Incredible story of VC winner saving a Lancaster

[rotornut]

BBC News - Bomber Command hero 'climbed onto wing to put out fire' (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18618055)

[RedhillPhil]

I'm sure that I've heard this tale before but I thought it involved a Wellington, or were there more than one of these incidents?

[Noyade]

Another brave wing-walker...

James Allen Ward - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Allen_Ward)

[Hasel Checks]

Unable to view the Lancaster story because I don't trust Flash. (And nor should you).

But the James Ward Wellington one is stirring enough.

If you scroll down the wiki page below, and visit the link showing the flak damage to the Wellington you get a good idea what the Kiwi did to earn his VC.

Notice there's minimal scorching around the leaking fuel pipe, so he must've been pretty quick getting out of the burning bomber for his nocturnal wing walk.

How thick would a "dinghy cord" be?

Thinner than your little-finger I suspect.

I wonder if he removed his parachute to get out, surely he must have done to get through the tiny observation hatch. And he was dragging a canvas sheet too.

Throttled back airspeed would have been what... 150 knots? Perhaps the pilot got it lower using flaps.

I particularly like the quotes from Ward's conversation with Churchill when he visited Downing Street for his gonging.

James Allen Ward VC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Allen_Ward)

[Harley Quinn]

More information here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Cyril_Jackson). Truly astounding.

[Hasel Checks]

Thanks for the Lancaster VC link:

Norman Cyril Jackson VC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Cyril_Jackson)

What a feat of ridiculous courage.
After he'd finished his tour as well.

Once his parachute had deployed in the cockpit, he must've been adrenalin super-charged.

Those RAF "fire-extinguishers" were useless too.

Hand-pumped Carbon Tetrachloride devices, heavy and small, not sufficient to douse an engine fire in a hangar, let alone in mid-air. He'd have needed two hands to pump the extinguisher.

In retrospect, the better option would have been to all bail out orderly, but his bravery gave them a chance of getting home.

[Hipper]

Firstly, I thought there was some sort of fire extinguishing system in each engine.

Secondly I thought that one action that could be taken with engine or wing fires was to enter a dive to blow it out. Is that just Hollywood stuff?

[Noyade]

I thought there was some sort of fire extinguishing system in each engine.I've read that as well mate...

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/426/img038c.jpg (http://img207.imageshack.us/i/img038c.jpg/)

[Lower Hangar]

Lots of childhood memories of this one. Growing up on a small Scottish farm in Kinross-shire I knew the old ploughman Jim Thompson and hadn't been aware that his late son was a 2nd World War VC. A few years later at the age of 15 I was awarded the Dux medal as the 'best pupil leaving Kinross Junior Secondary School 1958'- the George Thompson VC Memorial Medal (I still have it) and its only in these later years I became aware of George Thompson VC.

See the wikipedia entry here

George Thompson (VC) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Thompson_(VC)#The_medal)

[Noyade]

On the subject of Bomber Command personnel/survivors...

He survived a POW camp, now he's reached a century (http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/he-survived-a-pow-camp-now-hes-reached-a-century-20120629-217zi.html)

http://img806.imageshack.us/img806/2151/gordonlake1600x400.jpg (http://img806.imageshack.us/i/gordonlake1600x400.jpg/)