Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Rank:

Agricultural Worker

Awarded on:

June 28th, 1940

Citation:
"Gerald Winter, Agricultural Labourer, East Sussex Agricultural Committee. One morning in March last, an aircraft of the Royal Air Force crossed the English coast East of Shoreham, disappeared into cloud over the hills North of Brighton and, still in cloud, crashed on a hill-top known as Jeffries Point, Portslade. The crash was witnessed by three men who were working in a field a few yards from where the aircraft first touched the ground. Winter was one of these men. It caught fire on impact and travelled for a distance of 300 yards coming to rest in a gorse bush on the side of the hill. The grass and gorse caught fire from the point where it first struck the ground to the point where it finally came to rest.
Winter immediately ran to the scene, and was informed by Corporal Lapwood, one of the crew who had managed to extricate himself from the wreckage, that there were still men inside. Winter immediately extricated A.C.I Oultram. He then climbed into the gun turret in an endeavour to locate the remainder of the crew. He saw two figures at -the front of the machine beyond his reach. Climbing from the turret he tried with great gallantry to approach the nose of the aircraft but was unable to do so owing to the explosion of the ammunition and the intense heat of the flames. Moreover, the gorse plantation in the middle of which the aircraft had come to rest was also on fire."