2nd Lt (T/Lt) John Stephen Windsor S.W.B & R.F.C. M.C.

[KIRKY]

HI looking for any information as to the award of this Soldiers M.C. , trying to find where and what for.

Publication date 24/08/2017 London Gazette Supplement 30252 Page 8856.

2^nd Lt (T/Lt) John Stephen Windsor S.W.B & R.F.C.

Supplement to the London Gazette 25/08/2017

Thanks

Tony

 

[charlie962]

Was he with 30 squadron in Mesopotamia ?

 

Casualty form

Edited 4 September , 2019 by charlie962

[charlie962]

Have a look at this link re JS Windsor's efforts. Probably connected to award ?

 

Charlie

 

Edit. Those two extracts come from this history on archive.org, pp 284, 298.

Edited 4 September , 2019 by charlie962

[IPT]

I downloaded the free WO 389 MC register from the NA, but could only find the entry and not the citation.

 

I'm sure someone brainier can do better. They have annotations with date and location, if it's there.

[sadbrewer]

54 minutes ago, charlie962 said:

Have a look at this link re JS Windsor's efforts. Probably connected to award ?

 

Charlie

 

Edit. Those two extracts come from this history on archive.org, pp 284, 298.

Sounds like you were spot on!!

[charlie962]

"In the Clouds Above Baghdad" by Lt Col JE Tennant has several references to Windsor. My copy came from Naval Military Press in one of their offers. A copy is available on archive.org.    Anyway, he is mentioned on pp40,63,96,130 and 141. Good detail on the bombing raid Sept 23rd 1916 and the attempt to blow up the railway 7th March 1917.

 

23/9/16

Raids continued on the Shumran
aerodrome, and Turkish deserters reported that it
came as a great surprise >to them that machines
could fly by night, and that much consternation was
caused thereby. The enemy made " dug-out "
hangars for his machines, and placed dummy
aeroplanes on his aerodrome. He also organised a
system of flares along all routes of possible
approach by our aeroplanes. These flares would
be lit as we passed, and so give warning to the next
station ahead, till his aerodrome took up the tale
and could prepare accordingly. It was not
encouraging to the pilot to watch these flares as
he continued on his way, and wondered what sort
of reception was in store for him.

I think the most notable of these expeditions was
that by Lieut. Hon. J. S. Rodney and Second-
Lieut. J. S. Windsor, who arrived at the Turkish
aerodrome at dawn on September 23rd, and
dropped their bombs from a height of under 100
feet. Lieut. Rodney's attack was practically a
surprise, and he met with little opposition. Second-
Lieut. Windsor had drawn the second place and
started ten minutes later; the enemy were waiting
for him. With a splendid dash he went right down
from the mirk of the dawn into a tornado of rifle
and machine-gun fire, placed his bombs with
accuracy, and got away. It was a glorious bit of
cutting-out work, and on the slow old B.E. the
odds against him were very great. As a result of
this raid, one enemy aeroplane was destroyed
and one badly damaged. Both these officers
received the Military Cross it seems sad that this
decoration was so often given during the war for
mere clerical work far removed from the field of
battle, and entailing no danger whatever; after all,
there is little more the individual can do than offer
his life the reward for those who do it should
surely be kept exclusive.

 

7/3/17

General Maude put forward 'the proposition that
as no doubt the enemy were evacuating their heavy
stores and guns from Baghdad to Samarra by the
railway, the interruption of that line might have
far-reaching results. So on 'the 7th two specially
selected Engineer officers, Captains Cave-Brown
and Farley, with charges of dynamite, left the
ground piloted by Lieuts. Windsor and Morris.
They managed to land within 200 yards of a railway
culvert and kept their engines running. An Arab
village lay about 800 yards away, and as soon as
the R.E. officers got out of the machines Arab
horsemen came galloping down on them. They
bolted half-way to gain the culvert, but seeing that
the game was obviously impossible, and also
realising that their charges were insufficient to
wreck the structure, they turned and ran back to
the aeroplanes under fire from the Arabs. Both
pilots, with their Lewis guns firing, took off straight
into the enemy and got away. It was a near shave
to losing the lot.

 

 

Charlie

 

[KIRKY]

 

Thanks everybody for this information its great and fills some gaps in his history.

Tony

[HarryBrook]

Unfortunately there is no citation. Clicking back to the heading for the awards on page 8852 finds the following:- 

 

His Majesty the KING has been graciously pleased to approve of the undermentioned Rewards for Distinguished Service in the Field in Mesopotamia, dated 3rd June, 1917:-