|
McLEOD, Lieutenant Alan Arnett - Victoria Cross - awarded as per London Gazette dated 1 May 1918. Born 20 Aprl 1899. Home in Stonewall, Manitoba; to No.82 Squadron, 29 September 1917; to Expeditionary Force, 24 November 1917; to No.2 Squadron, 29 November 1917; wounded, 27 March 1918; to England, 31 March 1918; died in Winnipeg, 6 November 1918. Citation as follows: START QUOTE: Whilst flying with his observer (Lieutenant A.W. Hammond, MC), attacking hostile formations by bombs and machine gun fire, he was assailed at a height of 5,000 feet by eight enemy triplanes which dived at him from all directions, firing from their front guns. By skilful maneovering he enabled his observer to fire bursts at each machine in turn, shooting three of them down out of control. By this time Lieutenant McLeod had received five wounds, and whilst continuing the engagement a bullet penetrated his petrol tank and set the machine on fire. He then climbed out on to the left bottom plane, controlling his machine from the side of the fuselage, and by side-slipping steeply kept the flames to one side, thus enabling the observer to continue firing until the ground was reached. The observer had been wounded six times when the machine crashed in No Man's Land, and 2nd Lieutenant McLeod, notwithstanding his own wounds, dragged him away from the burning wreckage at great personal risk from heavy machine-gun fire from the enemy's lines. This very gallant pilot was again wounded by a bomb whilst engaged in this act of rescue, but he persevered until he had placed Lieutenant Hammond in comparative safety, before falling himself from exhaustion and loss of blood. END QUOTE For more on him see contribution by Carl A. Christie in Volume XIV of DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY (University of Toronto Press, 1998). Carl Christie also had an extended piece on McLeod in the Spring 1996 issue of the JOURNAL OF THE CANADIAN AVIATION HISTORICAL SOCIETY. Recent research has turned up the fact that McLeod was recommended for an MC in January 1918, two months before his VC action (submission subsequently cancelled for unknown reasons and at uncertain date).
|
12 November 1999, 02:04 AM
Linear Mode
Similar Threads
