AWARD FOR BRAVERY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24773, 25 November 1941, Page 8

AWARD FOR BRAVERY

FORMER RACING MOTORIST THE MILITARY CROSS RUGBY, Nov. 23. How a former Brooklands racing motorist, himself wounded by bombs during an intense night air raid, drove his wounded men through lines of blazing buildings to a hospital—and then drove back td his Bofors gunis told by the War Office. He is Second Lieutenant D. C. Bain, of the Royal Artillery, and on the night concerned he won the Military Cross. Bain and his men manning a Bofors gun and searchlight were stationed in the dock area, and for three hours and a-half incendiaries and high explosives fell around Ihem. Smoke came from the blazing warehouses and cut visibility to 50ft, making the searchlight useless. Bain took the spare men and set to work saving what he could from the flames, including his own transport and a large quantity of Government and private property. They struggled for an hour, then 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 against their sandbags in a stunned condition, and a second wounded Bain and three of the gunners, two of whom were the detachment's drivers. Someone had to get them to safety after first aid had been given, and Bain decided to do the job himself. 'He drove the truck through the lines of burning electric power cables, first to the dock first aid post—which he found destroyed—then on to a hospital. then turned round and drove back to the gun, and he never left it again until the raid was over.