Air Force Medal R.J. Snell - 1950

[Akrotiri71]

Hi.

Could anyone be so kind as to shed any light on two incidents that occured involving a Mosquito, (mid-air collision), and a Harvard, (engine bay fire), which my late uncle was involved in.

In the Mosquito incident, the mid-air collision resulted in half the port wing, inc. aileron, had been cut off. Quote: "He took control of his aircraft which had been rolled automatically to the inverted, and after judicious use of the engines & controls righted the aircraft and after checking the handling brought the Mosquito back & landed successfully on the airfield. The second incident was in a Harvard aircraft at night when a fire developed in the engine bay. Certain engine controls became ineffective and he was able by sheer skill to land his aircraft with his whole engine bay in front of the pilot on fire, on the runway, thereby saving the aircraft. Here he would have been justified in bailing out".
Apparently both incidents occurred whilst he was serving at RAF Little Rissington 1949. His service number begins with a 5, which I'm told is significant in some way. (He was an instructor).

RJ Snell was my Aunties husband. (Both are deceased quite recently).
From information gleaned from my Dad, F/S Snell passed out from RAF Halton circa 1939/40. He flew Hurricanes in N. Africa during WWII. Edit:4.10.2012 And my Dad tells me he was QFI on 8 different types. Not that he flew 80 types. My apologies.

I have the citation which has the name Group Captain W.D. Coles, DSO DFC AFC, and was awarded in the King's Birthday Honours List 1950. (Citation is not signed).

Any further information would be most grateful.
Kind Rgds.
A71.