ARCHIVED - ‘An astonishing act of bravery’

News Article / November 6, 2015

As Remembrance Day approaches, we remember the airmen and airwomen who served and made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation, in times of both war and peace.

By Andrew Ffrench

Each year, the people of Wallingford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, honour two airmen serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force who gave up their lives to save the town.

Returning from an aborted raid over the French port of Le Havre on September 9, 1944, with other aircraft of the RCAF’s 426 “Thunderbird” Squadron, their Halifax bomber ran into difficulties. Still carrying a full bomb load, the aircraft was engulfed in flames after an engine exploded over Wallingford.

RCAF Flying Officer John Archibald Wilding, 23, from New York, New York, ordered his crew to bail out. He and Royal Air Force flight engineer Sergeant John Frank Andrew, 22, from Abermule, Wales, remained on board. They flew the bomber away from the town and crashed it in a field east of Wallingford, on the other side of the River Thames at Crowmarsh Gifford. Both airmen died in the crash.

Wilding and Andrew were mentioned in dispatches for their bravery, and Flying Officer Wilding was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Every September, Wallingford holds a memorial service at a commemorative cairn at the junction of Wilding Road and Andrew Road. This year, town mayor Lynda Atkins, a former Royal Air Force officer and chair of the Oxfordshire Royal British Legion (RBL), reminded townsfolk to attend the service.

“I am delighted that the RBL is leading this and making sure these airmen will never be forgotten,” Ms. Atkins said. “It would have been devastating if the bomber had hit Wallingford. We would have lost dozens of lives and a large chunk of the town centre. Instead, there was a very big hole in a field.

“They must have known they were not going to survive. It was an astonishing act of bravery. The airmen gave their lives for others, and that is why the two streets have been named after them, so that they will always be part of the map of the town. It is very important that they are not forgotten, so I would like as many people as possible to come to the service.”

The mayor added that Army Cadets and Air Cadets would attend the service at the junction, where the commemorative cairn is located.

Acting secretary of Wallingford RBL Linda Shoebridge, who has been involved in the memorial service since 1990 and who served as U.K. representative of the Royal Canadian Air Force 426 Squadron Association, has a personal debt of gratitude to the airmen. “I was a little girl, living off Wood Street,” she said, “and I recall seeing the smoke on the Crowmarsh side of the river. The plane had ten 500-pound bombs on board. Undoubtedly, people would have been killed if the plane had crashed in Wallingford, and it would not exist as we now know it.”

The cairn with the plaque bearing the squadron’s badge was built in 1960, and the Canadian flag is flown over Wallingford Town Hall each year. The plaque reads:

“On the 9th. September, 1944, F/O J.A. Wilding and Sgt. J.F. Andrew of No. 426 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force, by remaining at the controls of their damaged and bomb laden aircraft steered it clear of Wallingford to crash and explode in open fields. Their supreme sacrifice and conspicuous gallantry almost certainly saved the lives of many of the town’s inhabitants. These roads have been named after them and this plaque has been erected in grateful thanks by the Borough of Wallingford. ‘Their name liveth for evermore.’”

Andrew Ffrench is a journalist with the Oxford Mail (http://m.oxfordmail.co.uk). This story is reprinted here with permission from the Oxford Mail and The Oxford Times.