Force pilot Mr. Francis (Goose) Gosling has been awarded a medal by the late Soviet Union.

Mr. Gosling, who served in northern Russia in 1942 and 1943, received the award along with thousands of other allied personnel who participated in what the Soviets called The Great Patriotic War.

Mr. Gosling was a flight lieutenant with 210 and 190 Squadrons of the Royal Air Force Coastal Command.

He was stationed in Murmansk, north of the Arctic Circle, and Archangel on the White Sea, flying patrols off the north cape of Norway to protect Russian convoys.

His war years saw him receive the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Force Cross for his service.

The new medal, which Mr. Gosling received in the mail last week, was accompanied by a letter written in Russian -- a language Mr. Gosling is at a loss to decipher.

Yesterday, he asked anyone with a knowledge of the language to help him translate the letter.

He said the medal had been struck in 1985, when the Soviet Union still existed.

"This medal was issued by the Russians to those allied forces involved in any way in combat with the Soviets,'' he said.

Mr. Gosling flew convoy escorts and anti-submarine patrols in Catalinas. He said "we spotted'' eight U-boats, attacked four and damaged two, with one of them later sunk by an allied ship.

Mr. Francis (Goose) Gosling with his Soviet war medal.