Post by David Cochrane on Dec 20, 2015 14:01:35 GMT
While most VCs of the Second World War were announced within a pretty short time after the action (median time is 3 months), twenty of them took more than eleven months; most involved all of the witnesses being captured, but some were for other reasons.
Here are all twenty, in order of how long the award took to be made:
Lt Furness (2,085 days)
Lt-Cdr Roope (1,919 days)
Lt Cairns (1,889 days) - original recommendation lost & original witnesses died before a new one could be made
Lt Wilkinson (1,767 days) - not only were all the witnesses captured, but afterwards he was originally Mentioned in Despatches; it was then upgraded
S/L Scarf (1,655 days)
Sgt Leakey (1,641 days)
CSM Osborn (1,565 days)
H/Capt Foote (1,275 days)
Sgt Durrant (1,179 days)
Lt-Col Newman (1,179 days)
Capt Upham (1,169 days)
S/L Trent (1,033 days)
P/O Mynarski (850 days) - F/O Brophy wasn't captured, but spent the rest of the War in France with the Resistance
Lt-Col Foote (703 days)
Sgt Jackson (547 days)
F/L Lord (420 days)
S/L Bazalgette (378 days)
Gdsm Charlton (376 days)
CSM Wright (348 days) - originally awarded a DCM, but later upgraded
F/O Campbell (341 days)
Of interest are the VCs to (Capt) Foote, Lord, Charlton & Campbell. All of them had witnesses readily available for the first parts of their actions, but not for the end (they had either been captured, or in the case of Gdsm Charlton they were all Germans). This made me think of the book Road of Bones, detailing the Kohima-Imphal campaign, that described the actions of Capt John Young, who tried to fend off a Japanese assault on his own - however, because his final battle had no witnesses other than the Japanese themselves, he wasn't recommended for the VC. Gdsm Charlton, on the other hand, did receive it because his foes eventually described what happened to the British. The details of the end of F/O Campbell's attack run were supplied by Resistance fighters in Brest, as the rest of the Beaufort pilots only saw the beginning of his run in.
This, I suppose, all ties in to ACM Dowding's reply to F/L Nicolson on why he'd been the only Fighter Command VC - if you're flying a single-seat aircraft, it's very hard to get any witnesses to what you've done (or at least, that can describe it in enough detail).
The flipside of all of this is the number of VCs awarded very quickly - after less than a month - of which there were thirteen. Most of these could be said to be awards of good propaganda value, generally featuring a raid or battle with a lot of public prominence.
F/O Garland (30 days) - Maastricht bridge raid
Sgt Gray (30 days) - Maastricht bridge raid
Sgt Ward (28 days)
Lt-Col Turner (24 days) - Second El Alamein
Lt-Col Anderson (22 days) - retreat to Singapore
Lt-Cdr Esmonde (19 days) - Channel Dash
W/C Edwards (18 days) - Bremen raid
Capt Fegen (17 days) - Jervis Bay
Sgt Hannah (15 days)
Capt Sherbrooke (12 days) - Barents Sea
S/L Nettleton (11 days) - Augsburg raid
W/C Gibson (11 days) - Dams raid
F/L Learoyd (7 days) - Dortmund-Ems raid
Lt-Cols Turner & Anderson weren't the only VCs of their respective battles/campaigns, but each one participated in a rather spectacular action that probably received a certain amount of fame on its own.
As for the two remaining Air Force awards, this involves more supposition: Sgt Ward was the first RNZAF recipient, which may have sped things along (just as Lt-Col Anderson being Australian may have helped his recommendation move a bit faster) - 'recognize those Colonials to show we appreciate them!', and all that. None of the NZ VCs awarded for Crete had actually been announced yet, so Sgt Ward was actually the first New Zealander to receive the VC.
Sgt Hannah's mission was part of the so-called 'Battle of the Barges,' the Bomber Command effort to destroy German landing craft that ran parallel to the Battle of Britain. Highlighting this work, which received less publicity than Fighter Command's work, would perhaps be one reason; another would be Sgt Hannah's age: he was not just the youngest-ever Air Force VC, but the youngest VC of the entire War.
Another point to be made is that almost all of these quick awards were made in the first half of the War, when an Allied defeat frequently seemed likely - and when the propaganda machines would consequently give a lot of pumping-up to a specific action. Later in the War, when the European & Italian campaigns were in full swing, the news tended to focus on the overall picture (which was good news at last).
This is not to suggest that these quick awards were only made for (or because of) propaganda purposes, but one would have to say that the publicity factor surrounding all of them was a pretty big one. Even today, the names of those men are probably better-known than most VCs.
Here are all twenty, in order of how long the award took to be made:
Lt Furness (2,085 days)
Lt-Cdr Roope (1,919 days)
Lt Cairns (1,889 days) - original recommendation lost & original witnesses died before a new one could be made
Lt Wilkinson (1,767 days) - not only were all the witnesses captured, but afterwards he was originally Mentioned in Despatches; it was then upgraded
S/L Scarf (1,655 days)
Sgt Leakey (1,641 days)
CSM Osborn (1,565 days)
H/Capt Foote (1,275 days)
Sgt Durrant (1,179 days)
Lt-Col Newman (1,179 days)
Capt Upham (1,169 days)
S/L Trent (1,033 days)
P/O Mynarski (850 days) - F/O Brophy wasn't captured, but spent the rest of the War in France with the Resistance
Lt-Col Foote (703 days)
Sgt Jackson (547 days)
F/L Lord (420 days)
S/L Bazalgette (378 days)
Gdsm Charlton (376 days)
CSM Wright (348 days) - originally awarded a DCM, but later upgraded
F/O Campbell (341 days)
Of interest are the VCs to (Capt) Foote, Lord, Charlton & Campbell. All of them had witnesses readily available for the first parts of their actions, but not for the end (they had either been captured, or in the case of Gdsm Charlton they were all Germans). This made me think of the book Road of Bones, detailing the Kohima-Imphal campaign, that described the actions of Capt John Young, who tried to fend off a Japanese assault on his own - however, because his final battle had no witnesses other than the Japanese themselves, he wasn't recommended for the VC. Gdsm Charlton, on the other hand, did receive it because his foes eventually described what happened to the British. The details of the end of F/O Campbell's attack run were supplied by Resistance fighters in Brest, as the rest of the Beaufort pilots only saw the beginning of his run in.
This, I suppose, all ties in to ACM Dowding's reply to F/L Nicolson on why he'd been the only Fighter Command VC - if you're flying a single-seat aircraft, it's very hard to get any witnesses to what you've done (or at least, that can describe it in enough detail).
The flipside of all of this is the number of VCs awarded very quickly - after less than a month - of which there were thirteen. Most of these could be said to be awards of good propaganda value, generally featuring a raid or battle with a lot of public prominence.
F/O Garland (30 days) - Maastricht bridge raid
Sgt Gray (30 days) - Maastricht bridge raid
Sgt Ward (28 days)
Lt-Col Turner (24 days) - Second El Alamein
Lt-Col Anderson (22 days) - retreat to Singapore
Lt-Cdr Esmonde (19 days) - Channel Dash
W/C Edwards (18 days) - Bremen raid
Capt Fegen (17 days) - Jervis Bay
Sgt Hannah (15 days)
Capt Sherbrooke (12 days) - Barents Sea
S/L Nettleton (11 days) - Augsburg raid
W/C Gibson (11 days) - Dams raid
F/L Learoyd (7 days) - Dortmund-Ems raid
Lt-Cols Turner & Anderson weren't the only VCs of their respective battles/campaigns, but each one participated in a rather spectacular action that probably received a certain amount of fame on its own.
As for the two remaining Air Force awards, this involves more supposition: Sgt Ward was the first RNZAF recipient, which may have sped things along (just as Lt-Col Anderson being Australian may have helped his recommendation move a bit faster) - 'recognize those Colonials to show we appreciate them!', and all that. None of the NZ VCs awarded for Crete had actually been announced yet, so Sgt Ward was actually the first New Zealander to receive the VC.
Sgt Hannah's mission was part of the so-called 'Battle of the Barges,' the Bomber Command effort to destroy German landing craft that ran parallel to the Battle of Britain. Highlighting this work, which received less publicity than Fighter Command's work, would perhaps be one reason; another would be Sgt Hannah's age: he was not just the youngest-ever Air Force VC, but the youngest VC of the entire War.
Another point to be made is that almost all of these quick awards were made in the first half of the War, when an Allied defeat frequently seemed likely - and when the propaganda machines would consequently give a lot of pumping-up to a specific action. Later in the War, when the European & Italian campaigns were in full swing, the news tended to focus on the overall picture (which was good news at last).
This is not to suggest that these quick awards were only made for (or because of) propaganda purposes, but one would have to say that the publicity factor surrounding all of them was a pretty big one. Even today, the names of those men are probably better-known than most VCs.
