Flight Sergeant George Thomson
     
   
   
    Flight Sergeant George Thomson, RAFVR VC
20 February 1945
www-saw.arts.ed.ac.uk/raf/vc.html
b. 23 October 1920 Borestone Cottage, Trinity Gask, Perthshire. Educated Portmoak Primary School and
Kinross High School. Apprenticed grocer in Kinross. On the outbreak of war joined the Local Defence
Volunteers. Joined the RAF in January 1941 as a ground crew wireless operator and served in Iraq. He
volunteered for aircrew and joined Bomber Command flying in Lancasters out of Bardney in Lincolnshire.

Early in the morning on 1 January 1945 George Thomson set out as part of the crew of Lancaster PD 377U with
1,000 bombs on board to attack the Dortmund-Ems Canal. Having dropped the bomb load over the target the
Lancaster was hit by flak. The hydraulic lines were fractured, the bomb doors were fixed open and fire broke
out. Seeing the danger that the two gunners were in at the rear of the aircraft George Thomson went to their
rescue crossing and re- crossing the gaping hole of the open bomb doors without the safety of a parachute and
with his clothing on fire. He rescued the dorsel turret gunner and the rear turret gunner beating out the flames
with his bare hands. Eventually the damaged aircraft crash landed near the village of Heesh.

Very badly burnt, George Thomson died of his injuries three weeks later.

    
    Kinross Museum
108-110 High Street
Kinross
KY13 7DA
   
     
   

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