THE RAF’s most decorated wartime gunner has died at 87, it was announced yesterday. Flying Officer Wallace McIntosh flew 55 deadly missions as a rear gunner in Lancaster bombers and downed eight Nazi fighters. He won the Distinguished Flying Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross twice and was one of only three men to get a congratulatory telegram from bomber commander Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris. His greatest feat came exactly 63 years ago, on June 7 1944, when he shot down THREE enemy planes on a raid to help troops advancing after D-Day. RAF spokesman Michael Mulford said: “When the nation needed heroes he didn’t let us down. Anyone who flew in Lancasters knew the odds were against them.” Scots-born Wallace flew from Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire with 207 Squadron, which lost 1,007 aircrew. In a 2003 book Gunning For The Enemy he said he joined the RAF to escape poverty as a farmhand. He died of lung cancer at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and is survived by three children.
Aye, another sad loss to a diminishing group of one offs ... R.I.P Flying Officer Wallace McIntosh ...
Yes RIP. I'm guessing that "Lancaster rear gunner" was not a job people would queue up for. I think they were especially brave and this chap did it with amazing skill and results.
Rear gunner What a sad loss. A very brave man. Can you imagine the guts it took to squeeze into that rear turret time after time? I looked into the rear turret in a real Lancaster at RAF Connigsby ( One of only two left in the world) The turret was cramped to say the least! A very lonely part of the aircraft to be in, and so very vunerable. Yes very brave men flew those bombers.
And the thing is that the veterans are now getting fewer & fewer. Quite how they managed to the the job knowing how much the odds were against them is incredible when you think about it in today's terms ...