Victoria Cross rules 'amazingly misread' in denying Blair Mayne gallantry award, says bestselling military historian Damien Lewis

Speaking today (9th), 80 years to the day since Blair Mayne’s daring rescue of a squadron of SAS jeeps trapped by heavy fire on a reconnaissance mission in northern Germany that got him cited for a Victoria Cross, author Damien Lewis suggested that high-ups made a critical error when deciding to downgrade Lt Col Mayne’s award to a third bar on his Distinguished Service Order medal.

As reported on Forces News, Mr Lewis stated the gallantry award’s mandate reads that it should be for a “signal act of valour”, which he defined as “an impressive, unique act of valour”.

Added the respected historian: “Those overseeing the Victoria Cross recommendation amazingly seem to have misread that or misinterpreted it, reached the conclusion, it needed to be a “single act of valour” – as in, a lone act of valour.”

And as Mayne’s daring rescue of his wounded and terrified men saw him repeatedly drive a jeep into the line of Nazi fire while a fellow brave soldier, Lieutenant John Scott, manned a machine gun mounted on the vehicle, Mr Lewis suggests high-ups of the time incorrectly disqualified him from a VC on the basis that a second person was involved.

"Any number of Victoria Crosses could not have been given out for single acts of valour, because [those soldiers] were acting as part of wider units,” said Mr Lewis, citing VCs awarded for the Battle of Rorke’s Drift in 1879 as proof.

“The Victoria Cross is not given for a single act of valour, it’s given for a signal act of valour – and this clearly was a signal and extraordinary act of valour. That inconceivable mistake needs to be corrected. It’s a very simple argument.”

Mr Lewis added that the Mayne campaign isn’t asking modern day people to second-guess the judgement of people in wartime, but instead stating there was “a very simple mistake, of comprehension it appears, and let’s put it right”.

During a debate in the House of Commons yesterday (8th), MP Jim Shannon was able to spur Defence Minister Alistair Carns to launch a probe into the Blair Mayne VC decision.

Speaking to the News Letter in the wake of that debate, Mr Shannon revealed that documents bolstering the case are about to fly in from overseas.

“We have more evidence coming in from Canada,” he said. “Unfortunately we weren’t able to get it here in time for this week’s Commons debate, but I’ll be passing it along to the minister so it can be included in the probe.”

An attempt to address the issue in Westminster 20 years ago came to nothing, with the government of the day refusing to re-examine the case; now, Mr Shannon believes the minister’s own military background, including a DSO award, left him more open to the idea.

“I think we’re in with a good chance,” said the DUP MP. “I’m certainly optimistic.

“I remember raising it [as an MLA] at the Northern Ireland Assembly many moons ago, but certainly there are a lot more voices and more information adding weight to it now.”