Bill Newton William Ellis ( Bill ) Newton VC ( 8 June 1919 – 29 March 1943 ) was an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross , the highest decoration for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to a member of the British and Commonwealth armed forces . He was honoured for his actions as a bomber pilot in Papua New Guinea during March 1943 when , despite intense anti - aircraft fire , he pressed home a series of attacks on the Salamaua Isthmus , the last of which saw him forced to ditch his aircraft in the sea . Newton was still officially posted as missing when the award was made in October 1943 . It later emerged that he had been taken captive by the Japanese , and executed by beheading on 29 March . Raised in Melbourne , Newton excelled at sport , playing cricket at youth state level . He joined the Citizen Military Forces in 1938 , and enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force ( RAAF ) in February 1940 . Described as having the dash of " an Errol Flynn or a Keith Miller " , Newton served as a flying instructor in Australia before being posted to No . 22 Squadron , which began operating Boston light bombers in New Guinea late in 1942 . Having just taken part in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea , he was on his fifty - second mission when he was shot down and captured . Newton was the only Australian airman to receive a Victoria Cross for action in the South West Pacific theatre of World War II , and the sole Australian to be so decorated while flying with an RAAF squadron . Family , education and sport . Born in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda on 8 June 1919 , Bill Newton was the youngest child of dentist Charles Ellis Newton and his second wife Minnie . His three older half - siblings from Charles ' earlier marriage included two brothers , John and Lindsay , and a sister , Phyllis . Bill entered Melbourne Grammar School in 1929 , but two years later switched to the nearby St Kilda Park Central School as the family income was reduced through the impact of the Great Depression . In 1934 , aged fifteen , he was able to return to Melbourne Grammar where , despite struggling with his schoolwork , he completed his Intermediate certificate . He gave up further study when his father died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of fifty - one , and began working in a silk warehouse . Considered while at school to be a future leader in the community , Newton was also a talented all - round sportsman , playing cricket , Australian rules football , golf and water polo . A fast bowler in cricket , he was friends with Keith Miller , and collected the Victorian Cricket Association ( VCA ) Colts bowling trophy for 1937 – 38 , while Miller collected the equivalent batting prize . In January 1938 , Newton dismissed Test batsman Bill Ponsford — still the only Australian to twice score 400 in a first - class innings — for four in a Colts game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground . The following year , he gained selection in the Victorian Second XI . He opened the bowling against the New South Wales Second XI — his first and only match — taking a total of 3 / 113 including the wickets of Ron Saggers and Arthur Morris who , like Miller , went on to become members of the " Invincibles " . Early career . Newton had been a sergeant in his cadet corps at school , and joined the Citizens Military Force on 28 November 1938 , serving as a private in the machine - gun section of the 6th Battalion , Royal Melbourne Regiment . Still employed in the silk warehouse when World War II broke out in September 1939 , he resigned to join the Royal Australian Air Force ( RAAF ) on 5 February 1940 . He had earlier attempted to enlist when he turned eighteen in 1937 , but his mother refused to give her permission ; with Australia now at war , she acquiesced . His brothers — dentists by profession , like their father — also enlisted in the armed forces , John as a surgeon lieutenant in the Royal Australian Navy and Lindsay as a Captain in the Army Medical Corps . Newton undertook his initial training with No . 1 Elementary Flying Training School in Parafield , South Australia , flying De Havilland Tiger Moth s , and with No . 21 ( City of Melbourne ) Squadron at RAAF Station Laverton , Victoria , flying CAC Wirraway s . He was awarded his wings and commissioned as a pilot officer on 28 June 1940 . Following advanced training on Avro Anson s with No . 1 Service Flying Training School at RAAF Point Cook in September , he was selected to become a flight instructor . He completed the requisite course at Central Flying School in Camden , New South Wales , and was promoted to flying officer on 28 December . He subsequently began training students under the Empire Air Training Scheme at No . 2 Service Flying Training School near Wagga Wagga , under the command of Group Captain Frederick Scherger . In October 1941 , Newton transferred to No . 5 Service Flying Training School at Uranquinty . He found instruction frustrating , as he longed for a combat assignment . His fortunes changed in February 1942 , when he was selected for the navigation course on Ansons at the General Reconnaissance School based at Laverton . From there he was sent to No . 1 Operational Training Unit at Sale , Victoria , for conversion to Lockheed Hudson twin - engined light bombers during March and April . Raised to flight lieutenant on 1 April 1942 , Newton was posted the following month to No . 22 ( City of Sydney ) Squadron , based at RAAF Station Richmond , New South Wales . Previously equipped with Hudsons , the unit had just begun converting to the more advanced Douglas Boston when Newton arrived . A comrade described him as a " big brash , likeable man who could drink most of us under the table , was a good pilot , good at sports , and had a way with girls " . No . 22 Squadron was engaged in convoy escort and anti - submarine patrols off Sydney from July to September , before moving north to Townsville , Queensland . In November , it was deployed to Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea , under the control of No . 9 Operational Group RAAF . New Guinea campaign . Newton undertook the first of his fifty - two operational sortie s on 1 January 1943 , under the leadership of his commanding officer , Squadron Leader Keith Hampshire . During February , Newton flew low - level missions through monsoon conditions and hazardous mountain terrain , attacking Japanese forces ranged against Allied troops in the Morobe province . In early March , he took part in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea , one of the key engagements in the South West Pacific theatre , bombing and strafing Lae airfield to prevent its force of enemy fighters taking off to intercept Allied aircraft attacking the Japanese fleet . Newton gained a reputation for driving straight at his targets without evasive manoeuvre , and always leaving them in flames ; this earned him the nickname " The Firebug " . The Japanese gunners , however , reportedly knew him as " Blue Cap " , from his habit of wearing an old blue cricket cap on operations . In spite of the hazards of the air war in New Guinea , he was quoted as saying , " The troops on the ground should get two medals each , before any airman gets one " . Attacks on Salamaua . On 16 March 1943 , Newton led a sortie on the Salamaua Isthmus in which his Boston was hit repeatedly by Japanese anti - aircraft fire , damaging fuselage , wings , fuel tanks and undercarriage . In spite of this he continued his attack and dropped his bombs at low level on buildings , ammunition dumps and fuel stores , returning for a second pass at the target in order to strafe it with machine - gun fire . Newton managed to get his crippled machine back to base , where it was found to be marked with ninety - eight bullet holes . Two days later , he and his two - man crew made a further attack on Salamaua with five other Bostons . As he bombed his designated target , Newton ' s plane was seen to burst into flames , raked by cannon fire from the ground . Attempting to keep his aircraft aloft as long as possible to get his crew away from enemy lines , he was able to ditch in the sea approximately offshore . The Boston ' s navigator , Sergeant Basil Eastwood , was killed in the forced landing but Newton and his wireless operator , Flight Sergeant John Lyon , survived and managed to swim ashore . Several of the other aircraft in the flight circled the area ; one returned to base straight away to inform Hampshire , and the remainder were later forced to depart through lack of fuel . Newton and Lyon originally made their way inland with the help of natives , aiming to contact an Australian Coastwatcher , but subsequently returned to the coast . There they were captured by a Japanese patrol of No . 5 Special Naval Landing Force . The two airmen were taken to Salamaua and interrogated until 20 March , before being moved to Lae where Lyon was bayonet ed to death on the orders of Rear Admiral Ruitaro Fujita , the senior Japanese commander in the area . Newton was brought back to Salamaua where , on 29 March 1943 , he was ceremonially beheaded with a Samurai sword by Sub - Lieutenant Uichi Komai , the naval officer who had captured him . Komai was killed in the Philippines soon after , and Fujita committed suicide at the end of the war . Revelations and reactions . It was initially believed that Newton had failed to escape from the Boston after it ditched into the sea , and he was posted as missing . Squadron Leader Hampshire had immediately dispatched a sortie to recover the pair that were last seen swimming for shore , but no sign of them was found . Two weeks later , he wrote a letter to Newton ' s mother in which he described her son ' s courage and expressed the hope that he might yet be found alive . Hampshire concluded , " Bill is one of those rare fellows I shall miss for a long time , and if it is to be , remember for an age " . The details of his capture and execution were only revealed later that year in a diary found on a Japanese soldier . Newton was not specifically named , but circumstantial evidence clearly identified him , as the diary entry recorded the beheading of an Australian flight lieutenant who had been shot down by anti - aircraft fire on 18 March 1943 while flying a Douglas aircraft . The Japanese observer described the prisoner as " composed " in the face of his impending execution , and " unshaken to the last " . After the decapitation , a seaman slashed open the dead man ' s stomach , declaring " Something for the other day . Take that . " General Headquarters South West Pacific Area , however , while releasing details of the execution on 5 October , initially refused to name Newton . Aside from the lack of absolute certainty as to identification , Air Vice Marshal Bill Bostock , Air Officer Commanding RAAF Command , contended that naming him would change the impact of the news upon Newton ' s fellow No . 22 Squadron members " from the impersonal to the closely personal " and hence " seriously affect morale " . News of the atrocity provoked shock in Australia . In an attempt to alleviate anxiety among the families of other missing airmen , the Federal government announced on 12 October that the relatives of the slain man had been informed of his death . Victoria Cross . Newton was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions on 16 – 18 March , becoming the only Australian airman to earn the decoration in the South West Pacific theatre of World War II , and the only one while flying with an RAAF squadron . The citation , which incorrectly implied that he was shot down on 17 March rather than the following day , and as having failed to escape from his sinking aircraft , was promulgated in the " London Gazette " on 19 October 1943 : Legacy . Buried initially in an unmarked bomb crater in Salamaua , Newton ' s body was recovered and re - interred in Lae War Cemetery after Salamaua ' s capture by Allied troops in September 1943 . In early 1944 , the recently constructed No . 4 Airfield in Nadzab was renamed Newton Field in his honour . For many years , the story of Newton ' s death was intertwined with that of Australian commando Sergeant Len Siffleet , who had also been captured in New Guinea . A famous photograph showing Siffleet about to be executed with a katana was discovered by American troops in April 1944 and was thought to have depicted Newton in Salamaua . However , no photograph of the airman ' s execution is known to exist . Newton ' s mother Minnie was presented with her son ' s Victoria Cross by the Governor - General , the Duke of Gloucester , on 30 November 1945 . She donated it to the Australian War Memorial , Canberra , where it remains on display with his other medals . Newton is also commemorated on Canberra ' s Remembrance Driveway . In the 1990s , his friend Keith Miller successfully fought to ensure that the Victoria Racing Club abandoned a plan to rename the William Ellis Newton Steeplechase — run on Anzac Day — after a commercial sponsor . Later in the decade , Miller also publicly questioned Australia Post ' s exclusion of Newton from a series of stamps featuring notable Australians such as cricketer Sir Donald Bradman . A plaque dedicated to No . 22 Squadron was unveiled at the Australian War Memorial by the Chief of Air Force , Air Marshal Angus Houston , on 16 March 2003 , the sixtieth anniversary of Newton ' s attack on Salamaua .