Location: Across the road from the remains of deHavilland
Age: 61
Posts: 2,167
Fighter Pilots of Old
From the current issue of Flight:
"The award of A.F.C. to F/L. J. De M. Severne, in recognition of a particularly fine example of airmanship and personal courage, has been approved by H.M. the Queen. F/L. Severne took off from Wunstorf, Germany, in a Venom last November, and was due to land at Fassberg after a routine flight. While holding the aircraft inverted at the top of a loop he smelt fumes and saw that the fire warning light was on. He righted the aircraft, jettisoned the tip-tanks and, from ten miles out and 8,000ft, decided to make a wheels-up forced landing. A belly landing on the crash strip was completely successful, and F/L. Severne then got out of his machine, hacked the engine cowlings off with an axe and directed a CO2 extinguisher onto the smouldering fire he found there."
They don't make them like that anymore - they even do their top buttons up these days...
The only thing that puzzles me is why was he holding it inverted at the top of a loop during a 'routine flight' from Wunstorf to Fassberg?
The article does not say which year this occurred. It might be that he was foolish to take the action he did because, with a real engine fire, the Venom had a nasty habit of burning through the control cables which ran to the elevator and rudder.
This was not good news if you were on finals when it happened.
A belly landing on the crash strip was completely successful, and F/L. Severne then got out of his machine, hacked the engine cowlings off with an axe and directed a CO2 extinguisher onto the smouldering fire he found there."
If he was really a grizzled old veteran, he would than have got back in, fired her up and completed the journey.
Please advise the source/access of the London Gazette 40418.
Someone put me up for an AFC after 2 years (56/57) at Boscombe Down which was duly presented Down Under in 1958.
Have never seen a citation. Would like to bring one forth out of the archives. Being an RAF gong to a RAAF TP I wear it with pride.
My CO at BD was Wg Cdr Clive Saxelby who also was awarded an AFC. Sax was shot down in WW2 and became one of the tunnellers for the Great Escape. He was to be next out of the hole when the shooting started so he went back inside and survived.
Remember meeting him in the Bothy at Lossie one night in the 70s. After a few beers, I made my farewell and went out to the back of the Mess and tried in vain to start my old Renault... Flat battery. Went back to the Bothy to ask all and sundry for a hand to push start. To my surprise, he put his beer down and came straight out with a few others.. Think at the time he was boss of the Queen's Flight. My memory tells me that he was a 2* - would that be right? He got top marks from me that night.
Fighter Pilots of Old 
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