WOUNDED AIR HERO

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 92, 12 January 1935, Page 18

WOUNDED AIR HERO

Enemy Tribesmen’s Tribute

Heroism of a wounded British officer so impressed a group of tribesmen who bad spared his life not long ago that they paid a tribute to his fortitude. The incident came to light as the sequel to a reconnaissance fight by airbombers from Anibala over the NorthWest Frontier of India. Toe machines were heavily fired at, and one, piloted by Flight-Lieutenant F. D. Sinclair, came down on a steep hillside.

As the aeroplane was about, to crash 'the machine-gunner Hung himself clear r.nd rolled several hundred feet, where he Jay unconscious. Flight-Lieuten-ant Sinclair remained strapped in the wreck, which hung upside down on the edge of a precipice. Oue arm was broken and his thigh was crushed, but with his free arm he managed, after an hour’s painful effort, to unfasten his belt. He then stumbled out of the machine and fell sixty feet down the rocks into a crevice, sustaining a compound fracture of the ankle Shortly afterwards a band of armed enemy tribesipen came along, and. after stripping the officer and gunner of’ their valuables, held the following discussion •

Speaker No. 1 : Let us kill him and be done with it. We can strip the machine and keep the loot. No. 2: But if we take them into Peshawar we shall vet a big reward from the Government /

No. 11: But if you do that you will have to go through the other territory, and they will scupper us and kill the sahibs. No. 4: But we could go round this territory and carry them along. No. 1: But if you go all that way this man will die. Look at his

The men then asked to see Mrs. Sinclair. They asked whether they could do anything for her. Her reply was: “Kindly give me back my husband’s ling and watch, which are presents." The tribesmen promised to do so on condition they could have a photograph of the injured officer. This request was gladly granted. Some four weeks later, dusty and tired, a tribesman arrived at the hospital after an obviously long journey, and handed over to Mrs Sinclair the ring and watch. '

■ wounds. He will never live. So why not kill him and- put him out of ' his misery? Besides, there is a ' machine-gun, with ammunition and revolver, and other useful things in the aeroplane. Flight-Lieutenant Sinclair listened to this discussion unmoved, until at length the first speaker’s arguments were defeated and the prospect of a good reward from the Government saved his life. Rough stretchers wore made, and the wounded airmen, in great pain, were carried over mountains and vales day and night to the hospital at Peshawar After receiving about £lOOO as a reward the tribesmen refused to return to their village. They were insistent in requesting to see the flightlieutenant. When asked why, they replied that bravery was very common in their own country, but they had never seen one who had borne his wounds so unflinchingly—almost nonchalantly—and who had acted as they imagined a British officer should act. They merely wished to tell him so. The hospital authorities refused *o grant this request owing to the condition of Flight-Lieutenant Sinclair, I whose leg ha<t to be amputated. , I