Alec George Horwood (VC, DCM) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

Details

He was 30 years old, and a Lieutenant in the 1/6th Bn., The Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment , British Army, attd. 1st Bn., The Northamptonshire Regiment during the Second World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.

On 18 January 1944 at Kyauchaw , Burma (now Myanmar), Lieutenant Horwood accompanied a company into action with his forward mortar observation post. Throughout the day he was in an exposed position and under intense fire, but he came back at night with most valuable information about the enemy. On 19 January he moved forward and established another observation post, directing accurate mortar fire in support of two attacks, and also carrying out personal reconnaissance, deliberately drawing the enemy fire so that their position could be definitely located. On 20 January he volunteered to lead the attack and while doing so was mortally wounded.

Further information

From The Times, 16 June 1997:

Heroic histories go under the hammer

John Vincent recounts the tales of courage and self-sacrifice behind the auction of three VCs

A PIONEER pilot, his leg smashed by enemy gunfire, manages a wave and a faint smile as he is carried away on a stretcher after being cut from his wrecked plane.

His bravado for the photographer masked a feat of the greatest heroism, and created one of the most memorable images of the First World War. Captain Aidan Liddell died of his wounds a month later. But his 30-minute flight and faultless landing after his RE5 was attacked by a German biplane over Belgium in 1915 earned him a Victoria Cross.

Now his medal, with posthumous awards to two heroes of the Second World War, are to be sold at auction. One was to Lieutenant Alec Horwood, whose three-day assault on Japanese strongholds in Burma ended in victory, but at the expense of his life. The other was to Flight Lieutenant David "Lumme" Lord. Over Arnhem in 1944 he remained at the controls of his burning Dakota in an effort to save his crew, completing two supply drops before ordering his men to bale out seconds before the aircraft broke up.

Captain Liddell's VC and other medals, including a Military Cross awarded for his bravery with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders during the bloody trench warfare of late 1914, are expected to fetch up to £100,000 at Spink & Son in London on July 17. A similiar price is expected for "Lumme" Lord's VC and other awards, including a DFC for his work in the Western Desert, where his slow, virtually unarmed Dakota was shot down by two Me.109s, and in Burma, where he flew numerous unescorted missions in support of Orde Wingate's Chindits. Lieutenant Horwood's VC and his DCM, for escaping from captivity near Antwerp in 1940, should fetch up to £80,000.

The heroics of Captain "Oozy" Liddell, so nicknamed by fellow pupils at Stonyhurst College because he was "always messing about with chemicals or engines", followed a routine patrol over Ostend, Bruges and Ghent on July 31, 1915, when a burst of fire ripped through the rear cockpit and smashed into his right thigh, exposing the bone. The impact and shock rendered him unconscious. His RE5 lurched forward and rolled on to its back.

After plunging 3,000ft, Captain Liddell regained consciousness and instinctively righted the plane despite half the controls being shot away and the undercarriage damaged. Declining the choice of a forced landing behind enemy lines and quick medical attention, he decided to make for Allied lines and freedom.

Lieutenant Horwood's VC, the first to be awarded on the Burma front, came when he was attached to the 1st Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment, at Kyauchaw between January 18 and 20, 1944. According to the official citation, he led his last attack "with such calm, resolute bravery that the enemy was reached and, while standing up in the wire, directing and leading the men with complete disregard to the enemy fire which was then at point-blank range, he was mortally wounded". His combination of VC and DCM is unique to the British Army.

Flight Lieutentant Lord's VC was for "supreme valour" over Arnhem on September 19, 1944. His Dakota was twice hit when three minutes from the dropping zone but he carried on regardless. But two containers remained on board and, mindful of how important they might be to the 1st Airborne and Operation Market Garden, he rejoined the supply aircraft for a second run, aware that the collapse of his starboard wing was imminent.

In the Spink militaria sale the above three Victoria Crosses fetched a total of £304,750. from The Times, 18 July 1997

The medal

please update if you know where his medal is publicly displayed

Reference

• British VCs of World War 2 (John Laffin, 1997)
• Monuments To Courage (David Harvey, 1999)
• The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)
• Frank Cassidy

See also

External links

This page has been migrated from the Victoria Cross Reference with permission.