Norman Cyril Jackson VC (8 April 1919 – 26 March 1994) was a sergeant in the Royal Air Force (RAF) who earned the Victoria Cross during a Second World War bombing raid on Schweinfurt, Germany in April 1944.

Early life

Born in Ealing, Middlesex, Jackson was adopted as a one-week-old baby by Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Gunter. The Gunters also adopted Geoffrey Oliver Hartley, who in 1951 was awarded the George Medal as a Federation of Malaya police lieutenant for protecting his party, which included three children, from bandits. Upon this occasion, Mrs. Gunter said, "We adopted two of the finest sons any parents could wish for."

Jackson qualified as a fitter and turner. Although he was married and in a reserved occupation at the outbreak of the Second World War, he enlisted in the RAF.

Military career

He joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve in 1939 and originally served as a Classified Fitter IIE (engines).

Lancaster (ME669) crew

  • Pilot – Flying Officer Frederick Manuel Mifflin – killed in action on April 27, 1944.
  • Navigator (N) – Flight Sergeant Frank Lewis Higgins – imprisoned in Stalag 357 Kopernikus prisoner-of-war camp.
  • Bomb Aimer (B) – Flight Sergeant Maurice Harry Toft – imprisoned in Stalag 357 Kopernikus prisoner-of-war camp.
  • Wireless Operator/Air Gunner (WOP/AG) – Flight Sergeant Ernest "Sandy" Sandelands – imprisoned in Stalag 357 Kopernikus prisoner-of-war camp.
  • Air Gunner (AG) – Flight Sergeant Walter "Smudger" Smith – imprisoned in Stalag 357 Kopernikus prisoner-of-war camp.
  • Air Gunner (AG) – Flight Sergeant Norman Hugh Johnson – killed in action on April 27, 1944.

Victoria Cross citation

Extract from Fourth Supplement, The London Gazette No 37324 of Friday 26 October 1945:

Postwar and personal life

After the war, he worked as a travelling salesman of Haig whisky.

He and his wife Alma had seven children. Jackson died on 26 March 1994 at Hampton Hill, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, and is buried in Twickenham Cemetery.

Legacy

right|thumb|The Norman Jackson Centre in [[Hampton Hill was named after him.]]

In April 2004, Jackson's VC medal was sold at auction to Lord Ashcroft for £235,250 (GBP) against a pre-auction estimate of £130,000. His family were upset because the medal went to a private bidder rather than the RAF museum at Hendon. They had planned to give their father's medals to the museum, but found they could not do so under the terms of their mother's will and the museum was outbid.

Norman Jackson's son appeared in the episode on his father's crew in Lord Ashcroft's documentary series Heroes of the Skies (broadcast on Channel Five on 4 October 2012), as well as the Discovery Channel's Air Aces (premiering October 2013), and Air Aces:Full Throttle (premiering 17 March 2014).

On Nov. 16 2024, the YouTube channel "Yarnhub" published an animated dramatization of this spectacular flight.

See also

  • James Allen Ward, a bomber pilot who was awarded the Victoria Cross for climbing out of his flying bomber to put out a wing fire

Notes

References

Sources

  • British VCs of World War 2 (John Laffin, 1997)
  • Monuments To Courage (David Harvey, 1999)
  • The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)
  • Bravest of the Brave (John Glanfield, 2005)
  • Burial location of Norman Jackson "Middlesex"
  • News item "Norman Jackson's Victoria Cross sold at auction"
  • Norman Jackson