Fears few would attend funeral
Brave RAF man Jim in uniform
HUNDREDS of strangers are set to attend the funeral of one of Britain’s most decorated war heroes after fears not many people would go.
Flight Sgt Jim Auton, who was awarded 19 medals for his exploits in the RAF during the Second World War, died aged 95 with no family still alive.
The bomb aimer was badly injured in one of his many dangerous missions.
RAF top brass launched an appeal to boost the number of mourners, and plan to stage a flypast.
His carer Paul Trickett said: “It would be a great shame if one of our nation’s last surviving and most highly decorated Second World War heroes didn’t get a befitting send-off.”
Jim’s wife died in 2016 and he had no children. He joined up in 1941, flying 37 missions with 178 Squadron.
He is best known for his bravery during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 as resistance groups in the Polish capital tried to overthrow the Nazi occupiers.
Within days, around 180,000 civilians were killed and supplies were low. Jim and his crew risked their lives twice in perilous low-level drops of supplies to the city in the Warsaw Airlift operation. They agreed to stick faithfully to their instructions despite the extreme danger. Jim said: “We must have been mad. Planes were being shot down all around us. I said we hadn’t come all this way to drop the supplies in the wrong place. You just felt like a robot and the training took over.” His honours included the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, the highest award a foreigner can receive. He lost an eye and suffered lung damage when his B-24 bomber was hit on his 37th mission. Jim, of Newark, Notts, had a career in engineering after the war and launched firms exporting goods. He also wrote books about his war years. He was made an MBE for his charity work, including raising £3million as part of the Air Bridge Association which he founded to help the families of dead service personnel. His funeral will be at Newark Parish Church today.
MEDALS Jim in later years