To Maynard 'Snuffy' Smith
It wasn't only USAAF day-bombers that had to fight their way home.
On the night of 15/16 September 1940, eighteen-years-old Wireless Operator/Air Gunner Sergeant John Hannah was the dorsal gunner aboard Hampden P1355 'B' of No.83 Squadron RAF, one of fifteen bombers sent to attack invasion barges gathering in Antwerp. His aircraft was hit by flak over the target, caught fire and burned so fiercely that the lower fuselage began to melt and the ventral gunner fell out; luckily, his parachute opened and he landed safely. Next to leave was the navigator, who realised the aircraft wouldn't last much longer. He also made it OK. Both became POWs.
Meanwhile, Hannah informed his pilot over the intercom, 'The aircraft is on fire, sir.'
'Is it very bad?'
'Bad, but not too bad.'
And then the little Scotsman began to fight the fire. With everything he had. It took him twenty minutes to heave the blazing ammunition drums overboard and put all the fires out, during which time another 83 Squadron pilot, Guy Gibson, saw the crippled Hampden "attracting all the flak as flames and sparks came out like the wrong end of a rocket hanging in the air." It was so hot that the pilot felt the heat radiating from the armoured bulkhead behind him.
Eventually, Hannah informed his pilot 'the fire is out, sir' and crawled back past the wreckage to his radio to attempt a position fix. No joy, the fire had destroyed the radio and had roasted the two carrier pigeons carried for emergencies. Ninety minutes later, the aircraft landed back at Scampton and the pilot and Hannah exited it quickly. When an airfield guard shone a torch onto Hannah it became obvious that he was in a bad way and he was immediately transported to a nearby Service hospital.
Hannah recovered sufficiently to attend an investiture at Buckingham Palace, where the King himself presented him with the Victoria Cross. He never regained his full fitness status and served as a ground instructor until he was discharged with tuberculosis in December 1942. Living on a disability pension, he was hard put to support his family - he had three infant daughters - and he died on 9 June 1947. Twenty years later, his widow and daughters presented his VC to 83 Squadron, then flying Vulcans at Scampton, on permanent loan.
all those airmen who fought to get their aircraft home against the odds. And John Hannah, the youngest airman ever to be awarded a Victoria Cross.
