Nearly all Victoria Cross winners have a tale to tell, if they survive, and if not, then someone else will tell it for them.
Take Royal Navy Flying Officer John Cruickshank, who flew Catalina seaplanes during World War Two.
He tried to drop depth charges on a German U-Boat, but after circling overhead he found that the release mechanism was jammed. So, with the U-Boat crew now alerted to his attack, he dive bombed into a hail of bullets, and his navigator was killed ..... while two others of his aircrew were injured by the strafing. Amazingly, Flying Officer Cruickshank was also hit 72 times!
Even though he heavily bleeding, he managed to release the depth charges manually himself, and actually sank the U-Boat. He then turned the plane back towards England, and refused any morphine for fear that he wouldn't be able to keep the battered aircraft flying if he lost his mental focus. When they got to the coast, the sea was too rough for the floating craft to land, and he had to circle the port for five more hours, until it was calm enough to land.
After directing the beaching of his air craft, so that it could be salvaged, he collapsed and had to be given a blood transfusion before he could be removed to hospital. Not surprisingly he was eventually awarded a VC for all these heroics .....
.... I say eventually, because there was actually some debate, that as his actions also saved his own life, and only incidentally saved the other crew members he might not qualify for the honour. Eventually common sense saw him nominated, where he was quickly awarded the medal.
If you don't believe the sheer heroics of this story, you can read his story in full here.
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| Victoria Cross - Only The Bravest. |
Take Royal Navy Flying Officer John Cruickshank, who flew Catalina seaplanes during World War Two.
He tried to drop depth charges on a German U-Boat, but after circling overhead he found that the release mechanism was jammed. So, with the U-Boat crew now alerted to his attack, he dive bombed into a hail of bullets, and his navigator was killed ..... while two others of his aircrew were injured by the strafing. Amazingly, Flying Officer Cruickshank was also hit 72 times!
Even though he heavily bleeding, he managed to release the depth charges manually himself, and actually sank the U-Boat. He then turned the plane back towards England, and refused any morphine for fear that he wouldn't be able to keep the battered aircraft flying if he lost his mental focus. When they got to the coast, the sea was too rough for the floating craft to land, and he had to circle the port for five more hours, until it was calm enough to land.
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| John Cruickshank VC |
After directing the beaching of his air craft, so that it could be salvaged, he collapsed and had to be given a blood transfusion before he could be removed to hospital. Not surprisingly he was eventually awarded a VC for all these heroics .....
.... I say eventually, because there was actually some debate, that as his actions also saved his own life, and only incidentally saved the other crew members he might not qualify for the honour. Eventually common sense saw him nominated, where he was quickly awarded the medal.
If you don't believe the sheer heroics of this story, you can read his story in full here.
Not to minimise acts of Heroism in battle but heroism is an instinct which manifests quite commonly in daily life. Health and Safety regulations have had to be introduced to prevent people from endangering their own lives to build footpaths or to clean windows.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, the vast majority would run away. In pre-gun cultures the biggest casualties in battle usually came when an army broke and ran. Hence the importance of discipline in armies such as the Romans. The idea was to override the flight instinct ... that shouldn't be mixed up with stupidity, such as the window cleaner who has no fear of heights and takes pointless risks.
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