WOUNDED MEN SAVED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20621, 24 November 1941, Page 2

WOUNDED MEN SAVED

RACING DRIVER’S FEAT COURAGE IN AIR RAID (Elec. Tel. Copyrißhl -United Press Assn.) (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 9 a.m. RUGBY, Nov. 23. How a former Brooldands racing motorist, himself wounded by bombs during an intense night air raid, drove his wounded men through the lines of blazing buildings to the hospital—and then drove back to his Bofors gun—is told by the War Office. He is Second-Lieutenant D. C. Bain, Royal Artillery, and on the night in question he won the Military Cross. Second-Lieutenant Bain and his men, manning a Bofors gun and a searchlight, were stationed in the dock area, and for three and a half hours incendiary and high explosive bombs fell around them. Smoke came from blazing warehouses and cut visibility to 50ft, making the searchlight useless. Second-Lieutenant Bain took his spare men and set to work saying what he could from the flames, including his own transport and a large quantity of Government and private property. They struggled for an hour and then Second-Lieutenant Bain saw a low - flying raider approaching. He ran back to his gun, but had fired only one round when a stick of bombs fell very near. The first blew the gun crew stunned against their sandbags and the second wounded Second-Lieu-tenant Bain and three of the gunners, two of whom were the detachment’s drivers. Someone had to get them to safety. After giving first aid, Second-Lieutenant Bain decided to do the job himself. He drove the truck through lines of burning electric power cables, first to the dock fifst-aid post—which he found destroyed—and then on to the hospital. He then turned round and drove back to the He never left it again until the raid was over.