Obituaries

Air Vice-Marshal Don Hills

Air Vice-Marshal Don Hills, who has died aged 95, was an RAF equipment officer and ensured that Allied aircraft could take the fight to the skies in the Second World War, no matter what the conditions; his work included developing the Takoradi supply route, which was crucial for victory in North Africa.
Hills joined No 1 (Fighter) Squadron in August 1939, and on September 3 (the day after war was declared) flew to Le Havre with an advance party to establish an airfield for the squadron's 15 Hurricanes, which arrived a few days later.
There he was responsible for procuring fuel and ensuring that ammunition and spare parts were always available – a difficult job made more complicated by a bitter winter . Activity increased in the spring, and fighting started in earnest when the Germans invaded the Low Countries on May 10. For the next five weeks the Hurricanes were involved in intensive combat, claiming 80 enemy aircraft destroyed or damaged.
After providing support for the Dunkirk evacuation, No 1 was forced to move seven times in quick succession, creating serious supply problems for Hills . Damaged aircraft and equipment had to be stripped of parts and abandoned in order to keep others serviceable. After a final patrol from Nantes, the surviving aircraft returned to England on June 17.
Hills was left in charge of 42 ground crew and headed west. During the retreat he was wounded by a bomb blast, but got his men to La Rochelle, where they boarded two Welsh colliers which took them to Plymouth. Hills was appointed MBE, a rare award for one so junior. He was also mentioned in despatches.
The son of a sergeant killed at Passchendaele, Eric Donald Hills was born at Wrotham, Kent, on January 26 1917 and educated at Maidstone Grammar School. He joined the RAF in January 1939. Within weeks of his return from France, Hills was on his way to East Africa. On arriving in Nairobi, he was ordered to take a convoy of many dozen trucks to Juba on the White Nile in southern Sudan, a journey of six days. There he was put in charge of the remote airstrip, and one of his first visitors was General Wavell, the Commander-in-Chief.
While at Juba, Hills was required to transport a battalion of Belgian Congo troops to Egypt. To do so he requisitioned a paddle steamer and some flat barges for a journey that took two weeks.
As the war against the Italians in Eritrea and Abyssinia developed, Hills moved to the headquarters in Nairobi. The bulk of the (largely obsolescent) aircraft involved were from the South African Air Force, and included biplane fighters and even a squadron of German-built Junkers 86 bombers. As a result, equipment issues were a major problem.
In addition to resolving these difficulties, Hills also helped develop and organise equipment and supplies for the crucial 3,500-mile air resupply route from Takoradi on the Gold Coast (now Ghana) to Khartoum and on to Cairo.
This provided a shorter alternative to the long sea route around the Cape of Good Hope to the Red Sea, and as many as 180 aircraft (many single-engine fighters) were ferried through remote airstrips in the French Saharan colonies and Sudan which had been carved out and were manned by small maintenance parties of RAF men. Air commanders in the Middle East considered it vital; Philip Guedalla, the historian, noted that "victory in Egypt came by the Takoradi Route".
In February 1943 Hills was posted to Egypt and, as the North African war reached a climax, crossed the desert through Libya and Tunisia to Algeria, where he commanded a maintenance unit resupplying air forces in Africa and Italy. He returned to Britain in December 1944.
A series of staff appointments followed. He was an instructor at RAF Digby, where a separate wing of the RAF College at Cranwell had been set up to train officer cadets for the RAF's Equipment and Secretarial Branches.
After two years in Washington, DC, with the USAF's Military Air Transport Service, Hills served at HQ Transport Command (when he travelled to Christmas Island to witness the nuclear tests). In January 1963 he was Senior Equipment Officer at the HQ Middle East Air Force in Aden at the time of the Radfan campaign.
Returning to Britain in April 1965, he took command of No 16 Maintenance Unit at RAF Stafford. This was the beginning of a long relationship with the town and the people in the area and ultimately led to his retirement to nearby Coton.
In September 1971 he was made Senior Air Staff Officer of Maintenance Command, responsible for the RAF's maintenance and support organisations. He retired in September 1973. He was appointed CBE in 1968 and CB in 1973.
Hills became a permanent president for the Department of the Environment on inquiries dealing with planning disputes. For a number of years he was Midland Area president of the Royal Air Force Association, and he and his wife threw themselves into working in the community of Staffordshire. A generous host, he lived life to the full and liked nothing more than a chat over a whisky or a good bottle of wine. Don Hills married, in September 1945, Pamela Sandeman . She died in 1989, and in 1991 he married, secondly, Cynthia Way, who died in 2001. He is survived by a son and daughter from his first marriage and a stepdaughter.
Air Vice-Marshal Don Hills, born January 26 1917, died January 27 2012


source: The Telegraph

Lynn "Buck" Compton

World War II veteran Lynn D. "Buck" Compton, whose military heroics were chronicled in the 2001 HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers," died Saturday at his daughter's home in Burlington, Wash., after suffering a heart attack in January, the Los Angeles Times reports. He was 90.

Compton, who was portrayed by Neal McDonough in the miniseries, was a first lieutenant in Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment in the Army's 101st Airborne Division.

Compton, who was among those who parachuted into Normandy on D-Day, was part of the group that destroyed German artillery during the battle at Brecourt Manor. During his tour in World War II, Compton also took part in Holland's Operation Market Garden and the Siege of Bastogne in Belgium.

Compton was awarded a Silver Star and a Purple Heart for his service.

In later years, Compton -- as a Los Angeles deputy district attorney in Los Angeles -- was part of the team that prosecuted Sirhan B. Sirhan for the assassination of U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. He was later appointed as a judge on the 2nd District Court of Appeal by then-California governor Ronald Reagan.

Compton's daughter, Syndee Compton, told the Times that her father was caught off-guard after gaining fame from the miniseries, which was based on historian Stephen E. Ambrose's 1992 book of the same name.

"I think it probably shocked all of them," Compton said. "I don't think any of them in their wildest dream thought at 80 years of age they'd be getting this attention."

Compton is survived by his two daughters, Tracy and Syndee, and four grandchildren

Polish hero Michael Issajewicz dead at age 91

Michael Issajewicz, who went by the nom-de-guerre "Mis" during WW2, died yesterday at age 91. Issajewicz was a soldier in the Polish Home Army and a member of the team that assassinated SS Police general Franz Kutschera in 1944.

Kutschera, noted even among Nazis for his brutality, was the SS Police commander in German-occupied Warsaw. He was sentenced to death by a special underground Polish court for crimes against the Polish nation, in particular for the mass murder of civilian hostages. The Polish government-in-exile approved the sentence and it was carried out on February 1, 1944.

Kutschera's residence was less than 150 meters from his office, and was surrounded by a high wall topped with razor wire. The area was heavily guarded, since headquarters for the Warsaw Gestapo headquarters, the Warsaw garrison and police headquarters were all located nearby. (For safety reason, Kutschera always traveled the 150 meters from home to office by car)

Issajewicz drove the vehicle that blocked Kutschera's car from entering the secure compound. Two AK soldiers, Bronisław Pietraszewicz Zdzisław Poradzk, ran up to Kutschera's limousine and opened fire at point-blank range with Sten guns. Issajewicz then jumped out of his vehicle, ran up to Kutschera, and killed him with a single Luger shot to the head.

Issajewiecz was later captured, tortured, and sent to Stutthof concentration camp, but survived the war to be awarded Poland's highest decoration for bravery, the Virtuti Militari.

A brave hero of Poland.

Farewell to a brave soldier.

Flight Lieutenant Richard Jones

A FIGHTER pilot who battled Nazis over the skies of Britain has died at the age of 93.
Flight Lieutenant Richard Jones, of Witney, fought in the Battle of Britain, a conflict in which pilots had a life expectancy of just a week.
The battle took place between July and October 1940 and ensured Hitler's forces were unable to invade the UK.
His friends and family last night paid tribute to a "very popular" man who loved to fly. He died in his sleep on Tuesday night.
Mr Jones was brought up in Grazeley in Berkshire and joined the RAF reserves in 1938 before the outbreak of war. He was selected for the 19 Squadron in Cambridgeshire, which became the first to fly the legendary Spitfires, and later joined 64 Squadron at RAF Kenley, Greater London. He joined the Battle of Britain on September 16, 1940, after just 17 hours' flying experience in a Spitfire.
Mr Jones flew up to four raids a day and was shot down by the Luftwaffe while flying over Kent. He was unscathed in the attack and went on to become one of the very few pilots to fly for the entire duration of the Battle of Britain.
In 1941, Mr Jones was posted to the De Havilland Aircraft Company, based in Witney, and test-piloted repaired Spitfires and Hurricanes.
He was awarded six wartime medals and, in 1944, was given the King's Commendation for valuable services in the air.
After the war, Mr Jones was a sales director at Hartford Motors in Oxford and an usher at Witney Magistrates' Court.
In 1989, he met and became friends with Gunther Domaschk, a former Luftwaffe fighter pilot who had fought against him during the Battle of Britain.
Mr Jones was a regular feature at Armistice Day services in Witney.
Speaking to the Oxford Mail about his war experiences in 2010, he said: "We knew we were in a pretty grave situation as nobody else was available at the time. We had a pretty good idea we were in for it. We knuckled down and accepted it."
He leaves three children, Frances, 70, Christopher, 68, and Susan, 59, three grandchildren and three great grandchildren. His wife, Elizabeth, died in 2009. Christopher Jones said: "My father was a very popular and extremely affable gentleman who was liked by everyone."
Mr Jones's friend Gordon Clack, 82, of Ducklington, also a former RAF pilot, said: "Richard was a great chap. As a young lad, I would cycle up to the airfield and sit on the boundary wall for hours watching Richard taking off and landing."
Battle of Britain Fighter Association secretary Patrick Tootal said: "Richard was a great supporter of the fighter association and a great colleague for all the surviving few."
Mr Tootal said there were now only about 60 veterans of the Battle of Britain still alive.
A funeral service for Mr Jones will take place at High Street Methodist Church in Witney on Friday at 1pm.

source: Oxford Mail

To one of the Few. Rest In Peace sir.

Admiral Sir Raymond Lygo

Admiral Sir Raymond Lygo, who has died 87, was a successful Fleet Air Arm pilot during the war and Acting First Sea Lord after it; in his second career he was chief executive of British Aerospace and played a small but key role in the "Westland affair" of 1986, which brought down two ministers and, very nearly, the government of Margaret Thatcher. After retiring from BAe he caused further ructions when he admitted that the company routinely quoted unrealistically low prices for defence hardware, then put up the prices once the MoD had awarded it the contract.
"It's a well-known fact, whether anybody admits it or not, [that] you'll never get any programme through government if you ever revealed the real cost," he told the BBC in 2004. "Whatever you want to get through government, you have to first of all establish what is the Treasury likely to approve in terms of money? And then you think, what can you offer for these terms within the parameters that have been set?"
As a result, Lygo said, BAe would bid low and then inflate its prices after the contract had been agreed. "And so then the price goes up and they have a decision whether they are going to continue or cancel. And the cancellation costs will be greater than continuing with it. So normally you say 'OK, we'll continue.' But that's life in Whitehall, I'm afraid."
Raymond Derek Lygo was born at Ilford, Essex, on March 15 1924. His father was a compositor on The Times, and after intermittent education at Ilford County High School, Essex, and Clark's College, Bromley, Ray left without qualifications at 14 to become a messenger boy for the paper's editor, Geoffrey Dawson. In November 1940, inspired by the news of the Fleet Air Arm's successful attack on Taranto, he resolved to join the Service , and practised reading without the glasses he had worn since childhood: he was passed into the Royal Navy as a Naval Airman 2nd Class in 1942 .
Lygo crossed the Atlantic in the troopship Queen Mary, earned his wings at Kingston, Ontario, and was soon flying Seafire IIcs in 887 Naval Air Squadron from the aircraft carrier Indefatigable on Russian convoy duties, and during attacks on the German battleship Tirpitz.
In 1945 he flew fighter cover during raids on oil refineries in Indonesia and on the Sakashima islands. On April 1 1945 Indefatigable became the first British ship to be hit by a kamikaze pilot: Lygo saw "the great red spot on the side of a Japanese Zero" hit the carrier's island as he himself launched from the flight deck and climbed away. Though the ship recovered quickly and he was able to land-on normally at the end his sortie, he could never forget the smell of blood, steam and oil when he returned.
After the war Lygo decided to stay on in the Navy, qualifying as an instructor and transferring to a permanent commission. He converted to jets, learned to fly helicopters and was type-qualified in the four-engine Lancaster bomber, noting with glee that the only other four-engined vehicle he operated was the aircraft carrier Ark Royal.
His first seagoing command was the frigate Lowestoft, where he introduced aviation-style checklists for all procedures, unknown until then in the Navy; these did not help prevent one mishap in Trinidad, however, when the engine room artificer forgot to follow his checklist and Lowestoft crashed through a hut at the end of the pier.
Later Lygo took command of the new Leander-class frigate Juno, where his insistence on the highest possible standards of efficiency and cleanliness led to her being nicknamed the "Royal Yacht".
He commanded Ark Royal from 1969 to 1971, becoming a national figure after he was exonerated by an official board of inquiry, following a collision with a Soviet destroyer. The Soviet Kotlin class ship had been aggressively shadowing Ark Royal during a Nato exercise, but cut one manoeuvre too fine. Lygo avoided cutting her in half only by going full astern, but seven Soviet sailors were thrown into the sea by the collision, and two were killed.
Senior appointments in the Navy followed, as Flag Officer Commanding Carriers and Amphibious Ships, Director General Naval Manpower and Training, Vice-Chief of Naval Staff, and acting First Sea Lord.
He was appointed KCB in 1977 and left the Navy, aged 54, the following year.
Lygo went on to join British Aerospace as managing director of its guided missile manufacturing division, later known as the Dynamics Group, advancing to divisional chairman and membership of the BAe board in 1980. He became a forceful salesman of Rapier ground-to-air missile systems (dismissing reports that one major sale was in difficulties as "codswallop") and an enthusiastic advocate for UK aerospace as a whole. The industry was, he declared, "leaner, more aggressive and more viable than at any time in its history". In 1983 he was named by Aviation Week Space Technology as one of the industry's most significant contributors, the citation reading that he had introduced "the ginger of private enterprise" after consolidation and nationalisation had threatened to stultify it. (Ginger was also the colour of his hair.)
In 1983 he became chairman of BAe's US subsidiary and a group managing director. He was a prominent spokesman for BAe during the 1985 privatisation sale of the government's remaining stake in the group, and in the campaign to secure state "launch aid" for BAe's participation in the Airbus A320 project. He was promoted again, to group chief executive, at the beginning of 1986.
But Lygo immediately found himself painfully entangled in the politics of Westland, Britain's last helicopter manufacturer, which had come close to bankruptcy and was about to form an alliance with Sikorsky, the American helicopter maker, as its new major shareholder.
The defence secretary Michael Heseltine strongly favoured an alternative "European solution" — a bid from a consortium of French, German and Italian companies, belatedly joined and led by BAe. Margaret Thatcher and her Trade Secretary, Leon Brittan, declared it a matter for Westland itself to decide.
Heseltine famously stormed out of the Cabinet over the Westland issue, and Brittan resigned after admitting misleading the House of Commons over the matter of a letter he had received from BAe's chairman, Sir Austin Pearce, referring to a late-night meeting between Brittan and Lygo, at which the latter understood Brittan to be saying that BAe should withdraw from the European consortium as a matter of national interest.
Lygo's notes of the meeting were explicit on the point, but Brittan denied having said any such thing — and a few days later Lygo felt obliged to withdraw his assertion, suggesting instead that Brittan might have advised him to lower his own profile as a spokesman for the consortium. It was apparent that Lygo's straightforward naval style put him at a disadvantage amid such sinuous and heated political machinations.
The last strategic move of Lygo's BAe tenure was the acquisition in 1988 of the Rover car company — which later came to be seen as a distraction from the group's aerospace investment priorities. He retired in 1989, but took up the chairmanship of TNT Express, the delivery service, and a number of other directorships.
He also involved himself in a number of bodies which encouraged management education and enterprise, including the Industrial Society and the Prince's Youth Business Trust, and undertook a review of the management of the Prison Service.
As president of the St Vincent Association, Lygo proudly took the salute at annual reunion marches through Gosport to HMS St Vincent, where thousands of young naval airmen had entered the Service. He was also a keen fundraiser for the National Deaf-Blind and Rubella Association.
His autobiography, Collision Course: Lygo Shoots Back, was published in 2002. He maintained his love of flying and sold his personal aircraft only a few months before his death.
Ray Lygo married, in 1950, Pepper van Osten, of Florida. She died in 2004, and he is survived by their two sons and a daughter. In 2009 he married Janette Brown, who also survives him.

Admiral Sir Raymond Lygo, born March 15 1924, died March 7 2012

source: The Telegraph