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Clipped Signature - Norman Samuels. A Typhoon pilot with No.193 Sqn, he spent some time on Spitfires with No.610 Sqn before returning to Typhoons. He was shot down in March 1945, evaded capture for some time before being taken prisoner for the last few weeks of the war. AMAZING VALUE! - The value of the signatures on this item is in excess of the price of the print itself! Item Code : CLP1572 Clipped Signature - Norman Samuels. - This Edition Buy 1 Get 1 Half Price! TYPE EDITION DETAILS SIZE SIGNATURES OFFERS YOUR PRICE PURCHASING CLIPSIG Clipped Signature. Clipped signatures are usually obtained from prints or publications that have been signed in person. Often, signatures have been rescued - or clipped - from prints that have been damaged in another area. Great value : Value of signatures exceeds price of item! Samuels, Norman Signature(s) value alone : £50 £10 Off! Now : £40.00 All prices on our website are displayed in British Pounds Sterling

Signatures on this item
*The value given for each signature has been calculated by us based on the historical significance and rarity of the signature. Values of many pilot signatures have risen in recent years and will likely continue to rise as they become more and more rare.
Name	Info
Warrant Officer Norman Samuels *Signature Value : £50	Initially flying Typhoons with 193 Sqn, Norman then transferred to 610 Sqn flying Spitfires on fighter sweeps over France, heavy-bomber missions, and operations against VIs. Returning to ground attack Typhoons over Europe with 193 Sqn, he was shot down in March 1945 and taken prisoner of war. Mr Samuels was born in Newbury in 1921 and grew up in the West Berkshire market town. In 1940, aged 19, he joined the Royal Air Force Oxford University Air Squadron. At that time the UK had no place for trainee pilots. So, after six weeks of basic training he was sent to America to learn to fly under the Arnold Scheme, a training programme run by United States Army Air Corps General 'Hap' Arnold. In 1941, at ease in the cockpit of almost any flying machine, he says, he was sent back to the UK. He said: I joined 193 Squadron in Devon, and that was where I met my future wife, Barbara Lean, on Christmas Day 1942. A Spitfire squadron had lost six of its 12 pilots in one day, so they moved us across to 610 Squadron. They were marvellous planes to fly, and I enjoyed every moment. We had Spitfire MkVs then - they weren't fast enough for war really at that time. We cleaned them with car polish, and that gave us an extra 5mph, then they clipped the wings and that gave us another 5mph. Of course we were still 100mph short of the Germans' speeds, but what could you do? He helped defend London, and fought over Beachy Head, but with losses elsewhere he was drafted back to 193 Squadron, which was by now in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1944. After surviving the ill-fated Battle of Arnhem in Holland in September, 1944, his luck ran out in a Typhoon near the same town in 1945, just weeks before the end of the war. He said: It was the last push by the Germans and on March 18 I was shot down. I'd already fought in the Battle of Arnhem, when we suffered heavy losses. Going back, I wasn't so lucky. He continued: I didn't have time to think if I was going to die. I must have been knocked out clean by my gun sight. I'd put rubber on it because I was always hitting it with my hand. I'd seen men die in crashes; they hit their head and it killed them. The rubber must have saved my life. To be honest looking back I should have died many times over. I ended up walking through Germany, got on a train, and that was bombed by the Allies. I walked and walked, right up to the Baltic Rhine, I scavenged for food and did what I could to survive. It was a long time between being shot down and being captured. Every day was 'live or die'. The Germans eventually caught up with him and sent him to Stalag Luft I, a camp filled with about 9,000 PoWs. He said: I had lost weight by the time I arrived, and we didn't have a lot of food. I remember a battle with a Welshman who kept stealing my bread. Luckily I was only there a few weeks before we were liberated, by the Americans, on my wife's birthday, April 30, 1945. I started the war with the Americans, and finished it with the Americans. After the war he worked as an engineer for the Southern Electricity Board.

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