A Distinguished Flying Medal awarded to a tragic Keighley war hero is to be auctioned.

Only three years after winning the coveted medal in the historic Sylt Raid in March 1940, Squadron Leader John Laurence Fletcher was shot down and killed on his way back from a low-level bombing raid on Berlin, Germany, on March 1, 1943. He was aged 29.

He was one of the first men to win the DFM in the Second World War – just six months after Britain declared war on Germany – and he was the only man to win a DFM in the Sylt Raid.

The Sylt Raid, targeting a base on Sylt island off the German coast, was the first time in history that the progress of a mission was announced by a Prime Minister – Winston Churchill – during a debate in the House of Commons while the action was still in progress.

Squadron Leader Fletcher was born in Keighley in 1913. He was educated at Keighley Grammar School and Keighley Technical College, where his Bradford-born father, James, was headmaster of the textile department.

From Keighley, Sergeant (later Squadron Leader) Fletcher went on to become one of Britain’s most highly-regarded young bomber pilots flying Whitley and Halifax planes.

Squadron Leader Fletcher met and married a young actress named Peggy Channell, who appeared in the 1939 George Formby film, Trouble Brewing.

The Fletchers set up home at Cranswick, east Yorkshire, not far from the Hutton Cranswick RAF base.

When he received the DFM for his exploits in the Sylt Raid in March, 1940, the citation read: “Sgt Fletcher was the captain of one of the aircraft which attacked the seaplane base at Sylt on the night of 19th-20th March,1940. He set the highest example of gallantry by successfully attacking the hangars and slipway at a height which brought him and his crew up against the full force of the anti aircraft fire of this heavily defended base.”

The Sylt Raid was a reprisal against an earlier German bombing raid, which had killed eight people.

Twenty tons of high explosives and 1,200 incendiary bombs were dropped over a four-hour period, damaging planes, hangars and fuel dumps.

Whenever her husband was away on a dangerous night mission, Mrs Fletcher later said she would anxiously wait up for him. She said she always knew that he was safe when she heard the distinctive rattle of his car.

But on the night of March 1,1943, Mrs Fletcher did not hear his car and guessed he was dead. He had been shot down and killed by a night fighter while returning from a raid on Berlin.

Squadron Leader Fletcher’s commanding officer, Wing Commander (later Group Captain) Leonard Cheshire – the Victoria Cross winner, whose Leonard Cheshire homes would become world-famous – paid tribute. He said: “I could not have found anywhere a finer man to have in the Squadron.”

Now, nearly 70 years after his death, Squadron Leader Fletcher’s medals, including his DFM, are up for sale. They are expected to fetch between £2,800 and £3,200 at the auction at Spink in Bloomsbury, London, on Thursday.