Warrant Officer Jack Hodges DFC

[chris willis]

I received the sad news today of the Death of Jack Hodges, the last remaining pilot from 174 Typhoon squadron, Jack died a few weeks ago and had been poorly for a while before that, he was a very modest chap as many of the old pilots are, I had the pleasure of meeting Jack a couple of times and a lovely man he was too, one mission he told me of was, he had been on low level attack in Normandy with rocket firing Typhoons, he saw a steam train so headed down firing off his rockets, there was an almighty explosion with bits flying all around him, he pulled back up and headed for home, once landed he started to taxi back when he saw his erks ( mechanics ) shouting and waving their arms about, when he stopped they said look what you've done to our plane, your plane he said, they seemed to think it was there's and you just borrowed it ! They took him around the front, and there in the scoop was wedged the funnel of the train, he then said to me "you wouldn't think that was possible would you" a great hero in my eyes, he flew thousands of rocket firing missions, now you wouldn't think that was possible would you!

R.I.P. Jack Hodges, another Hero gone but not forgotten