Keith Park

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Keith Park next to a Hawker Hurricane 1940

Sir Keith Rodney Park GCB , KBE , MC (born June 15, 1892 in Thames (New Zealand) , † February 6, 1975 in Auckland ) was a New Zealand Air Chief Marshal (air marshal) of the British Royal Air Force .

Life

Park was born the son of the Scottish professor James Livingstone Park and his wife Frances. He attended the Otago Boys' High School in Dunedin and joined the New Zealand Field Artillery in 1911. During the First World War he served as an artilleryman in Gallipoli and was promoted to officer in July 1915. In 1916 he took part in the Battle of the Somme and was wounded in the process. After his recovery he went to the Royal Flying Corps and was initially employed as an instructor after completing his pilot training. From July 1917 he served in No. 48 Squadron on the Western Front, where he flew Bristol F.2 fighters and was most recently the squadron in command. During the First World War, he is attributed 20 kills and he was awarded the Military Cross and Bar, the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Croix de guerre .

In August 1919 he was accepted into the Royal Air Force on a permanent basis. He was the commander of several air bases and completed staff training. From 1934 to 1937 he was an air attaché in Argentina, on his return he was aide-de-camp of the king and graduated from the Imperial Defense College . In June 1938 he became Chief of Staff of the Fighter Command (Jagdwaffe) in Stanmore. In April 1940, he was appointed Air Vice-Marshal in command of No. 11 Fighter Group appointed.

As commander of No. 11 Fighter Group had Park to defend the most critical sector in the Battle of Britain with the south-east including London. He never had more than 200 machines, mostly Hawker Hurricane , at his disposal, so that in the summer of 1940 he had to largely limit himself to the defensive.

Statue of Sir Keith Park in London

The Royal Air Force's successes in the Battle of Britain are often directly linked to Keith Park. However, there was also the Big Wing controversy between Park, the commander of No. 12 Fighter Group Trafford Leigh-Mallory and Commander-in-Chief Sir Hugh Dowding , which could never be completely cleared.

In January 1942, Park became Commander-in-Chief of the British Air Force in Egypt and had worked in the same function in Malta since July 15, 1942 , when this strategically important island was exposed to intensive German air raids . In January 1944 he became Air Officer Commanding Middle East Command and in February 1945 he succeeded the fatally injured Leigh-Mallory Commander in Chief of the Allied Air Forces in Southeast Asia. In 1946 he retired as Air Chief Marshal.

In honor of Sir Keith Park was at Waterloo Place in London , a bronze statue erected. This was on 15 September 2010 on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain ( Battle of Britain Day revealed). Also since 2010 there is a bust of Keith Park in the Battle of Britain Memorial , Capel-le-Ferne near Folkestone.

literature

  • Vincent Orange : A Biography of Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park, GCB, KBE, MC, DFC, DCL. . Methuen , London 1964, ISBN 0-413-49770-4 (English).
  • Vincent Orange : Park, Keith Rodney . In: Dictionary of New Zealand Biography . Volume 5 . Allen & Unwin , Wellington 2000 (English, online [accessed September 12, 2018]).

Web links

Commons : Keith Park  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Date of death according to the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, theaerodrome.com gives 5 February 1975.
  2. ↑ Keith Rodney Park on theaerodrome.com
  3. ^ The bust of Sir Keith Park in the Battle of Britain Memorial
personal data
SURNAME Park, Keith
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Park, Keith Rodney (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION New Zealand Air Marshal of the Royal Air Force
DATE OF BIRTH June 15, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Thames (New Zealand)
DATE OF DEATH February 6, 1975
Place of death Auckland