VE Day: 90th anniversary

As Exmouth celebrates the year that brought peace to Europe, Matt Smith recalls two heroes of the town who were awarded the Victoria Cross for their gallantry

• DERRING DO: reginald Warneford, Exmouth's real-life Indiana Jones.

The fearless pilot who took on a zeppelin
with a revolver

THIS year marks the 90th anniversary of the day a daring young Exmouth pilot destroyed a German zeppelin ship and turned the course of World War One in Britain’s favour.

Sub-Lieutenant Reginald Warneford, 23, was awarded the Victoria Cross for outstanding valour when, like some real-life Indiana Jones, he single-handedly took on the pride of the German war machine.

In 1915 the First World War had been raging for a year. Britain had suffered a series of demoralising defeats and then, in May, German zeppelin airships began bombing London.

The capital was unprepared and unable to stop these silent assassins. Radar and anti-aircraft guns were yet to be invented. And the fledgling British air force could rarely reach the high-altitude airships. There appeared no way to stop the enemy crippling London.

Sub-Lieut Warneford was born on October 15, 1891, in Darjeeling in the foothills of the Himalayas, where his parents were in the colonial service.
By the start of the war his mother had moved back to Exmouth. She was living at 2 Morton Road when her son joined the Royal Naval Air Service - the forerunner of the Navy’s Fleet Air Arm.

Warneford had completed a dozen solo flights when, on June 7, 1915, he was ordered to a join a four-plane midnight attack on the zeppelin sheds in occupied Belgium.

He was flying a single-seater Morane Parasol, armed with just a carbine gun and primitive bomb rack bolted to the fuselage. Warneford had never flown in the dark before and quickly lost his fellow pilots. Alone, he chanced upon an LZ-37 airship cruising at 7,000ft and kept airborne by 953,000 cubic feet of highly flammable hydrogen.

The 521ft ship boasted a 28-man crew and was protected by four-machine gun posts along its sides.

Warneford fired off a few rounds from his service revolver before the German gunners strafed his wings.

He tried another few attacks, firing the carbine gun to little effect while the juggernaut airship gave chase.

Warneford’s foe then soared to 11,000ft, and he tried in vain to climb above the airship.

Then the zeppelin made a fatal mistake. It dropped back to 7,000ft to find a gap in the clouds.

Warneford manoeuvred his plane so that it was 200ft above the zeppelin.
He dropped his bombs and a gigantic explosion ripped through the airship. Warneford’s plane was enveloped in flames as chunks of burning metal exploded all around.

The ship crashed to the ground, killing all but one of its crew. Warneford’s plane spluttered out of control and he crash-landed 35 miles inside German lines.

Warneford discovered that only his fuel line was broken. He fixed this with a cigarette holder and took off for home.

By the time he returned to base at 10.30am the next day, his exploits were being celebrated across the Empire. George V awarded him the Victoria Cross that day, while France followed up with its Legion of Honour.

But Warneford was to enjoy his fame for only 10 more days. He travelled to Paris to receive the French accolade and was to return to base in a new biplane yet to be fitted with safety belts.

Immediately after take off, the plane inexplicably bucked and he was thrown out in mid-air and killed.

Warneford was buried at London’s Brompton Cemetery. His VC is on display at the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton.

• AUDACIOUS RAID: Richard Sandford.

Richard blew up a German U-boat pen and escaped in a rowing boat

EXMOUTH-BORN Lieutenant Richard Sandford was awarded the Victoria Cross for his part in an audacious raid on the German U-boat pens at Zeebrugge, Belgium, on April 23, 1918.

The attack was one of the final significant acts of the First World War and helped to secure the safety of British shipping, bringing desperately needed supplies to the country.

Lieut Sandford was born on May 11, 1891. He was educated at Clifton College and joined the Royal Naval Submarine Service on the outbreak of war in 1914.

His expertise saw him command the night-time attack on the U-boat base, which aimed to blow up the viaduct between the mole and the mainland to block the port and stop the German craft getting out to sea.

As Sandford approached his target, he did not trust his submarine’s steering system and so partially surfaced to steer it into position by hand.

He rammed the explosive-laden submarine into the mole. German soldiers raked the craft with bullets as Sandford and his crew escaped into a skiff and began rowing off towards the open sea, while still under fire.

Minutes later the submarine exploded, destroying the viaduct and trapping the U-boats. Sandford was injured and was taken back to England to recover. He was awarded the VC, but contracted typhoid and died on November 23, 1918. His medal is now on display at Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth.

Story of the VC - medal for the common man

• FOR VALOUR: Reg Warneford’s clutch of medals, including the Victoria Cross, bottom.

THE Victoria Cross was born amid the carnage of the Crimean War.
This conflict was the first to be covered by regular correspondents who were at last able to report the courage and endurance of the ordinary British soldier.

At the time, the highest honour for a British solider was the Order of the Bath, but this was awarded only to senior officers.

In 1855 the Secretary of State for War, the Duke of Newcastle, wrote to Prince Albert suggesting “a new decoration open to all ranks”.

The prince and Queen Victoria enthusiastically backed the scheme. Victoria insisted the medal’s inscription should be “for valour”, rather than “for bravery”, in case people thought the only brave men in battle were those who won the cross.

It was decided to cast the medals from the bronze cascabels of two cannons of Chinese origin that were captured from Russians at the siege of Sevastopol, Crimea.

On June 26, 1857, a grand parade was held in Hyde Park and Queen Victoria presented 62 soldiers with the Victoria Cross.

To date, 1,355 Victoria Crosses have been awarded.

It can be presented to any member of British and Commonwealth armed forces. The largest number awarded in a single action was 11 at Rorke's Drift on January 22, 1879, which was immortalised in the film Zulu.

Since the end of the Second World War, the VC has been awarded only 12 times.

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