At thirteen minutes after midnight, Lancaster KB726 VRA, from RAF Middleton St George, was caught in searchlights as it crossed the French coast, and three bullets from a Junkers fighter ripped into its port engines, setting fire to its fuselage. As it spiralled down to 1,300ft, the pilot, Art de Breyne, ordered his five-man Canadian crew to bail out. They were on their thirteenth mission together. The mid-upper gunner, Pilot Officer Andrew Mynarski, was about to jump when he noticed through the flames that rear gunner Flying Officer Pat Brophy was stuck in his glass turret. Mynarski turned, crawled through the flames and, as his flying suit ignited, made desperate attempts to break the dome and set his condemned friend free.
It was impossible. Brophy desperately gesticulated for Mynarski to save himself and, fully alight, the 27-year-old saluted and jumped. It was too late – his parachute didn’t have time to open and Mynarski died on the ground of his injuries and burns.
Miraculously, as the Lancaster bomber ploughed into trees, the mechanism on Brophy’s turret released, catapulting him into the air. He survived, with barely a scratch.
Two years later, Mynarski was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross – only the second Canadian airman to receive the award, and one of the very few to win it on the uncorroborated account of a single witness.
(‘Memories’, The Northern Echo, 2005)