Gazette Information: VICTORIA CROSS,: http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/36948/supplements/999. Flight Sergeant George Thompson, 9 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. On 1st January 1945 in an attack on the Dortmund-Ems Canal, Germany, a Lancaster bomber, after releasing its bombs, was hit by two shells and raging fire broke out. Flight Sergeant Thompson, wireless operator, seeing that both gun turrets were ablaze, went at once to help the two gunners to a place of relative safety, extinguishing their burning clothing with his bare hands. Then, despite his shocking state of burns and charred clothing, he went through the burning fuselage to report to the pilot. The crippled aircraft finally crash-landed; one of the gunners survived, the other died. Flight Sergeant Thompson died of his wounds three weeks later.
Fold3_Team · Oct 31, 2023
Gazette Information: VICTORIA CROSS,: http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/36948/supplements/999. Flight Sergeant George Thompson, 9 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. On 1st January 1945 in an attack on the Dortmund-Ems Canal, Germany, a Lancaster bomber, after releasing its bombs, was hit by two shells and raging fire broke out. Flight Sergeant Thompson, wireless operator, seeing that both gun turrets were ablaze, went at once to help the two gunners to a place of relative safety, extinguishing their burning clothing with his bare hands. Then, despite his shocking state of burns and charred clothing, he went through the burning fuselage to report to the pilot. The crippled aircraft finally crash-landed; one of the gunners survived, the other died. Flight Sergeant Thompson died of his wounds three weeks later.