Medal - Kerstvlucht de Pelikaan

Reverse

Clouds above sun with signatures of the 4 pilots, surrounded with text.
Smirnoff (autograph)
Soer (autograph)
J. Grosfeld (autograph)
CH v Beukering (autograph)

Lettering:
♦KERSTVLUCHT DE PELIKAAN♦
Smirnoff
Soer
J. Grosfeld
CH v Beukering
HEEN:
18-22 Dec.33
TERUG
23-30 Dec.33
HOLLAND-INDIE

Translation:
♦Christmas Flight the Pelican♦
autographs of the pilots
going
18-22 Dec.33
return
23-30 Dec.33
Holland-Indië: Holland to Dutch Indies (Indonesia)

Edge

Plain

Comment

This token commemorates the Christmas flight from Holland to the Dutch Indies (Indonesia) in 1933 in a record time of just a few days. The airplane with the name Pelican transported mail, left off from Schiphol airport, picked up some mail as well in Jodhpur (India) from another plane that had stranded there. The pilots Smirnoff, Soer, van Beukering and Grosfeld had to return the airplane with mail returning from Batavia (now: Jakarta) to the Netherlands before the beginning of the New Year. It was such a huge event for aviation that the flight crew received a Royal award. Also, a series of two Dutch stamps were issued in 1933 for special flights: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luchtpostzegel. The following article in Dutch provides more information about the flight: http://snip-fan.nl/node/23
The original box: