VICTORIA CROSS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 August 1941, Page 6

VICTORIA CROSS

WON BY NEW ZEALAND AIRMAN DEED OF CONSPICUOUS VALOUR. FIRE FOUGHT ON BOMBER IN FLIGHT. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 12.55 a.m.) RUGBY, August 4. The King has been graciously pleased to confer the Victoria Cross on Sergeant James Allen Ward, of the R.N.Z.A.F., in recognition of most conspicuous bravery. On the night of July 7 Sergeant Ward was second pilot of a Wellington bomber returning from an attack on Munster. When flying over the Zuider Zee at 13,000 feet, the aircraft was attacked from beneath by a Messerschmitt 110, which secured hits with a cannon shell and incendiary bullets. The rear-gunner was wounded in a foot, but delivered a burst of fire which sent lhe enemy fighter down, apparently out of control? Fire then broke out in the starboard engine and, fed by petrol from a split pipe, quickly gained an alarming hold and threatened to spread to the entire wing. The crew forced a hole in the fuselage and made strenuous efforts with extinguishers, but unsuccessfully. They were then warned to be ready to abandon the aircraft. As a last resort, Sergeant Ward volunteered to make an attempt to smother the fire with an engine cover, which happened to be in use as a cushion. With the help of the navigator, he climbed through a narrow astrohutch. He was hampered by his parachute. The bomber was flying at a reduced speed, but the wind pressure was sufficient to render the operation one of the utmost difficulty. Breaking the fuselage to make hand and foot holds where necessary and also taking advantage of existing breaks in the fabric, Sergeant Ward succeeded in climbing three feet and proceeding another three feet to a position behind the engine, despite the wind from the airscrew, which nearly blew him off the wing. Lying in this precarious position, he smothered the fire in the engine and fabric and tried to push the cover into the hole in the wing and on to the leaking pipe, from which the fire came. As scon as he removed his hand, however, the terri- , fic wind blew the cover out, and when ) he tried again it was lost. He was able, with the navigator’s assistance to make successfully the perilous journey back into the aircraft. There was now no danger of the fire spreading from the petrol pipe as there was no fabric left nearby, and .in due course it burnt itself out. A safe landing was then made despite the damage sustained by the aircraft.

Sergeant Ward was born in June, 1919, at Wanganui. He was educated at the Wanganui Technical College and the Wellington Teachers’ Training College. Before joining the R.N.Z.A.F., he was a schoolmaster and among the schools at which he taught were Aramoho, Raetihi and Castlecliff. His father is Mr V. H. Ward, Wanganui.

LETTER TO MOTHER

AIRMAN SAYS VERY LITTLE ABOUT INCIDENT WANGANUI, This Day. Interviewed today, the mother of Sergeant Pilot Ward said that in a letter he said little about the incident except that he was “very careful.” He added that the rear-gunner got the D.F.M. and the captain the D.F.C. and that “they tell me they are thinking up something for me.” Sergeant. Pilot Ward, who is 22 years old, was a teacher on the relieving staff of the Wanganui Education Board when he joined the Royal Air Force a year ago. He had served for two years at the Wellington Teachers’ Training College. He left New Zealand last January. Before the outbreak of war, Sergeant Pilot Ward was keen on aviation and was a member of the Wanganui Model Aero Club.