He participated in his first few bombing missions as a co-pilot, during the last of which, on 7 July 1941, he earned the VC for his feat in climbing out onto the wing of his Wellington bomber to extinguish an engine fire caused by a night fighter attack.

1 Elementary Flying Training School at RNZAF Taieri, followed by more advanced courses at Wigram Air Base in Christchurch.

[2] At the end of the month he departed for England aboard the troopship Aorangi, to commence service with the Royal Air Force (RAF).

75 Squadron was an RAF unit formed around a core of RNZAF flying personnel present in England prior to the outbreak of the Second World War to take delivery of 30 Vickers Wellington bombers purchased by the New Zealand government.

[5] His first operational flight was made on 14 June, as a second pilot to Squadron Leader Reuben Widdowson, a Canadian, on a bombing mission to Düsseldorf in Germany.

While returning home over the Zuider Zee on the Dutch coast, Ward's Wellington was attacked by a German Bf 110 night fighter.

After initial attempts to put out the flames using fire extinguishers directed through a hole made in the fuselage failed, Widdowson ordered the crew to bail out.

Making his way down the side and along the wing of the aircraft, he kicked or tore holes in the fuselage's covering fabric with a fire axe to give himself hand-and foot-holes.

While flying over the Zuider Zee at 13,000 feet his aircraft was attacked from beneath by a German Bf 110, which secured hits with cannon-shell and incendiary bullets.

The rear gunner was wounded in the foot but delivered a burst of fire sending the enemy fighter down, apparently out of control.

Fire then broke out in the Wellington's near-starboard engine and, fed by petrol from a split pipe, quickly gained an alarming hold and threatened to spread to the entire wing.

The crew forced a hole in the fuselage and made strenuous efforts to reduce the fire with extinguishers, and even coffee from their flasks, without success.

As a last resort Sergeant Ward volunteered to make an attempt to smother the fire with an engine cover which happened to be in use as a cushion.

The flight home had been made possible by the gallantry of Sergeant Ward in extinguishing the fire on the wing in circumstances of the greatest difficulty and at the risk of his life.

[13] According to Clifton Fadiman, a compiler of anecdotes, Ward was summoned to 10 Downing Street soon after the announcement of his VC, by Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Hector Bolitho, a New Zealander in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, spent time with him and later recounted an incident when at a dinner, Ward fainted after a fuel from a cigarette lighter was accidentally spilled onto his hand and set alight.

On his second mission, a raid on Hamburg carried out on 15 September, his Wellington encountered a night fighter shortly after releasing its bombs.

It was not until the two surviving crew members were released from their prisoner of war camp was it determined that a night fighter was involved in the destruction of Ward's aircraft.

On 15 September 1941, the day of Ward's death, Group Captain Hugh Saunders, the Chief of Air Staff of the RNZAF, approved the proposal to return him to New Zealand.

[2] Initially reported in the United Kingdom and New Zealand as missing, presumed dead, at one stage Ward was believed to be a prisoner of war in Germany.

[1] In November 2004, the Wellington College of Education, in preparation for merging with Victoria University, renamed one of its halls in honour of Ward.