Children Of American Airman Thank Brit Who Saved Their Father 76 Years Ago

Children of American airman pay thanks to Brit who saved their father (Picture: SWNS).

The children of an American airman have tracked down the Brit who pulled their father from his burning plane 76 years ago.

Ron Dale, 92, dragged Armstrong ‘Doc’ Lyon from the flaming wreckage moments before it exploded in a field in Milton-under-Wychwood, Oxfordshire.

On 16 September 1942, the plane's engine failed and the aircraft smashed into a field, killing four Sergeants. Mr Lyon, the plane’s rear gunner, was the only survivor survived.

Mr Dale, then just a teen, had seen the crash and ran over, finding Mr Lyon alive inside.

Mr Lyon told the boy to run before the aircraft blew up but the Brit ignored him and dragged him from the burning fuselage.

The pair then sat and smoked together before help arrived and Mr Lyon returned home to the US.

The airman's family thanked Mr Dale, from Witney, West Oxfordshire, after discovering the full story of their father’s crash.

Sisters Marion Lyon-Hayes, Pamela Lyon, and their half-brother Jim Martin, visited Mr Dale’s home in Thorney Leys.

Pamela, who now lives in Australia, said: “Meeting Mr Dale had a really peaceful feeling.

“I feel that Armstrong, our father, would be really pleased and it feels like something that was open – and, in a way, broken – is not broken anymore. It’s closed.” 

Marion added that it was like everything had come ‘full circle’.

She said: “How can you possibly thank someone who did something that selfless – something that, had they not done it, you would not exist?

“If he hadn’t have done what he did then Jim wouldn’t be here first, then Pam, and I certainly wouldn’t be here.

“What ‘thank you’ could match the value of what he did?”

Ron Dale was just 17 when he pulled Mr Lyon from a burning wreckage (Picture: SWNS).

During the family's visit, they went to the scene of the crash.

Mr Dale believes the pilot tried to land the plane in a field – but it crashed and burst into flames upon colliding with the ground.

Mr Lyon suffered severe burns to his face and leg.

Six weeks later, the American returned to the village to thank Mr Dale for saving his life – but the teenager was working at the time and never had the chance to see him, leaving it up to Mr Lyon’s children decades later.

He said: “It’s just a thing that happened that morning – but I will never forget the sound of that thing when it hit the ground.

“I thought to myself many times: I wonder if he made it to the end of the war. And I always hoped he did. He was a real ‘go and get them’ type of character.”

Mr Lyon’s children were also able to visit St Peter’s Church in Little Rissington, where two of Mr Lyon’s fellow airmen were buried.