Nice tribute to a war hero

War hero honoured in France
Updated 1 hour ago

DAN McCAFFERY

The Observer

A Sarnia man who was involved in one of the most dramatic episodes of the Second World War was honoured in France recently.

The family of the late Ron Hayes gathered for the emotional event, which came 65 years after Hayes’ Lancaster bomber burst into flames and plunged out of the night sky over the historic French town of Saint-Hippolyte.

Hayes was a mid-upper gunner aboard the doomed aircraft , which moments earlier had been critically damaged by a marauding German night fighter.

The Lancaster’s pilot, Jim Watson of Hamilton, Ont., held the burning machine steady on that April 28, 1944 evening while his six crewman, including Hayes, bailed out.

Hayes landed safely in a tree and spent the next 12 months in a prisoner-of-war camp.

But Watson, in a bid to make sure the bomb-laden plane didn’t crash into the town, stayed with the Lancaster, trying to crash-land it in a vacant field. Sadly, the crippled bomber exploded on impact and the gallant pilot was killed.

In 2009 the town decided to honour Watson and his crewmen with the unveiling of a monument honouring their courage. Invitations were sent to surviving members of the crew, as well as to family members of all seven of the airmen involved in the tragic event.

Doris Hayes, who met Ron at a dance at Kenwick Terrace in 1951, was on hand along with four other members of her family, including sons Steven and Mike.

The mayor of the town, Claude Huber, made Doris an honourary citizen of Saint-Hippolyte.

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“People told us they saw the plane going down in flames,” she recalled. “They were really great to us and took us around and showed us things. It was emotional.”

Steven Hayes said the trip gave him a renewed appreciation for his father’s valour. “I can just imagine jumping out of a plane at night in blackout conditions,” he said. “You don’t even know if you’re over water.”

For Ron Hayes, that unforgettable day was hardly his first brush with danger. Five years earlier, as a 15-year-old, he was among those who manned the hundreds of small boats that were used to pluck the British army off the beaches of Dunkirk during the legendary evacuation of France in May 1940.

A year later, as a member of the merchant marine, he was at Pearl Harbor just a week before it was bombed by the Japanese.

After enlisting in the airforce, he joined Watson’s crew and was on his 17th raid over enemy territory when he was shot down.

Hayes, a native of Liverpool, England, came to Canada after the war.

He never forgot his crewmates. In fact, he went to Hamilton to visit Watson’s family and even lobbied in an unsuccessful bid to get his deceased skipper the Victoria Cross, the British Commonwealth’s highest gallantry award.

Hayes, who was the father of three and the grandfather of five, died in 1992.