GM citation from London Gazette, 29 December 1942: "1283824 Sergeant George Lynas Hosford, Royal Air Force. Sergeant Hosford was in charge of a party which laid a flare path and loaded bombs on to a squadron of aircraft when they were operating from an airfield one night in June, 1942. The bombers had taken off from a nearby landing ground and, soon afterwards, enemy aircraft commenced to drop flares and bombs in the neighbourhood. The attack continued throughout the night. At 2300
hours our bombers commenced to arrive back, landing at the airfield, to be re-fuelled and reloaded for a second sortie. One of the aircraft, when taking off on its second operation, received a direct hit by an enemy bomb; a terrific explosion occurred and the aircraft burst into flames. Three members of the crew escaped through the pilot's escape hatch, whilst the rear gunner, who was badly injured but had managed to free himself from his turret, was assisted by Sergeant Hosford to get clear of the aircraft. The bombs on the aircraft began to explode but, despite the great danger, Sergeant Hosford returned to the blazing wreckage for the wireless operator, who was lying seriously injured close to it and dragged him to a nearby vehicle. The vehicle was badly damaged and, although Sergeant Hosford had not driven before, he succeeded in driving the vehicle away from the danger area. During the whole of this time enemy aircraft were overhead bombing and machine gunning the blazing aircraft. Afterwards to enable our bombers to land when returning from operations, Sergeant Hosford helped to re-lay a flare path, which he manned for the rest of the night. He displayed courage and devotion to duty of a very high standard and undoubtedly
saved two lives. |