WAS IN CHARGE OF BOBBER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 221, 19 September 1941, Page 4

WAS IN CHARGE OF BOBBER

MISSING AIRMAN V.C. HOPEFUL CABLE FROM BROTHER “Allen missing: plenty of hope.’ This cable was received yesterday by Mr. and Mrs. P. H. Ward, Wanganui. from their son, Mr. W. H. Ward. Tcddington, England, in reference to Sergeant-Pilot J. A. Ward, V.C.. who was reported missing on air operations on Monday. The Mayor of Wanganui (Hon. W. J Rogers), the deputy-Mayor (Cr. J. J. Scott) and the town clerk (Mr. C. R. White) called on Mr. and Mrs. Ward yesterday to express the sympathy of the city councillors and citizens and a hope for good news in the near future. A message of sympathy was received from the Minister of Defence. Hon. I F. Jone-, on behalf of himself and the Primo Minister (Rt. Hon. P. Fraser). Sergeant-Pilot Ward’s plane, a Wellington bomber, on Monday was last heard of over Germany, at a time almost immediately after it had reached its objective. He was captain of it. Sergeant-Pilot Ward was awarded the Victoria Cross in August for crawling out on to the wing of his plane to extinguish a fire on the return trip from an operational flight over Germany. The Wellington bomber of which he was then second pilot, had been attacked by a Messerschmitt night fighter, and cannon fire had broken an oil pipe and started a blaze on the wing dangerously near the starboard engine. Sergeant Ward crawled out of the astro-hatch of the plane and down on to the wing as the plane flew home over the North Sea. and held part of the engine cover over the incipient blaze. It was only on the urging of the rest of the crew that he wore a parachute while performing this hazardous feat. Sergeant Ward's Wellington homber from No. 75 New Zealand Bomber Squadron did not return from a recent attack on Germany. The bomber took off a few minutes after 8 o'clock and nothing was heard from it after a signal at a time when it was almost certain that the target had been reached. A few weeks ago Ward was made captain of the bomber and was given a crew of sergeants. They had already made one attack together against battle cruisers at Brest on the night of September 13. They were an experienced crew and most of them had made as many as 22 operational flights. They were in fact the crew with whom Ward had come to his squadron from an operational training unit.

Sergeant Ward was shortly to have received his award from the King.