David Lee (officer)

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Sir David John Pryer Lee GBE CB ( September 4, 1912 - February 13, 2004 ) was a British Air Force officer in the Royal Air Force , who last served as a general ( Air Chief Marshal ) from 1968 to 1971 as a military representative on the NATO Military Committee was. He has written numerous books about his experiences in the Royal Air Force and in World War II .

Life

Aviation training and time before World War II

Lee completed his schooling at the renowned Bedford School , founded in 1552, and began his aviation training in 1930 as a flight cadet in the C-Squadron of the Royal Air Force College Cranwell , the officers' school of the RAF. During this time he was on the college team in athletics . After completing his training, he was accepted into the RAF as a professional soldier ( Permanent Commission ) on July 23, 1932 and promoted to lieutenant ( pilot officer ). At the same time he found his first use as a pilot in the No. 1, equipped with light biplane bombers of the type Fairey Gordon . 35 Squadron RAF at the RAF Bircham Newton military airfield , but already on February 7, 1933, he switched to the Royal Air Force aircraft depot in India as a pilot . After his promotion to first lieutenant ( Flying Officer ) on January 23, 1934, he became a pilot of a multipurpose aircraft of the type Westland Wapiti at No. 60 Squadron RAF , which at that time was stationed in the Northwest Frontier Province of British India .

On March 31, 1935, Lee switched to the No. 1, equipped with Hawker Hart biplane day-bombers, as a pilot . 39 Squadron RAF and took part with this in December 1935 in the annual reinforcement exercise in Singapore , the squadron covered a distance of 4,000 miles (6,440 kilometers) with ten stopovers in six days . On October 1, 1936, he was promoted to captain ( flight lieutenant ) and, after his return from India, took part in an instructor course at the Central Flying School from January 4 to March 20, 1937 . He then became a flight training officer ( Flying Examing Officer ) with the superintendent of reserve pilots on August 14, 1937 and was responsible for checking the flight instructors at various reserve flying schools and elementary flying schools . He then worked in the same function from November 7, 1938 at No 26 (Training) Group RAF .

Second World War

On April 1, 1939, Lee was promoted to Major ( Squadron Leader ) and, after the outbreak of World War II in 1939, he became the pilot of a twin-engine Handley Page Hampden bomber in No. 144 Squadron RAF . Shortly afterwards, he switched to the No. 61 Squadron RAF and took part with this in the first attack by British air forces on Germany , on March 19, 1940 on the Hörnum Seefliegerhorst on Sylt . After another brief assignment as an aviation commander of No. 106 Squadron RAF he changed to the air force staff in the Air Ministry . He then became an officer in the headquarters of No. 21 (Training) Group RAF and then completed a staff course at RAF Staff College, Bulstrode Park . After this he returned to the Ministry of Aviation in 1943 and worked there as deputy head of the planning department until June 1945. On January 1, 1943, he was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

In June 1945, Lee commander (was Commanding Officer ) of using fighter-bombers of the type Republic P-47 Thunderbolt equipped No. 904 Wing RAF . This had recently returned from combat missions from Burma and he was entrusted with this group on the impending invasion of the Malay Peninsula . However, the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 9, 1945 led to the surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945 and thus also to the end of the Second World War in Southeast Asia .

Post-war mission to rescue prisoners of war in Java

At the end of the war, the plan to invade the Malay Peninsula ceased to exist, but the need for further operations in the Far East , which included the location and discovery of thousands of internees and prisoners of war in Japanese prison camps in the region, did not. For this purpose the No. 904 Wing RAF relocated to the Dutch East Indies island of Java under Lee's command . Two of having been Republic P-47 Thunderbolt equipped squadrons his group through a season with Douglas DC-3 - transport aircraft replaced.

In the months that followed, Lee and his No. 904 Wing RAF on the one hand carried out attacks against terrorist groups, on the other hand they also supported the search and evacuation of prisoners of war and internees in Java. This required diplomatic action against the Indonesians, but also against his own soldiers. On the one hand, the RAF had to do a job that required cooperation with the local governments, but on the other hand it had to make it clear that it was not stationed there to re-establish the colonial administration before the war. Furthermore, numerous soldiers wanted to return to Great Britain after the end of the war, so he built a recreation center on an island near the coast to pacify his units.

Staff officer in the post-war period

After the evacuation of thousands of internees was completed, Lee was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel ( Wing Commander ) on October 1, 1946 and returned to Southeast Asia after a month's home leave, where he became group leader for administrative planning at the headquarters of the RAF Air Command Far East . For his services in the Far East, he became Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) on February 11, 1947 .

In 1948 Lee returned to the United Kingdom, where he became an officer on the staff of RAF Staff College Bracknell . In this application he was promoted to Colonel ( Group Captain ) on July 1, 1950 . In 1951 he took on the role of deputy head of the policy department in the air force staff and in 1953 as commander of the air force base RAF Scampton , which at that time had three squadrons with twin- engine English Electric Canberra fighter jets . On June 1, 1953, he became Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB).

In 1956, Lee became secretary of the Chiefs of Staff Committee and was promoted to Air Commodore on July 1, 1959 .

Promotion to Air Chief Marshal

After his promotion to Major General ( Air Vice Marshal ) on January 1, 1959, Lee was on August 10, 1959 Commander ( Air Officer Commanding ) of the Air Forces in the Middle East ( RAF Air Forces Middle East ) and was in personal union of the Air Forces on the Arab Peninsula , which belonged to the British Forces Arabian Peninsula under the command of Air Chief Marshal Hubert Patch . During his two years in Arabia, he traveled more than 100,000 miles (160,000 kilometers) to visit the units there. At the time of independence of Kuwait in March 1961, he had two seasons with Hawker Hunter -Kampfflugzeugen and two seasons with Avro Shackleton - Seeaufklärungsflugzeugen to Bahrain embarrassed to a possible attack on Kuwait by the neighboring state of Iraq to prevent. He also had civil aircraft moved to this region in order to expand his limited resources and to move troops to this area quickly. In doing so, he made a significant contribution to preventing an Iraqi invasion.

After completing his commanding post in Arabia, Lee was on January 1, 1962 by Air Vice Marshal Maurice Heath as commandant of RAF Staff College Bracknell and remained in this post until his replacement by Air Vice Marshal Tim Piper on January 1, 1965.

Thereupon Lee was promoted to Lieutenant General ( Air Marshal ) on January 1, 1965 and at the same time knighted Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE), so that he had since then been given the suffix "Sir". He also became Air Member for Personnel on January 1, 1965 as the successor to Air Marshal Walter Cheshire . Until his replacement by Air Vice Marshal Andrew Humphrey on March 18, 1968, he was Head of Staff Department for Personnel Affairs in the Air Force Staff and at the same time one of the representatives of the RAF on the Air Force Board of the British Defense Council of the United Kingdom .

During this time he was promoted to General ( Air Chief Marshal ) on October 7, 1967 and last took over from Admiral Nigel Henderson on June 1, 1968 as the British Military Representative in the NATO Military Committee . Henderson himself succeeded Belgian General Charles de Cumont as chairman of the NATO military committee. Lee remained a representative in the NATO Military Committee until he was replaced by General Victor FitzGeorge-Balfour in 1971. In addition, he was raised to the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) on January 1, 1969 . On March 19, 1971, he finally retired from active military service.

After his retirement, Lee became involved in the charity of the RAF ( RAF Benevolent Fund ) and was president of its commission between 1984 and 1988 and then vice-president of this organization since 1988. His marriage to Denise Hartoch in 1938 resulted in a son and a daughter.

Publications

After retiring from military service, Lee also wrote a number of books on the history of the RAF in the Middle and Far East and processed his own experiences as a pilot, staff officer and commander of units stationed there. His publications include:

  • Flight from the Middle East , 1978
  • Never Stop the Engine When It is Hot , 1983
  • Eastward: a History of the RAF in the Far East , 1984
  • Wings in the Sun: a History of the RAF in the Mediterranean , 1989
  • And We Thought the War was Over , 1990

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 33858, HMSO, London, August 26, 1932, p. 5500 ( PDF , accessed February 19, 2016, English).
  2. ↑ London Gazette . No. 34030, HMSO, London, March 6, 1934, p. 1533 ( PDF , accessed February 19, 2016, English).
  3. ↑ London Gazette . No. 34331, HMSO, London, October 13, 1936, p. 6540 ( PDF , accessed February 19, 2016, English).
  4. ↑ London Gazette . No. 34613, HMSO, London, April 4, 1939, p. 2263 ( PDF , accessed February 19, 2016, English).
  5. ↑ London Gazette . No. 35841, HMSO, London, January 1, 1943, p. 14 ( PDF , accessed February 19, 2016, English).
  6. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 39863, HMSO, London, June 1, 1953, p. 2943 ( PDF , accessed February 19, 2016, English).
  7. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 43529, HMSO, London, January 1, 1965, p. 8 ( PDF , accessed February 19, 2016, English).
personal data
SURNAME Lee, David
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lee, David John Pryer (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British Air Force officer in the United Kingdom
DATE OF BIRTH September 4, 1912
DATE OF DEATH February 13, 2004