When an American airman was dragged from the wreckage of his burning plane by an Oxfordshire teenager in 1942, he never had the chance to thank the boy properly.

Almost 76 years later his family have done it for him.

Ron Dale, 17 at the time, was in the garden of his home in Milton-under-Wychwood when a crippled Wellington bomber crashed in a nearby field. Four of the five crew were killed, but Ron, who had sprinted over to the field, found Armstrong “Doc” Lyon, the rear gunner, still alive, albeit badly burnt.

“Doc” Lyon in the gun turret of a bomber during the Second World War SWNS

Ignoring Mr Lyon’s warnings that the aircraft was about to explode, Ron dragged him clear — moments before the Wellington went up in flames.

Now, thanks to an article in the Oxford