Alan Arnett McLeod

Lieutenant Alan Arnett McLeod VC (20 April 1899 – 6 November 1918) was a Canadian pilot who served with the Royal Flying Corps and, later, the Royal Air Force during the First World War. He was the youngest Canadian airman to receive the Victoria Cross during the war.

McLeod was born in Stonewall, Manitoba. In 1913, at the age of fourteen, he joined the 34th Fort Garry Horse, a Canadian militia unit, but was discharged when his true age was discovered. After turning eighteen, he entered the Cadet Wing of the Royal Flying Corps in Toronto in April 1917. He completed his pilot training at Long Branch and received his flying badge in July. In August, he sailed for England aboard the SS *Metagama*.

Because pilots under the age of nineteen were not normally permitted to serve in combat in France, McLeod was initially posted to No. 51 Squadron at Marham, Norfolk. He flew Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2b night fighters on home-defence patrols over London. On 29 November 1917, he was transferred to No. 2 Squadron at Hesdigneul-lès-Béthune in France, where he flew the Armstrong Whitworth F.K.8. His duties included photographic reconnaissance, artillery observation and bombing missions.

On 14 January 1918, while flying near Bauvin with Lieutenant Reginald Key as his observer, McLeod attacked a German observation balloon and destroyed it. He then manoeuvred his aircraft so that Key could engage an attacking Albatros fighter and shoot it down. McLeod was subsequently mentioned in dispatches.

McLeod's most notable action came on 27 March 1918, during the German Spring Offensive. He and Lieutenant Arthur William Hammond MC were flying a bombing mission against German troops near Bray-sur-Somme, close to Albert, when eight Fokker Dr.I triplanes attacked their F.K.8 at about 5,000 feet.

McLeod manoeuvred the aircraft to give Hammond the best possible opportunity to fire at the attacking aircraft. Hammond shot down three of the triplanes, but McLeod was hit five times. An incendiary bullet then struck the fuel tank and set the aircraft on fire.

The cockpit floor began to burn away. McLeod climbed onto the left lower wing root and reached back into the cockpit to operate the controls. By putting the aircraft into a steep sideslip, he kept the flames away from Hammond and let him keep firing. The burning aircraft eventually came down in No Man's Land.

Hammond had been wounded six times and could not crawl away from the wreckage. Despite his own wounds and severe burns, McLeod pulled Hammond from the burning aircraft while German mortar and machine-gun fire continued around them. An artillery fragment struck McLeod and caused another wound, but he continued dragging Hammond towards an Allied trench. He collapsed from blood loss only after getting Hammond to relative safety.

The Victoria Cross citation, published in the *London Gazette* on 30 April 1918, described McLeod's actions:

"While flying with his observer, Lieutenant A.W. Hammond, M.C., attacking hostile formations by bombs and machine gun fire, he was assailed at a height of 5,000 feet by eight enemy triplanes which dived at him from all directions, firing from their front guns. By skillful manoeuvering, he enabled his observer to fire bursts at each machine in turn, shooting three of them down, out of control. By this time Lieutenant McLeod had received five wounds and while continuing the engagement a bullet penetrated his petrol tank and set the machine on fire. He then climbed onto the left bottom plane, controlling the machine from the side of the fuselage, and, by sideslipping steeply, kept the flames to one side, enabling the observer to continue firing until the ground was reached. The observer had been wounded six times when the machine crashed in 'No Man's Land', and Lieutenant McLeod, notwithstanding his own wounds, dragged him away from the burning wreckage at great personal risk from heavy machine gun fire from enemy lines. This very gallant pilot was again wounded by a bomb while engaged in this act of rescue, but he persevered until he had placed Lieutenant Hammond in comparative safety, before falling himself from exhaustion and loss of blood."

King George V presented McLeod with the Victoria Cross at Buckingham Palace on 4 September 1918. His father accompanied him at the ceremony. McLeod returned to Winnipeg later that month to recover from his wounds.

His injuries had left him severely weakened, with extensive burns and damage to his lungs. During the influenza pandemic, he contracted Spanish influenza and died at Winnipeg General Hospital on 6 November 1918, aged nineteen. He was buried in Old Kildonan Presbyterian Cemetery in Winnipeg.