A GRANDFATHER clock owned by a World War Two hero of the air is being sold at auction.

The antique timepiece, which belonged to Bill Middleton, has been turned into a memorial by his stepson, Steven.

The RAF flight engineer from Consett, County Durham, flew more than 40 missions over Nazi Germany and was shot down twice.

The first time, enemy fire severed the cables controlling a small wing and he had to hold it together with his bare hands and improvise a connection with a spanner so that the aircraft could be steered over the English Channel from Stuttgart.

After arriving over home soil all seven members of the crew parachuted to safety, but tragically the aircraft crashed into a cottage in Sussex and killed two elderly women.

The second time he was shot down was on D-day and the Allies had just bombed Nazi gun positions on the Normandy beaches when the aircraft was hit and caught fire.

The crew managed to get out and parachuted into the sea.

Mr Middleton could not swim and was drowning when Americans in a landing craft fished him out with a hook.

Steven said: “Bill was a true hero. After being shot down the second time, he got back into the war with a vengeance and continued to bomb the Nazis until they surrendered.”

Born in Consett, County Durham, 1913, Mr Middleton worked as a joiner in the pattern-making department of the Consett Ironworks.

But during the Second World War he was accepted into the RAF and became a flight engineer working on Halifax bombers.

The clock was built in 1790 and contains valuable wartime memorabilia including the former joiner’s Distinguished Flying Cross, Defence Medal, copies of his flight logs, and a personal account of his bombing runs.

His stepson, Steven, who now lives in the United States, said: “The clock was Bill's prized possession. I transformed it into a war memorial so that wherever it goes in the years to come, hopefully for centuries, his story will be told.”

The memorial clock also honours Bill's wife, Mollie Middleton, and served in Bomber High Command during the war.

Mr Middleton died in 1994 and his original flight logs are on display at the Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington, Yorkshire.

The clock will be sold by auctioned on Thursday, December 11, at 10am by Thomas Miller of Algernon Road, Newcastle.