I began my title above with a mildly exasperated expletive because it is irritating to a massive egotist like me to acknowledge men, and women, who lived truly courageous lives distinguished by their courage and exemplary hard work. Such a man, I gather from today's Telegraph, was the late Ulric Cross, DSO, DFC, aka, 'The Black Hornet'!
Ulric Cross, on right, meeting Prince Philip in 2009 Credit: Rex
He died some six years ago but according to The Telegraph a mini-budget film has just been released but alas only on limited distribution. That is a great pity because Cross was an extra-ordinary man. During the war he flew as an observer in the famous two-seater Mosquito:
Cross joined the RAF’s 139 Jamaica Squadron. Nicknamed “The Black Hornet” by his comrades, Cross was a squadron commander in Bomber Command’s elite Pathfinder Force. As the navigator for a De Havilland Mosquito, he had one of the most challenging jobs in the RAF: to guide the tiny wooden two-seater hundreds of miles through darkness, flying close to the ground over often heavily defended sites, before dropping a flare to mark a target for the bombers.
He flew 80 missions to Germany, refusing to take a rest, while most officers were moved to a less dangerous posting after 30. His unflappable calm made him an invaluable navigator. “You can’t be trained not to be afraid, but trained to conquer fear,” he once said. “It comes from a belief that what you’re doing is right.”
After the war, by dint of sheer hard work, he qualified as a barrister and then spent most of the rest of his life working for various ex-colonies that had been granted their freedom from Britain. An exceptional man and I salute his memory.
It is hard to conceive of a man putting himself in the sort of harms way that was required from the Mosquito crews in eighty missions.
A good friend of my family was a Spitfire pilot and he and my father [ex-Army] used to have long quiet conversations about their respective service based on mutually shared risk. Ralph only acknowledged one aircraft better than his beloved "Spit" and that was the Mosquito.
Which brings me to an old saying about the Services;
"The Navy has traditions, the Army has customs but the Air Force just have disgusting habits".
Posted by: AussieD | Thursday, 20 June 2019 at 11:24
Ever since I was a 'nipper' I have had a fascination for the Mosquito, not least because the entire airframe was made of wood! Only in Britain . . . !
Posted by: David Duff | Thursday, 20 June 2019 at 11:36