Douglas Bower

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Douglas Bower CBE AFC (born January 6, 1920 in Huddersfield , West Yorkshire , † October 3, 2003 ) was a British Air Force officer in the Royal Air Force , who last served in the rank of Major General ( Air Vice Marshal ) between 1973 and 1975 as Assistant Chief of Air Force Staff for operational requirements ( Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Operational Requirements) ). He was the first navigator to achieve the rank of general.

Life

Training as a navigator and World War II

Bower completed his school education in Plymouth and then studied at Huddersfield Technical College , which he graduated as an electrical and mechanical engineer. During the Second World War he began his training as a navigator with the RAF in 1941 and was promoted to lieutenant ( pilot officer ) on November 6, 1942 . After completing his training, he became a navigator in 1943 for No. 1, equipped with Handley Page Halifax bombers . 77 Squadron RAF and promoted there on May 6, 1943 to first lieutenant ( flying officer ). On the night of October 22nd to 23rd, 1943 he flew as navigator of a Handley Page Halifax bomber on an air raid in Kassel . There the plane was shot down, three crew members were killed and the four surviving crew members were arrested.

In the following years Bower was in German captivity , most of which he spent in Stalag Luft 1 in Barth on the Baltic Sea . In 1945 he refused to take part in the so-called "long march", during which Allied prisoners of war were to be brought from the Eastern European prisoner of war camps to Western Europe.

Test pilot and participation in record flights

Navigator Douglas Bower (left) with the pilot and later Marshal of the Royal Air Force Andrew Humphrey (center) and the second navigator R. Powell (right) after the record flight from London to Cape Town (1953)

After being freed from captivity in 1946, Bower first became an officer in the research department of the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE ). On September 10, 1946, his military service as a contract soldier ( Extended Service Commission ) was extended and he was promoted to captain ( Flight Lieutenant ), this promotion initially on May 23, 1946 and on February 25, 1947 again subsequently on September 1 Relocated in 1945. At the RAE he took part in test flight missions for two years and in 1948 took part in a special course for navigators. In 1947 he was a founding member of the Royal Institute of Navigation (RIN). He then became an officer in the staff of the Air Navigation School ( Empire Air Navigation School ) in 1948 . On March 22, 1949 as a professional soldier ( Permanent Commission ) accepted into the RAF and completed a course at the RAF Staff College Bracknell .

After completing the course, Bower was promoted to Major ( Squadron Leader ) on July 1, 1950 and officer in the Department of Flight Navigation in the Air Force Staff. On June 5, 1952, he became a member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). In 1953 he was used as a navigator in the staff of the RAF Flying College , which emerged from the Empire Central Flying School , at the RAF Manby military airfield . During this time he took part in numerous important flight tests. On 19 December 1953 he was part of the crew later Marshal of the Royal Air Force Andrew Humphrey , who with him and the second Navigator R. Powell on a flight with a fighter aircraft of type English Electric Canberra from London to Cape Town set a speed record and this route covered 16 minutes in 13 hours. On October 14, 1954, he wrote again British aviation history as the navigator of Andrew Humphrey, who piloted an English Electric Canberra , flew the RAF's first jet aircraft to the North Pole . On January 1, 1955, he was awarded the Air Force Cross (AFC). In 1955 he took part as a navigator with the pilot and later Air Marshal Ivor Broom in further pioneering flights with the English Electric Canberra model Aries IV .

Staff officer and promotion to Air Vice Marshal

Bower, who was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel ( Wing Commander ) on July 1, 1956 , served as Commanding Officer of the Air Force Base Support Wing during Operation Grapple , a series of British nuclear weapons tests on Malden Island and Kiritimati in the Pacific Ocean in 1958 . On January 1, 1958, he was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). In May 1958 he was then commander of No. 617 Squadron , which at that time with four-engine strategic bombers of the type Avro Vulcan was equipped. On May 23, 1960, he became the head of the operational group of No. 8, based at RAF High Wycombe Air Force Base . 1 Group RAF .

On June 7, 1961 Bower was commander of the air force base RAF Lindholme and was promoted to Colonel ( Group Captain ) a month later on July 1, 1961 . Afterwards he was temporarily commander of the school of the bomber command BCBS ( Bomber Command Bombing School ) at the military airfield RAF Finningley and then since September 28, 1964 deputy head of the department for workers in the newly created Ministry of Defense .

Bower was promoted to Air Commodore on January 1, 1966 and then completed a course at Imperial Defense College in London. In 1967 he was director of the project for the introduction of the twin-engine supersonic fighter aircraft McDonnell F-4 Phantom in the RAF and the aviation associations of the Royal Navy . On January 1, 1971, he became Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). He was then appointed Senior Air Staff Officer (SASO) Chief of Staff of No. 1 Group RAF .

Most recently, Bower was promoted to Major General ( Air Vice Marshal ) on January 27, 1973 and took on the role of Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Operational Requirements ). He held this position until he retired from active military service on January 6, 1975 and was responsible for the development of the two-seat multi- role fighter aircraft (MRCA) Panavia Tornado .

Bower, a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation, served as vice president of the Air Force Short Arms Association ( RAF Small Arms Association ) and president of the Yorkshire Rifle Association, and participated in numerous shooting competitions.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 35885, HMSO, London, February 2, 1943, p. 599 ( PDF , accessed February 18, 2016, English).
  2. ↑ London Gazette . No. 37716, HMSO, London, September 10, 1946, p. 4502 ( PDF , accessed February 18, 2016, English).
  3. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 39555, HMSO, London, June 5, 1952, p. 3016 ( PDF , accessed February 18, 2016, English).
  4. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 40366, HMSO, London, January 1, 1955, p. 35 ( PDF , accessed February 18, 2016, English).
  5. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 41268, HMSO, London, January 1, 1958, p. 9 ( PDF , accessed February 18, 2016, English).
personal data
SURNAME Bower, Douglas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British Air Force officer in the United Kingdom
DATE OF BIRTH January 6, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Huddersfield , West Yorkshire
DATE OF DEATH October 3, 2003