Ted Swales Edwin ( Ted ) Essery Swales VC DFC ( 3 July 1915 – 23 February 1945 ) was a South African pilot and war hero of the Second World War . He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and posthumously the Victoria Cross . Early life and career . Edwin Essery Swales was one of four children born in Inanda , Natal , South Africa to Harry Evelyn Swales , who was a farmer in the Heatonville district , and Olive Essery . Following the death of her husband in the influenza epidemic of 1918 - 19 , Mrs Swales and her children moved to the Berea , Durban . Here , Edwin Swales attended Durban High School ( DHS ) . As a young lad , Edwin had also been a member of the Boy Scout movement ( 4th Durban Scout Troop ) . After leaving school , and prior to the Second World War , Edwin Swales worked for Barclays Bank ( Dominion Colonial and Overseas - DCO ) in Durban . Swales had joined the Natal Mounted Rifles before the War , rising to the rank of Sergeant Major , ( officially , a Warrant Officer , 2nd Class ) . With the N . M . R . , in the early part of the War , he saw action in Kenya , Abyssinia and in North Africa . He then transferred to the South African Air Force on 17 January 1942 . Swales was also very keen on sport generally , and enjoyed rugby . He played for both civilian ( pre - war ) and various military teams . After playing for the DHS 2nd XV , he later played rugby for a number of South African and Dominion teams , whilst he was in the United Kingdom , during the War years . He played for Griquas when he had been posted to Kimberley for training . He was also a reserve for the Natal rugby team , without ever actually playing for the province . He received his wings at Kimberley on 26 June 1943 . On 22 August 1943 , he was seconded to the Royal Air Force ( RAF ) whilst retaining his South African Air Force uniform and rank . During the Second World War . Following successful period of training on heavy bombers , Swales was posted , in June 1944 , to the elite RAF Pathfinder Force ( with 582 Squadron ) , part of No . 8 Pathfinder Group , at Little Staughton , in Huntingdonshire . It was normal for the Pathfinders to accept only experienced pilots who had completed a full tour on bombers . Although Swales had never spent any time as a bomber pilot in a standard heavy bomber squadron , Swales went straight into the Squadron . Swales ' first operational flight for 582 Squadron was on 12 July 1944 . Newly promoted to Captain on 4 November 1944 , he took part in a daring daylight bombing raid on 23 December , on the Gremberg railway yards , Cologne , Germany . The Squadron Leader for the raid on Cologne was his close friend , Robert Palmer , D . F . C . , who normally flew Mosquitos with 109 Squadron , also based at Little Staughton . Swales was the number two Pathfinder , leading the main flight and following Palmer as he marked the target . Palmer , who had completed 110 bombing raids , was killed as his Lancaster was damaged by flak and crashed . Six of the 30 aircraft on this operation were lost . Palmer was later awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross - becoming the 2nd Pathfinder pilot to be so honoured . For his actions on the Cologne raid , Edwin Swales was subsequently awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross . The citation reads : Victoria Cross . In 1945 , while with the RAF Pathfinders ( No . 582 Squadron ) , Swales was the Master Bomber and captain of Avro Lancaster III PB538 . On 23 February 1945 , the very same day as his D . F . C . award was gazetted , Swales led the bombing raid on Pforzheim , Germany ( not far from Karlsruhe and the Rhine River ) , where 17 . 600 civilians were killed in 22 minutes . The ' sortie ' , his 43rd operational flight , consisted of 367 Lancasters supported by 13 Mosquitos . The marking and bombing , from only 8 , 000 feet , were particularly accurate and damage of a most severe nature was inflicted on Pforzheim : 1 , 825 tons of bombs were dropped in only 22 minutes . The post - war British Bombing Survey Unit estimated that 83 % of the town ' s built - up area was destroyed , probably the greatest proportion in any one raid during the war . Ten Lancasters were lost that night and two more crashed in France Swales ' aircraft was attacked by an Me110 whose fire shattered one engine and holed the fuel tanks . They were attacked again by the same fighter which knocked out a second engine . Swales decided to make if not England then friendly territory . The weather closed in and he ordered the crew to bail out . He attempted to put down but his Lancaster stalled and crashed near Valenciennes , west of Prouvy , 3 km SSE of Denain in northern France killing him . He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross – the 3rd and last Pathfinder pilot to be so honoured . All had been posthumous . Citation . Swales ' VC citation reads : Legacy . Originally been buried at Fosse ’ s USA Cemetery , his remains now lie at the War Cemetery at Leopoldsburg , near Limburg , Belgium , Plot No . 8 , Row C , Grave No . 5 . Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur ' Bomber ' Harris , KCB , OBE , AFC , of RAF Bomber Command , wrote a letter to Swales ' mother , saying , inter - alia : Although often referred to as being a " Captain " at the time of his last flight , Swales was in fact an ' Acting ' Major . The S . A . A . F . was using the army ranking system , hence the ranks of ' Captain ' and of ' Major ' . At the time of his death on 23 February 1945 , Swales was aged 29 years . In 1958 , the British Air Ministry wrote to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission informing them that the South African Air Force authorities had confirmed that at the time of his death , Swales had in fact held the rank of Major . The front page of the program for the opening of the S . A . A . F . Memorial in Pretoria on 31 May 1950 , described Mrs . Olive Swales ( who opened the Memorial ) as being the " mother of the Late Major Edwin Swales , DFC , VC " . Awards and recognition . Swales was the only S . A . A . F . pilot during 1939 - 45 to be appointed a Pathfinder Master Bomber and also to have been posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross . The full list of the medals awarded to Swales follows : Swales ' full size war medals and some other possessions are held and displayed at the South African National Museum of Military History in Saxonwold , Johannesburg . At his old school , Durban High School ( founded in 1866 ) , a school ' House ' is named Swales House . In the city of Durban , there was a major arterial road named ' Edwin Swales VC Drive ' . In terms of controversial proposals made by the eThekwini Municipality , Swales ' name was expunged , and the road ' s name changed to honour instead anti - apartheid former terrorist Solomon Mahlangu . The original set of miniature medals belonging to Swales , and a silver model Lancaster Bomber , are now housed in an exhibition honouring Swales at his old school , Durban High School . Many years ago , the miniature medals and the model had been sold by a member of the Swales family . After changing hands a few times , the group came up for auction in London in July 2004 , at which time the medals and model were sold to a UK collector . A medal collector and D . H . S . Old Boy tracked down the buyer and convinced him to sell his recent acquisitions to the School . After four months of negotiations , the medals and model were delivered to their new home at DHS , where they were first displayed on Armistice Day , 11 November 2004 . The silver model Lancaster was one of only ten such models which were commissioned by the aircraft ’ s manufacturers , Messrs A . V . Roe & Co . and by Rolls Royce ( suppliers of the Lancaster engines ) and presented to the ten Victoria Cross winners ( or their families ) who flew Lancasters in the Second World War . On the base stand of the model is a silver plaque inscribed : " A Tribute from the Directors of A . V . Roe & Company and Rolls Royce Limited . To the Memory of Captain Edwin Swales , " V . C . , D . F . C . , S . A . A . F . , who was Awarded the Victoria Cross for his great Gallantry and Self - Sacrifice during Operations Against the Enemy on 23rd February 1945 " .