Andrew Ronald (@westhillwanderer on Bluesky)

🇳🇿 The bomber was burning. A former schoolteacher climbed onto its wing, while it was still flying! On the night of July 7–8, 1941, Sergeant James Ward was the second pilot aboard a Wellington returning from a bombing raid on Münster. Over the Netherlands, a German fighter attacked. A damaged fuel pipe fed a fire that threatened to spread across the wing. The crew broke an opening in the fuselage and tried to fight the fire with extinguishers, even using coffee from their thermos flasks. Their efforts failed. They were warned to prepare to abandon the aircraft. But Ward volunteered to climb outside! Before the war, he had been a schoolteacher in Whanganui, New Zealand. Now, with a parachute on his back and a dinghy rope tied around him, he squeezed through the bomber’s narrow upper hatch. He tore holes in the aircraft’s fabric covering to make handholds and footholds, then worked his way onto the wing toward the engine. The propeller’s slipstream nearly swept him away. Carrying an engine cover that had been used as a cushion, Ward smothered the burning fabric. He then tried to push the cover into the opening around the leaking fuel pipe. The wind blew it out. When he tried again, the cover was swept away. Exhausted, Ward struggled back inside with the navigator’s help. The fuel continued burning, but the surrounding fabric could no longer carry the flames across the wing. The fire eventually burned itself out. The damaged Wellington made it home. Ward was awarded the Victoria Cross. But he would never see the end of the war. On September 15, 1941, his Wellington was hit by German antiaircraft fire over Hamburg. It caught fire and crashed. He was 22. The following year, his brother received his Victoria Cross in Wellington, New Zealand. James Ward lies buried in Hamburg. For more WWII stories, follow @Vanguard_WW2