired in June 1965 and lived in Australia, and then New Zealand, in his later years. He died in 1986, aged 71.
Signature and Photograph of Royal New Zealand Air Force Victoria Cross recognition, Squadron Leader Leonard Henry Trent.
The signature is pasted down onto the biography and is placed in a mount with his photograph
