Philip Joubert de la Ferté

Philip Joubert de la Ferté (1940)

Sir Philip Bennet Joubert de la Ferté , KCB , CMG , DSO (born May 21, 1887 in Darjeeling , Bengal , British India ; † January 21, 1965 in Uxbridge , London Borough of Hillingdon ) was a British major in the British Army and an air force officer of the Royal Air Force , who was last with the rank of General ( Air Chief Marshal ) between 1943 and 1945 Deputy Chief of Staff for Information and Civil Affairs of the South East Asia Command ( SEAC ) .

Life

Military training and World War I

Joubert de la Ferté, son of Colonel Charles Henry Joubert de la Ferté and his wife Eliza Jane Meville, attended the Elstree School in Woolhampton and then the renowned Harrow School, founded in 1572 . After that, he initially trained as an artillery officer at the Royal Military Academy Woolwich and was after its completion on 23 July 1907 as a lieutenant (Second Lieutenant) in the Royal Field Artillery of the British Army adopted. In the following years he found use in various units of field artillery and was on July 23, 1910. Lieutenant (First Lieutenant) transported. In 1912 he began pilot training, which he obtained on September 3, 1912 with the flight license no. 280 from the Royal Aero Club (RAeC). On March 7, 1913, he was accepted as a first lieutenant in the Army Air Force RFC ( Royal Flying Corps ) and at the same time continued his flying training at the Central Flying School . In April 1913 he was initially employed as a pilot for No. 2 Squadron RFC on the RAF Montrose and shortly thereafter on June 7, 1913 to No. 3 Squadron RFC at the Netheravon base.

Immediately after the start of the First World War , Joubert de la Ferté was relocated to the Western Front as aviation commander as part of the British Expeditionary Force ( BEF ) and flew two of the first air missions of the First World War on August 19, 1914. On October 19 and December 9, 1914, he was first in war report mentions ( Mentioned in dispatches ) and received in the meantime on 30 October 1914 was promoted to Captain (Captain) . On 25 May 1915 he took over the post as commander ( Commanding Officer ) of with Royal Aircraft Factory BE2 equipped -Militärflugzeugen No. 15 Squadron RFC at the Hounslow military airfield and shortly afterwards on August 19, 1915 as commander of No. 1 Squadron RFC , with aircraft types Royal Aircraft Factory BI8 , Avro 504 - biplanes and Morane-Saulnier L - fighters equipped. He was in recovery from November 1915 and then took over on January 15, 1916 as commander of No. 1, stationed at the Filton military airfield . 33 Squadron RFC , which was also equipped with Royal Aircraft Factory BE2. He was then on July 1, 1916 as the successor to Major Geoffrey Salmond commander of the No 5 Wing RFC deployed in the Middle East and remained in this function until February 5, 1917, whereupon Captain Amyas Borton was his successor. During this time he was mentioned again on December 1, 1917 in the war report and on January 1, 1917 was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). After he was temporarily in command of No. 21 Wing RFC was on the Western Front, after his promotion to Major on June 22, 1917, he became Commander of No. 14 Wing RFC and also took part with this unit in combat missions on the Western Front and on the Italian Front .

Towards the end of the First World War, Joubert de la Ferté took over the post of commander of the British Air Force, also deployed in Italy, on March 26, 1918, and was promoted as such to lieutenant colonel on April 1, 1918 . Shortly afterwards, on May 30, 1918, he was mentioned again in the war report. For his services on the Italian front, he was awarded on November 2, 1918 both commander of the Italian order of knights of Saint Mauritius and Lazarus (Ordine dei Santi Maurizio e Lazzaro) and the Italian War Merit Cross (Croce di Guerra al Valor Militare) .

Post-war period until World War II

After the end of the war, Joubert de la Ferté was mentioned again on January 1, 1919 Companion des Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG) and on January 6 and June 5, 1919 in the war report. Two days earlier, on June 3, 1919, he had assumed the post of commander of No 2 (Training) Group RAF . On August 1, 1919 he was accepted as a professional soldier (Permanent Commission) in the Royal Air Force and received the rank of Lieutenant Colonel (Wing Commander) , which was dated back to April 1, 1918. He graduated from Staff College Camberley between January 22, 1920 and March 18, 1921 and then took over the post as commander of the maintenance depot at RAF Harlescott Air Force Base. Subsequently, from November 1, 1921, he was one of the officers charged with building the RAF Staff College, Andover , and was there from April 1, 1922 a member of the management staff under the first commander of Air Commodore Robert Brooke-Popham . During this time he was promoted to Colonel (Group Captain) on June 30, 1922 .

After that, Joubert de la Ferté was first deputy head of the human resources department on April 1, 1923 and, in May 1924, deputy head of human resources. In January 1925 he resigned from this position and was given a six-month leave of absence from October 4, 1925 on half pay. He then took over on May 20, 1926 the post of Chief of Staff at the headquarters for air combat areas (HQ Fighting Area) at the RAF Kenley air base and switched to November 15, 1926 to the management staff of the Imperial Defense College in London .

After his promotion to Brigadier General (Air Commodore) on July 1, 1929, Joubert de la Ferté Air Commodore replaced Bertie Drew as Commander AOC (Air Officer Commanding) of No 23 Group RAF . He held this post until his replacement by Air Commodore Peregrine Fellowes on September 6, 1930. He himself then succeeded Air Commodore Edgar Ludlow-Hewitt as commander as RAF Staff College, Andover on September 7, 1930 and remained in this position until he was replaced by Air Vice Marshal Wilfrid Freeman on January 2, 1934 January 1933 also his promotion to major general (Air Vice Marshal) . On January 2, 1934, he broke Air Commodore Jack Baldwin as commander of the Fighting Area and held this position until the renaming of this unit in air attack command ( RAF Fighter Command ) on July 14, 1936..

Joubert de la Ferté, who became Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) on June 23, 1936 and was promoted to Lieutenant General ( Air Marshal ) on July 1, 1936 , took over the post of commander of the re-established No. . 11 (Fighter Group) . He handed over this post to Air Vice Marshal Leslie Gossage on September 1, 1936 . He himself then replaced Air Marshal Arthur Longmore on September 1, 1936 as Commanding General AOC-in-C (Air Officer Commander-in-Chief) of the Air Force Coastal Command ( RAF Coastal Command ) and held this post until his replacement by Air Marshal Frederick Bowhill on August 18, 1937. Then he was on 29 September 1937 again as a successor to air Marshal Edgar Ludlow-Hewitt commander of the air force in British India (RAF India) , which on 27 December 1938 in air forces in India have been renamed . In this use, he was beaten on June 9, 1938 to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) and has since had the suffix "Sir".

World War II and promotion to Air Chief Marshal

His successor as commander of the Air Forces in India was Air Marshal John Frederick Andrews Higgins on August 5, 1940 , while he himself was initially made available within the RAF. Shortly thereafter, he was Air Force consultant for combined operations and thereafter 1940 Assistant to the Chief of the Air Staff ( Chief of the Air Staff ) , Marshal of the Royal Air Force Charles Portal , and was responsible as such for broadcasting matters. He became known to a broad audience of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) through his radio commentary on the course of the war.

On June 14, 1941, he again took over from Air Marshal Frederick Bowhill as Commanding General of the RAF Coastal Command and held this position until he was replaced by Air Marshal John Slessor on February 5, 1943. As the commanding general of the RAF Coastal Command, he introduced a number of innovations such as flight and maintenance planning. He also advocated the production of the torpedo bomber Bristol Beaufort one to allow the attack groups (Strike Wings) provide that in attacks on convoys by Bristol Beaufighter - fighters were supported. On April 14, 1942 he was promoted to General (Air Chief Marshal) , this promotion was dated back to July 1, 1941.

As the successor to Air Chief Marshal Arthur Longmore, he took over the post of further Inspector General of the Air Force (Inspector-General of the RAF) next to Air Chief Marshal Edgar Ludlow-Hewitt on February 6, 1943 and remained in this position until his retirement on November 6, 1943. Subsequently, Air Chief Marshal Ludlow-Hewitt served as the sole Inspector-General of the RAF. Only three weeks later he was reactivated on November 23, 1943 and became Deputy Chief of Staff (Information and Civil Affairs) of the SEAC ( South East Asia Command ) . After the end of the war, he was finally retired on November 14, 1945, but served as head of the public relations department in the Air Force staff from 1946 to 1947. For his services he was also commander of the US Legion of Merit on April 25, 1947 and was also awarded the Grand Cross of the Dutch Order of Orange-Nassau on November 18, 1947 .

Publications

• The Fated Sky , 1952
• Rocket , 1957
• The forgotten ones. The story of the groundcrews , 1961
• One man's meat , 1962

Web links

• Biography on Air of Authority - A History of RAF Organization
• Bibliography ( Open Library )