Sergeant John Hannah

http://members.iinet.net.au/~tcosgrove/vcross.html

"On 15/16 September 1940 a Hampden of 83 Squadron, piloted by a Canadian Pilot Officer C. A. Connor, was attacking barges in Antwerp. As Connor came in and bombed on his second run, at 2,000 feet, his aircraft was violently struck. Shells hit the bomb bay, the tail boom, the wing petrol tanks, and in an instant the rear interior was aflame. Quickly the aluminium floor then melted, leaving a large hole through which the rear-gunner had no option but to bale out. Sent back to see what was happening, the navigator from up front found himself unable to open the dividing door, saw that the gunner was gone and that the wireless operator, Sergeant John Hannah, was apparently on fire, and baled out too, expecting his pilot to follow. But Hannah, a determined Scot not yet nineteen years old, was able to smother the flames around him. Despite the fact that the stored ammunition was now bursting from the heat, he forced the jammed door open, grabbed an extinguisher and started to put out the remaining fires, beating at the last with his logbook when the second extinguisher went out.

Though burnt on the hands and face he then crawled forward to help the pilot, passing him maps and the navigator's log. With both wing tanks holed, Connor brought the aircraft back and made a successful landing. Sergeant Hannah was awarded the VC for gallantry, determination and devotion to duty. Unhappily, these two men did not survive for long. Connor, who received the DFC, was killed only a few weeks later; Hannah, the youngest airman ever to be awarded the VC, went on to instructional duties but never really recovered his health. He was invalided out in 1942 and died soon after the war, still in his twenties and leaving a widow and three young daughters."

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