Group Captain
Dennis Lyster.
Group Captain Dennis Lyster, who has died aged 99, was a pilot who flew on the RAF's first strategic bombing operation of the Second World War and completed 61 further missions, winning the
DSO and
DFC.
On the night of May 15/16 1940, Lyster's Hampden bomber of 83 Squadron was one of 99 aircraft that took off to strike industrial targets in the Ruhr following the German advance into the Low Countries – the first attack of the conflict on the factories feeding the German war machine.
Within a few days, the Hampdens were called on to assist the beleaguered British Expeditionary Force in France and Lyster bombed elements of the German advance including the railway system used to bring up reinforcements. Following the Dunkirk evacuation, the bomber force commenced a campaign against German industry, ports and oil installations.
Lyster attacked Scharnhorst at Kiel on July 1, but once the Battle of Britain was under way the Hampdens were increasingly allotted targets associated with an anticipated German invasion of England. Lyster laid mines at the entrance of the port of Lubeck, bombed the docks at Stettin and Hamburg, and the submarine base at Lorient.
When reconnaissance photographs identified a build-up of invasion barges at the Channel ports, Lyster and his fellow crews bombed those gathering at Antwerp and Ostend. By the end of October, he had completed 39 bombing operations, including a visit to Berlin, and was awarded the DFC.
The son of a farmer, George Dennis Lyster was born on April 16 1911 at East Oakley and attended Farnham Grammar School. He was deeply interested in machinery and drove early tractors and maintained the farm's electricity supply with a single Blackstone 110 volt generator.
The annual visit of some Bristol Fighters to his father's farm made Lyster determined to be a pilot. He took lessons in early 1930 and his first solo flight created a stir. After getting lost, he landed at a nearby RAF airfield where he bought fuel for two shillings and sixpence and asked for directions home.
Lyster joined the RAF in January 1935 and completed his pilot training at the RAF's flying school in Egypt before joining 83 Squadron to fly the elegant Hind biplane bomber. Re-equipped with the Hampden in late 1938, the squadron settled at Scampton near Lincoln.
Lyster had always had a deep interest in navigation and at the end of 1940 attended a specialist navigation course before returning to No 83 as a flight commander. The navigators on Hampdens were usually inexperienced pilots, so Lyster keenly monitored their efforts. Isolated in his pilot's cockpit, he had a map strapped to his knee and carried his own sextant on his long-range operations. He was thus sometimes able to correct the efforts of his "navigator".
Over the next few months he attacked numerous German cities, flying inadequate and unheated bombers in all weathers on sorties that were often in excess of seven and eight hours. After completing another 22 operations, Lyster was rested and became an instructor at a bomber training unit. He was assessed as exceptional and was awarded the DSO.
For the remainder of the war, Lyster remained a bombing instructor but, on the night of June 1/2 1942, he was co-opted to take part in the second of the Thousand Bomber Raids when Essen was the target. For his services as a chief flying instructor he was awarded the AFC. After the war, he completed the RAF Staff College course at Haifa before joining the staff HQ Middle East Air Force in Egypt.
Whenever Lyster was given a ground appointment he made strenuous efforts to fly as often as possible. In February 1948, he took a Spitfire from Fayid in Egypt to the South African Air Force base at Waterkloof near Johannesburg, a flight which involved 10 refuelling stops. He then demonstrated the aircraft at airfields in South Africa and in Northern and Southern Rhodesia.
Lyster converted to jets in 1951 and in January 1953 was appointed to command the Examination Wing of the Central Flying School. It was the responsibility of Exam Wing, or the "trappers" as they were irreverently known, to test and standardise the flying instructors of the RAF. They were also in great demand by overseas air forces and the wing made annual tours worldwide. In October 1954 Lyster, flying his own transport aircraft, led a team to Ceylon, Australia and New Zealand to test the instructors of those air forces. At the end of his period in command, Lyster was classed as an A1 instructor of exceptional ability and was awarded a Bar to his AFC.
He commanded the fighter airfield at Stradishall in Suffolk, where he flew the latest jets, and his final appointment was at Headquarters Fighter Command. He retired in January 1961 having flown 64 different types of aircraft.
After leaving the RAF, he renovated a row of fisherman's cottages in West Bay, Dorset. With his son he purchased a dairy farm near Honiton when he became involved in farm management. He was well known in the area for loud thuds as he dynamited tree stumps to clear his land. A skilled horseman and shot, he maintained a deep interest and love for the countryside and for nature.
He finally settled on a farm at Sidbury in Devon, amazing his family and friends when he persuaded a surgeon to fit him with a replacement knee when in his mid-nineties. He was a long-standing supporter of the British Legion.
Dennis Lyster died on June 24. He married Molly Richardson in 1935; she died in 1983. He later married Pauline Broadburn. She survives him with a son from his first marriage.
source: The Telegraph.