George Ward Gunn
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George Ward Gunn VC MC (26 July 1912- 21 November 1941) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
[edit] Details
He was 29 years old, and a Second Lieutenant in the 3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery, British Army during the Second World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.
On 21 November 1941 at Sidi Rezegh, Libya, an attack by 60 German tanks was countered by four anti-tank guns under the command of Second Lieutenant Gunn. During the engagement this officer drove from gun to gun in an unarmoured vehicle, encouraging his men, and when three of his guns were destroyed and the crew of the fourth, except the sergeant, were all dead or disabled, he took charge of this remaining weapon the portee[1] of which was alight. There was danger of the flames exploding the ammunition with which the portee was loaded, but he managed to fire 50 rounds from the QF 2 pounder gun and set two enemy tanks on fire before he himself was killed by being shot through the head. A memorial to him stands in his old school, Sedbergh, commemorating his brave deeds.
[edit] The medal
His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Royal Artillery Museum (Woolwich, England).
[edit] References
- ^ The carrying vehicle, when a gun was simply loaded up onto the back of a truck and fired from there instead of on the ground it was described as en portee
- John Laffin (1997). British VCs of World War 2.
- David Harvey (1999). Monuments to Courage.
- Nora Buzzell (1997). The Register of the Victoria Cross. This England. ISBN 0-906324-27-0.
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