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Flight-Lieutenant Hornell contrived, with superhuman efforts at the controls, to gain a little height. The fire in the starboard wing had grown more intense and the vibration had increased. Then the burning engine fell off. The plight of the
aircraft and crew was now desperate. With the utmost coolness, the captain took his aircraft into the wind and, despite the dangers, brought it safely down on the heavy swell. Badly damaged, the aircraft rapidly settled.
After the ordeal by fire, came ordeal by water. There was only one dinghy and this could not hold all the crew. So they took turns in the water, holding on to the sides. Once, the dinghy capsized in the rough seas and was righted only with great difficulty. Two of the crew succumbed from exposure. An airborne lifeboat was dropped to them but fell some 500 yards downwind. The men struggled vainly to reach it and Flight-Lieutenant Hornell, who had encouraged them with his cheerfulness and inspiring leadership, proposed to swim to it, though he was nearly exhausted. The survivors were finally rescued after they had been in the water for 21 hours. By this time Flight-Lieutenant Hornell was blinded and completely exhausted. He died shortly after being picked up.
Flight-Lieutenant Hornell had completed 60 operational missions, involving 600 hours of flying.
He knew the danger and difficulties attending attacks on submarines. By pressing home a skillful and successful attack against fierce
opposition, and by fortifying and encouraging his comrades in the subsequent ordeal, this officer displayed valour and devotion of the highest order.
  
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