Norman Darch MM

Joined the Royal Air Force as a Medical Orderly on 31st December 1937. He became a Nursing Orderly on 31st December 1938 and was promoted Leading Aircraftman on 31st December 1939. He was posted to the Middle East in January 1940 and joined No.30 Sqn on 19th March 1940. He was with the squadron throughout the Battle of Crete and was awarded the Military Medal for the following gallant conduct :

During the attack on Maleme aerodrome by parachute troops, Leading Aircraftmen Betts and Darch drove the ambulance across the aerodrome in the face of very heavy fire in response to an urgent call to rescue wounded from gun positions on the perimeter of the aerodrome. Leading Aircraftman Darch received two bullet wounds in the back but both airmen carried on and brought the wounded safely back to sick quarters. They showed a complete disregard for their own safety in carrying out their duties.

Darch was taken prisoner on 20th May 1941 and in spite of his painful wounds he attended to British, Cretan and German casualties until he was flown to Eleusis in Greece on 3rd June. For the next four months he worked in the 5th Australian General Hospital in Kokkinia. He was then taken to Germany as a prisoner of war where he stayed until his release from Fallingbostel in April 1945. After the war, he served with British European Airways at Speke Airport as a male nurse and worked for a short time in the Royal Auxiliary Air Force. He then became Cemetery Superintendent at Wellington Somerset and held similar positions in Chard and finally Downend, Bristol, until he retired in 1981.

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