First Award Of Present War

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 31, 5 August 1941, Page 8

First Award Of Present War

SERGEANT J. A. WARD, N.Z.R.A.F.

OF WANGANUI

New Zealand's first Victoria Cross winner of the present war was announced today by the Minister of Defence (Mr. Jones). is Sergeant James Allen Ward, of No. 75 New Zealand Bomber Squadron, the airman who recently climbed out on the wing of a bomber to save it from destruction by fire. His is the seventh V.C. to be awarded to an airman in this war.

The message giving particulars of the award states:—"On the night of July 7 Sergeant Ward was second pilot in a Wellington bomber, whose starboard engine caught fire on its return flight from Minster, after a successful brush with a Messerschmitt over the Zuyder Zee. After the warning to be ready to abandon aircraft had been given, he volunteered to crawl out on the wing in a desperate attempt to smother the fire, which was fed from a split petrol pipe, and was liable at any moment to spread to the entire wing. The force of the wind was terrific, but, though hampered by a parachute, he managed to grasp hold of the fuselage and, hanging on by one hand, thrust an engine cover over the jet of flame." Sergeant Ward, who was born at Wanganui on June 14, 1919, is the son of Mr. and Mrs. P. H. Ward, 36 Konini Street, .Wanganui. Prior to his enlistment in the Eoyal New Zealand Air Force he was a school teacher at Castlecliff School, Wanganui. He was educated at Wanganui Technical College and Wellington Training College. He commenced flying training in New Zealand in July, 1940. . ■