VICTORIA CROSS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 251, 5 August 1941, Page 6

VICTORIA CROSS

THE FIRST NEW ZEALANDER. DECORATION FOR AN AIRMAN. GALLANT DEED IN THE AIR. (United Press Association—Copyright.) (Rec. 12.55 a.m.) LONDON, Aug. 4. The King has been graciously pleased to confer the Victoria Cross on Sergeant James Allen Ward, R.N.Z.A.F., in recognition of most conspicuous bravery. On the night of July 14, Sergeant Ward was the second pilot of a Wellington bomber 'returning from an attack on Muenster. When flying over the Zuider Zee at 13,000 feet, the aircraft jWas attacked from beneath by a Messerschmitt 110, which scored hits with cannon shell and incendiary bullets. The rear-gunner was wounded in the foot hut delivered a burst of fire which sent the enemy fighter down, apparently out of control. Fire then broke out in the starboard engine and, fed by petrol from a split pipe, quickly gained ail alarming hold and threatened to spread to the centre of the wing. The crew forced a hole in the fuselage and made strenuous effoi'ts with extinguishers, But unsuccessfully. They were then warned to be ready to abandon the aircraft. As a last resort Sergeant Ward volunteered' to make an attempt to smother the fire with an engine cover which happened to be in use as a cushion. With the help of the navigator, he climbed through the narrow astrohatch and got on, his parachute. The bomber was flying at reduced speed hut the wind pressure was sufficient to render the operation one of utmost difficulty. \ Breaking the fuselage to make hand and foot holds where necessary, also taking advantage of existing breaks in the fabric, Sergeant Ward succeeded in climbing three feet and proceeding another three feet to a position, behind the engine, despite the wind from the airscrew, which nearly blew him off the wing. Lying in this precarious position Sergeant Ward smothered the fire in the engine fabric and tried to push the cover into the hole' in the wing and ou to the leaking pipe from which the fire came. As soon as lie removed his hand, however, the terrific wind blow the cover out and. when he tried again it was lost. Sergeant Ward was able, with the navigator’s assistance, to make successfully the perilous journey' back into the aircraft. There was now no danger of the fire spreading from the petrol pipe, as there was no fabric, left nearby and in due course it burnt itself out. A safe landing was then made despite the damage sustained by the aircraft.—British Official Wireless.