Gold Assault Area Raf Flight Commander Medical May 2026

His most dangerous extraction came at 16:20, when he landed to retrieve a soldier with a sucking chest wound. A German sniper hidden in a seawall had been tracking the Auster. As the wounded man was loaded, a bullet tore through the cockpit canopy, missing Halewell’s head by inches. He banked hard, climbed in a corkscrew pattern, and made it to altitude without further damage. By nightfall on D-Day, the Gold Assault Area was secure, but at a cost: over 400 British casualties, including 100 killed. Flight Commander Halewell’s actions that day resulted in the saving of 15 lives (two of his evacuees died en route). For his “conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty while repeatedly landing under fire in an unarmed aircraft,” he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) – gazetted on 27 July 1944.

His Auster, loaded with two litters and a medical kit, touched down at 10:27. Small arms fire pinged off the beach stones. Ground crew rushed to secure the aircraft while Halewell kept the engine running – a standard procedure known as “combat loading.” Four stretcher cases were loaded: a Royal Engineer with a shattered femur, two infantrymen with abdominal wounds, and a young lieutenant with a traumatic amputation of the right arm. gold assault area raf flight commander medical

The medical orderly, Corporal Thomas Rudge, shouted over the din: “Go, sir! We’ll cover you!” His most dangerous extraction came at 16:20, when

By Historical Aviation Correspondent