2RHPZ
11-04-2005, 06:10 AM
Pilot who 'saved Palace' honoured
A wartime fighter pilot who saved Buckingham Palace when he rammed a German bomber is being honoured.
Sergeant Ray Holmes, who died earlier this year at 90 in Wirral, rammed his plane into the bomber when he found he had run out of ammunition.
His former squadron will be presented with a model of the Hurricane made from its melted-down engine on Wednesday.
Sgt Holmes's widow Anne will attend the ceremony at the 504 Squadron base at RAF Cottesmore in Rutland.
The airman managed to survive by parachuting out of his plane after crashing into the tail of the German Dornier aircraft in September 1940, during the Battle of Britain.
The German plane spiralled into the forecourt of Victoria Station.
Air Vice-Marshal Barry Newton, Honorary Inspector-General of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, said: "Sgt Holmes deserves the highest praise for his courage and determination.
"He was one of our heroes, in the finest traditions of the Auxiliary Air Force.
BBC News (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/4398484.stm)
A wartime fighter pilot who saved Buckingham Palace when he rammed a German bomber is being honoured.
Sergeant Ray Holmes, who died earlier this year at 90 in Wirral, rammed his plane into the bomber when he found he had run out of ammunition.
His former squadron will be presented with a model of the Hurricane made from its melted-down engine on Wednesday.
Sgt Holmes's widow Anne will attend the ceremony at the 504 Squadron base at RAF Cottesmore in Rutland.
The airman managed to survive by parachuting out of his plane after crashing into the tail of the German Dornier aircraft in September 1940, during the Battle of Britain.
The German plane spiralled into the forecourt of Victoria Station.
Air Vice-Marshal Barry Newton, Honorary Inspector-General of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, said: "Sgt Holmes deserves the highest praise for his courage and determination.
"He was one of our heroes, in the finest traditions of the Auxiliary Air Force.
BBC News (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/4398484.stm)