SIR – SUNDAY marks 100 years since Second Lieutenant W.B. Rhodes-Moorhouse of No.2 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, was awarded the Victoria Cross. It was the first to be won by an airman. The award was for heroism displayed during a low-level bombing sortie against Courtrai railway station in Belgium.
His successful attack, flying a Royal Aircraft Factory BE2, in the face of heavy ground fire was judged to have been the most important bombing sortie of the war to that point. He managed to drop a 100 lb bomb while flying low enough to be hit by the rifle and machine gun fire of ground troops.
The award was posthumous. Although mortally wounded during the attack, Rhodes-Moorhouse successfully flew his damaged aircraft back to the Royal Flying Corps airfield at Merville, north of Bethune in Northern France, to lodge a full report of the attack before being taken to a Casualty Clearing Station. He died the following day.
Peter J Palmer, Buttermere Road, Bradford
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