Telegraph | News | VC for Para Budd, one of the Helmand heroes It seems that a Posthumous Victoria Cross is to be awarded to Cpl Bryan Budd of 3 Para, and a Posthumous George Cross to someone else not named as yet.
Telegraph | News | VC for Para Budd, one of the Helmand heroes It seems that a Posthumous Victoria Cross is to be awarded to Cpl Bryan Budd of 3 Para, and a Posthumous George Cross to someone else not named as yet. RIP Doing it hard in extreme cicumstances.
We now know the George Cross award is to Cpl Mark Wright of 3 Para. He went to the aid of members of his patrol who had been seriously injured in an old Russian minefield (hence GC not VC - "not in the face of the enemy"). He knew he was putting himself in extreme danger by doing so, and sadly after getting them airlifted out was killed by another mine.
a technicality in that his bravery was not " in the face of the enemy" as the medal criteria demands. Not true. Several VC's have been awared under 'Circumstances of extreame danger' such as the VC to Private Timothy O'Hea who, when a train laden with 2,000lbs of explosive caught fire he pulled off the train doors, collected water and suppressed the fire. This was in Canada - The Fenian Raids 1866 (page 108 of Symbol of Courage by Max Arthur)
It may be that at one time the recipient didn't have to be 'in the face of the enemy' but it has been the case at least since the inauguration of the GC. A British soldier was awarded the GC for rescuing some of his comrades under air attack duting the Iraq War in 2003. He would have won the VC had the aircraft been Iraqi but they were actually American. During WW2 Lieutenant Anthony Fasson & Able Seaman Colin Grazier retrieved vital code books from a sinking U boat but drowned after going back for more, possibly the actual Enigma machine. They won the GC rather than the VC because they technically weren't in combat at the time. WW2 bomb disposal experts were generally awarded the GC rather than the VC. http://www.ellsbury.com/ultrafassongrazier.htm
