Rock,
You raise some interesting questions, and lead me to wonder whether you're perhaps a little envious of the RAF..... I wish now that I'd used Major Sam Drennan as my example of someone who perhaps deserved a more prestigious decoration than he got.... Would that have made you happy?
Some questions:
Can you only be brave if you kill lots of the enemy, or if you directly influence the tide of the battle?
Can you only be brave if you suffer huge numbers of casualties?
Can you only be brave if you win the battle? (Take back the VCs from Rorke's Drift, then...)
Is bravery impossible if it results from some-one else's (planning) error?
I wasn't suggesting Tuxford should necessarily have got a VC - a DSO would do!!! But the point is while he may have done nothing to directly influence the fighting on the ground he coolly ignored what must have been real fears and knowingly put himself and his crew in the face of enormous danger in order to ensure the success of the mission. And I thought that the VC was created to recognise exactly that sort of calculated valour....