THE GREAT WAR
Cool in a crisis and courageous in the face of mortal danger, pilot Tom Mottershead battled to save his observer’s life in an aeronautical ‘mission impossible’ 102 years ago. Now, as his home town salutes his heroic sacrifice, Steve Snelling charts the remarkable record of the only non-commissioned airman to earn the Victoria Cross during the First World War.
ROYAL FLYING CORPS
The mission was simple enough, in theory. In the context of air operations over the Western Front it might even have been considered routine. A pair of Royal Aircraft Factory FE.2ds – more commonly known as ‘Fees’ or ‘pushers’ – were to leave the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) base at Clairmarais around noon to patrol over one of the most fiercely contested sectors in the Ypres Salient.
In reality, little about the sortie flown by the two crews from 20 Squadron on Sunday, 7 January 1917 would go according to plan.
Indeed, so far as Sergeant Tom Mottershead and his observer Lieutenant Bill Gower were concerned, it very nearly didn’t get off the ground at all. Their original aircraft was unserviceable, but rather than abort the operation they switched to a reserve machine while their companions set off without them.
A hurrie…
