V.C.'s LAST FLIGHT

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25343, 26 October 1945, Page 7

V.C.'s LAST FLIGHT

SERGEANT WARD FATAL BOMBING MISSION OBSERVER'S STORY NIGHT FIGHTER ATTACK (N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent) (Rpcd. 7.30 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 25 It was a German night fighter that caused the death of Sergeant J. A. Ward, V.C., of Wanganui, on the night of September 15, 1941. This fact has been verified by Ward's Canadian observer, Flight Lieutenant L. E. Peterson, who escaped by parachute and was taken prisoner. After Sergeant Ward was missing nothing more was heard of him or his crew for some months. ! Then it" was reported that Sergeant Ward had been killed and i was buried at Hamburg, but no other details were available, j At the request of the New Zealand I Press Association, officials of the Royal ! Canadian Air Force have traced Flight i Lieutenant Peterson, who is now in ['Canada, and he has given the following account: I With his crew, all Englishmen except 'himself and his Canadian observer, Ser•geant Ward took off to bomh Hamburg from No. 76 Squadron's old station at j Feltwell, in Suffolk. "When we caine tin over the target at Hamburg," said j Flight Lieutenant Peterson, "our flashbomb was not ready. We took a circle I _

out past Hamburg and bombed on the way home. "Just as the bombs were released we got caught in the searchlights. There was no flak, so we knew there were night lighters. About 16 to 20 miles out from Hamburg a night fighter attacked us. "One of the crew, Sergeant Gordon Sloman, R.A.F., who was second pilot, saw the fighter, which came in from the starboard side and then attacked from the port side with cannon and Our aircraft wag immediately a mass of flames. Ward was hit, hut how badly I don't know. I also got hit, in the left hip. "I opened the door for the front gunner and he and 1 hailed out. While* I was coming down I saw the aircraft go down and hit the ground in flames. The Germans claim that there were four bodies in the aircraft."