Pilot Officer RAYMOND MAYHEW LEWIN

The following details are given in the London Gazette of March 11th, 1941: ln November 1940 Sergeant Lewin was the captain of an aircraft which began to sink shortly after taking off on a bombing mission. It crashed into a hillside and burst into flames. Sergeant Lewin and three of his crew of four got free, but the second pilot was trapped. Despite a cracked kneecap and severe contusions on the face and legs, the Sergeant crawled under the blazing wing, in which full petrol tanks were burning, and dragged and carried the pilot to a hole in the ground some 40 yards from the aircraft, where he lay on him just as the bombs exploded. This superbly gallant deed was performed in the dark under most difficult conditions, and in the certain knowledge that the bombs and petrol tanks would explode.