His most dangerous extraction came at 16:20, when he landed to retrieve a soldier with a sucking chest wound. A German sniper hidden in a seawall had been tracking the Auster. As the wounded man was loaded, a bullet tore through the cockpit canopy, missing Halewell’s head by inches. He banked hard, climbed in a corkscrew pattern, and made it to altitude without further damage.
The “Gold Assault Area” spanned from La Rivière to Le Hamel. For RAF Forward Air Controllers (FACs) like Halewell, the mission was unprecedented: direct naval gunfire, mark German strongpoints, and coordinate emergency medical evacuations – the latter an often-overlooked lifeline of the invasion. Halewell’s unit, No. 651 Squadron RAF, was equipped with the tiny Auster Mk.IV, a modified Taylorcraft with external panniers for stretchers. In the jargon of the day, these were “flying ambulances” without rotors. gold assault area raf flight commander medical
To help me refine this article or focus on a specific historical figure: or campaign beyond D-Day? His most dangerous extraction came at 16:20, when