Rank:

Flight Sergeant

Unit:

RAF Pembroke Dock, Royal Air Force

Awarded on:

June 1st, 1954

On 3rd March, 1954, Flight Sergeant EVANS, an air engineer at Royal Air Force Station, Pembroke Dock, was manning his station in a Sunderland flying 'boat when the aircraft began to "porpoise" violently while taking off. It crashed and was completely submerged. He was partially stunned but, on coming to, he made his way under water towards the Ibows, heading for a patch of light which proved to be the astro hatch. This had been 'broken open in the crash enabling him to get out of the aircraft which, (by this time, had come to the surface again and was floating with the wing awash and the hull almost totally submerged. From the top of the hull, Flight Sergeant EVANS saw two other crew members in the water and! released the wing dinghy for them. Returning to the astro hatch, he saw another member of the crew under water inside the hull. Swinging himself half through the hatch, he caught hold of the injured and semi-conscious navigator and, with considerable difficulty, he dragged him out. He inflated his life jacket, wrapped his uninjured arm round the aerial king post and propped him there in comparative safety. By now, air was hissing and bubbling out of the wreck as it was settling fast. After shouting to a fisherman's boat which had raced to the scene to come alongside, Flight Sergeant EVANS hastened back to the hatch to find another member of the crew floating to the surface inside the hull. By a herculean effort, he succeeded in getting this inert and badly injured signaller through the hatch and in carrying him to the safety of the boat. The signaller was prostrate and was repeatedly washed out of his grasp by waves breaking over the wing but, finally tying round him a life line thrown from the boat as an extra precaution, Flight Sergeant EVANS helped him on board. The navigator had recovered sufficiently at this stage to make his own way to the boat, so that, when the aircraft lurched and began to sink rapidly, Flight Sergeant EVANS clambered aboard himself. Two minutes later only the aircraft's fin was to be seen. Flight Sergeant EVANS's outstanding unselfishness and unquestionable courage were amply demonstrated by his utter disregard for his own safety and by his determination to stand by his injured comrades in their need

Furthermore, the assistance given to these two almost helpless men so soon after he had himself escaped from drowning was, in itself, a physical feat of some magnitude. But for Flight Sergeant EVANS's gallantry, the navigator and signaller would undoubtedly have perished with the six other members of the crew who lost their lives."