DickMcMahon 0 #1 April 30, 2004 LONDON (Reuters) - It was April 1944 when flight engineer Norman Jackson clipped on his parachute, grabbed an extinguisher and crawled out onto the wing of his Lancaster bomber flying through the night at 20,000 feet to put out a fire. Still under attack from a German fighter after a bombing raid on the town of Schweinfurt, the 25-year-old sergeant's parachute partially opened, caught fire and dragged the badly burned man from the wing into the 200 miles an hour slipstream. He tumbled to earth, breaking his ankle, was captured and spend 10 months in hospital before being transferred to a prisoner of war camp. For his extreme courage, King George VI presented Jackson with the Victoria Cross, Britain's top military medal in 1945. Sixty years after his act of bravery, his children reluctantly put the medal up for sale through auction house Spink, where it sold on Friday for a record 235,250 pounds. ($417,110) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
