THE PRO PATRIA PROJECT

WARD James Allen

NZ401793, Sergeant Pilot, Royal New Zealand Air Force (attached to the R.A.F), WW2

CITATION:

Victoria Cross

Gazetted 5 August 1941, p 4515

On the night of July 7 1941, Sergeant WARD was second pilot of a Wellington bomber of 75 (NZ) Squadron returning from an attack on Munster.

While flying over the Zuider Zee at 13,000 feet his aircraft was attacked from beneath by a German ME110, which secured hits with cannon-shell

and incendiary bullets. The rear gunner was wounded in the foot but delivered a burst of fire sending the enemy fighter down, apparently out of

control.

Fire then broke out in the Wellington's 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 to reduce the fire with extinguishers, and even coffee

from their flasks, without success.

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.

At first he proposed discarding his parachute to reduce wind resistance, but was finally persuaded to take it. A rope from the aircraft dingy was

tied to him, though this was of little help and might have become a danger had he been blown off the aircraft.

With the help of his navigator he then climbed through the narrow astro-hatch and put on his parachute. The bomber was flying at a reduced

speed but the wind pressure must have been sufficient to render the operation one of extreme difficulty.

Breaking the fabric to make hand and foot holds where necessary, Sergeant Ward succeeded in descending three feet to the wing and

proceeding another three feet to a position behind the engine, despite the slipstream from the airscrew which nearly blew him off the wing.

Lying in this precarious position he smothered the fire in the wing and on the leaking pipe from which the fire came. As soon as he had removed his hand, however, a terrific wind blew the cover off and when he tried again it was lost.

Tired as he was, he was able, with the navigator's assistance, to make a successful but perilous journey back into the aircraft. There was now no danger of fire spreading from the petrol pipe as there was no fabric left near it and in due course it burned itself out.

When the aircraft was nearly home, some petrol which has collected in the wing blazed up furiously but died down quite suddenly. A safe landing was made despite the damage sustained to the aircraft.

The flight home had been made possible by the gallantry of Sergeant Ward in extinguishing the fire on the wing in circumstances of the greatest difficulty and at the risk of his life

KNOWN AWARDS

Victoria Cross

1939-45 Star

Air Crew Europe Star

War Medal 1939-45

New Zealand War Service Medal

NOTES

Born 14 June 1919, Wellington, New Zealand

Son of Percy Harold WARD and of Ada May WARD (nee Stokes), of Wanganui, New Zealand

Died 15 September 1941, killed in action over Hamburg, Germany

Buried Hamburg, Germany, Plot - 5A. A1. 9.

His Victoria Cross is held in the No. 75 Squadron, R.N.Z.A.F. Museum, Ohakea, New Zealand.