FOR VALOUR

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 7 August 1941, Page 4

FOR VALOUR

THE Victoria Cross was created to j reward acts of the highest personal 1 bravery such as that which has won j j this decoration for Sergeant-Pilot J. A. Ward, a young Wanganui school-j j teacher turned airman in the service jof His country. His deed nobly fits i the definition of “acts of conspicuous I | bravery and devotion.” The quality of the feat is all the finer because it, was done deliberately—at a time of extremity certainly—but not in the heat of battle when ordinary human j reactions are sometimes suspended j and man can bring himself to peri form almost superhuman acts. Not I that this cool-headed young airman, ! like so many of those gallant young : men living the lives of heroes almost ; daily, stopped to ponder that he was doing anything particularly brave. He was doubtless thinking quickly ■ how he could extricate himself and his companions from the dire peril in which the Messerschmitt’s attack 1 had placed the bomber crew and was willing to put his life to the hazard j in order to try and save his com- j j pan ions. Along with this bravery of the! I highest order went natural and un- j j assuming modesty. The war has i shown that the two often go together | in our gallant young men of action. Briefly mentioning the exploit in a letter to his parents—who will be the proudest couple in New Zealand just now—Sergeant-Pilot Ward nonchalantly describes it as an “affair,” adding that “a lot of ‘boloney’ is going on.” He is glad that two of his mates have been decorated before he knows of the honour which is to be conferred upon him. Rejoicing in his son’s success the father yet remembers the skill of the other pilot in bringing them home. Sergeant-Pilot Ward is the eigh- ! teenth New Zealander to win the V.C. I Over a hundred of his fellow New i Zealand airmen have gained other ' awards and decorations. It is perhaps appropriate to the age of speed in which we live and fight that airmen should have been honoured so conspicuously. Ward has crowned their efforts. His have proved among the strongest of “those strong young hands” who guard Freedom’s skies and let loose red ruin over the territories of the tyrant.