- Army hero Captain Pete Norton showed bravery and a "never mind" attitude that only a Brit could show.
Hero British Army captain saved the lives of 8 American soldiers, despite having just lost a leg and an arm and having lost 84 pints of blood -
Honour for hero captain
By TOM NEWTON DUNN
Defence Editor
A HERO Army bomb officer who saved soldiers’ lives despite having an arm and a leg blown off won Britain’s top gallantry medal yesterday.
Captain Pete Norton was awarded a rare George Cross — on a par with the VC — for his amazing courage while in agony.
He had been maimed by a roadside boobytrap in Iraq but refused medical aid to lead a 45-minute search for a second hidden device.
The coolness displayed by Pete, 43, saved the lives of dozens of other troops on a day of horror near Baghdad.
Defence Secretary John Reid joined the chiefs of the three Armed Services at the MoD to heap praise on the dad of two yesterday, calling him an “inspiration to the nation”.
But the modest hero nicknamed “Perfect Pete” by comrades insisted to The Sun: “I wasn’t brave — I was just doing my job.”
On July 24 last year Pete, of the Royal Logistic Corps, was called to the scene of a huge roadside bomb ambush which had hit a US convoy.
Four American soldiers lay dead, several others injured and a Humvee vehicle had been destroyed in a scene of “carnage and confusion”.
Pete immediately ordered his own team and the US troops back to their vehicles while he went forward alone.
Within seconds, he had stepped on a pressure pad that detonated another huge blast from two 155mm artillery shells strapped together.
The explosion catapulted him 15ft through the air, shattered his left arm and left leg — but incredibly left him still conscious and lucid.
Realising there were almost certainly more boobytraps in the area, Pete refused first aid from comrades.
Instead he commanded the bomb hunt, issuing orders about where to look and where it was safe to stand.
His instructions led to the discovery of a third hidden bomb just six yards from where he was lying.
The device was defused — saving the lives of at least eight more US soldiers who would have passed over it.
Astonishingly, Pete was still calm enough to issue instructions to a medic on how best to dress his wounds.
He was eventually airlifted to hospital for emergency treatment.
As well as losing his leg above the knee and arm below the elbow, he was peppered with shrapnel and lost a total of 84 pints of blood.
Yesterday Pete, who cut his teeth in bomb disposal by defusing IRA devices in Northern Ireland, recalled the blast.
Speaking from his wheelchair, he said: “I remember everything about it — stepping on the plate, flying through the air and lying on the ground. My first thought was, ‘Oh bugger’.
“I knew immediately it was a life-or-death situation. I could have just relaxed and gone to sleep and that would have been it. But the thought of my wife and children came into my head, and that made me fight it.”
His eyes welled with tears as he downplayed his own heroism, saying: “I just didn’t want anyone from my team to be injured.”
Pete, married to wife Sue and with young sons Tom and Toby, joined up as a private 20 years ago.
He is now determined to stay on as an instructor after being fitted with a prosthetic arm. Pete, now living in a special wheelchair-access home at RAF Innsworth, Gloucester, insisted: “I have no regrets about joining the Army or going to Iraq. I am a soldier and we do what we are told.”
The action was the fourth time in as many months he had put others’ lives before his own during his attachment to the Combined Explosives Exploitation Cell in Baghdad.
His GC citation read: “Captain Norton has come under fire and been exposed to danger on a number of occasions. He has consistently behaved in an exemplary fashion.”
His boss Lieutenant Colonel Bob Seddon, who won a Queen’s Commendation for his own heroics, said: “It is what I would have expected. Pete is outstandingly professional.”
Pete’s wife Sue said it was “a miracle” he had come home alive and that she was “very proud” of him.
Also at the MoD to congratulate Pete was one of the first ever GC winners, Colonel Stuart Archer, 91.
Stuart, decorated for defusing Luftwaffe bombs in 1941, said: “He’s a very brave chap indeed. I’m delighted to welcome him to our very small club”.
Pete is the 401st person to win the GC since its creation in 1940. It is the highest award that can be bestowed on civilians, or on servicemen after the VC — which can only be won in the presence of the enemy.
A total of 70 servicemen were awarded gongs in the twice-yearly operational honours list, out today.
Royal Marines Colour Sergeant Matthew “Tommo” Thomson won the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross for leading a 16-man boat assault across a river in Fallujah.
And Lt Col James Woodham of the Royal Anglian Regiment won a Military Cross for brokering the rescue of two SAS hostages in Basra.
What readers of The Sun had to say -
Congratulations to Mr Norton. He has certainly earned the George Cross.
After reading your story, it is astonishing to think he not only survived but stayed at the scene to help his colleagues. With his injuries I think many of us would have accepted the inevitable and given up.
His story is one of true heroism.
Sarah
Braintree, Essex
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Well done on getting the medal Captian Pete and well done to the rest of our forces out there.
Geoff
High Wycombe
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Well done Pete. I’m very pleased you made it back. I will get the beers in soon.
VWwhitevanman
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