Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory | |
|---|---|
 Sir Trafford Leigh-Malloryc. 1944 | |
| Born | (1892-07-11)11 July 1892 |
| Died | 14 November 1944(1944-11-14) (aged 52) |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Branch | British Army (1914–1918) Royal Air Force (1918–1944) |
| Years of service | 1914–1944 |
| Rank | Air Chief Marshal |
| Commands | Allied Expeditionary Air Force (1943–1944) Fighter Command (1942–1943) No. 11 Group (1940–1942) No. 12 Group (1937–1940) No. 2 Flying Training School (1934–1935) School of Army Co-operation (1927–1929) No. 8 Squadron (1917–1918) No. 15 Squadron (1917) |
| Battles / wars | |
| Awards | Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Distinguished Service Order &Bar Mentioned in Despatches (3) Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta (Poland) Order of Kutuzov, 1st Class (USSR) Chief Commander of the Legion of Merit (United States) |
Air Chief MarshalSir Trafford Leigh-Mallory,KCB, DSO &Bar (11 July 1892 – 14 November 1944) was a senior commander in theRoyal Air Force. Leigh-Mallory served as aRoyal Flying Corps pilot and squadron commander during theFirst World War. Remaining in the newly formed RAF after the war, Leigh-Mallory served in a variety of staff and training appointments throughout the 1920s and 1930s.
At the start of theSecond World War, Leigh-Mallory wasAir Officer Commanding (AOC)No. 12 (Fighter) Group and during theBattle of Britain. However he has been criticised for his political machinations within theAir Ministry, particularly withSholto Douglas, that led to the replacement ofHugh Dowding andKeith Park on 25 November 1940, less than a month after the end of the Battle of Britain. Leigh-Mallory replaced Park atNo. 11 (Fighter) Group and Sholto Douglas replaced Dowding as head ofRAF Fighter Command.[1] In 1942, Leigh-Mallory became Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of Fighter Command before being selected in 1943 to be the C-in-C of theAllied Expeditionary Air Force, which made him the air commander during the AlliedInvasion of Normandy.
Leigh-Mallory died in November 1944 while en route toCeylon to take up the post of Air Commander-in-ChiefSouth East Asia Command when his aircraft crashed in theFrench Alps, killing all eight people on-board including his wife.[2]
Trafford Leigh-Mallory[3] was born inMobberley,Cheshire, the son of Herbert Leigh Mallory, (1856–1943),Rector of Mobberley, who legally changed his surname to Leigh-Mallory in 1914.[4] He was the younger brother ofGeorge Mallory, the noted mountaineer.[5] Leigh-Mallory grew up in a large house with many servants including a butler, a valet and a footman as well as numerous maids and gardeners. He was educated atHaileybury and atMagdalene College, Cambridge[5] where he was a member of a literary club and where he made the acquaintance ofArthur Tedder, the futureMarshal of the Royal Air Force. He passed hisBachelor of Laws degree and had applied to theInner Temple in London to become abarrister when, in 1914, war broke out.
Leigh-Mallory immediately volunteered to join aTerritorial Force battalion of theKing's (Liverpool Regiment) as a private.[6] He was commissioned as asecond lieutenant on 3 October 1914[7] and transferred to theLancashire Fusiliers though officer training kept him in England when his battalion embarked. In the spring of 1915, he went to the front with theSouth Lancashire Regiment[6] and was wounded[5] during an attack at theSecond Battle of Ypres. He was promoted tolieutenant on 21 June 1915.[8]
After recovering from his wounds, Leigh-Mallory joined theRoyal Flying Corps in January 1916 and was accepted for pilot training.[6] On 7 July 1916, he was posted, as a lieutenant in the RFC,[9] toNo. 7 Squadron,[6] where he flew on bombing, reconnaissance and photographic operations during theBattle of the Somme.
He was then transferred toNo. 5 Squadron in July 1916[6] before returning to England. He was promoted to temporarycaptain on 2 November 1916.[10]
Leigh-Mallory's first combat command wasNo. 8 Squadron in November 1917.[6] In the period after theBattle of Cambrai, No. 8 Squadron was involved inarmy cooperation, directing tanks and artillery. At theArmistice, Leigh-Mallory wasmentioned in dispatches and awarded theDistinguished Service Order.[6]
After the war, Leigh-Mallory thought of re-entering the legal profession, but with little prospect of a law career, he stayed in the recently createdRoyal Air Force (RAF), with promotion tomajor on 1 August 1919 (the rank was renamed "squadron leader" on the same date),[11] and command of the Armistice Squadron.[6]
Promoted towing commander on 1 January 1925,[12] Leigh-Mallory passed through theRAF Staff College in 1925 and received command of the School of Army Cooperation in 1927 before eventually being posted to theArmy Staff College, Camberley in 1930.[6] He was now a leading authority on army cooperation and in 1931, lectured at theRoyal United Services Institute on air cooperation with mechanized forces. He spent a little over a year in theProtectorate of Uganda, arriving in the country in the late autumn of 1929 and returning to England in December of 1931.
Promoted togroup captain on 1 January 1932,[13] Leigh-Mallory received a posting to the Air Ministry in 1932 and was then assigned to the British delegation at theDisarmament Conference in Geneva[6] under the auspices of theLeague of Nations, where he made many contacts. After the collapse of the conference, he returned to the Air Ministry and attended theImperial Defense College, the most senior of the staff colleges.[6] However, lack of senior command experience meant a spell as commander of No. 2 Flying School and station commander atRAF Digby before serving as a staff officer overseas.[6] He was posted to the RAF in Iraq in Christmas 1935,[6] and, having been promoted toair commodore on 1 January 1936,[14] he returned to England to be appointed commander of No. 12 Group, Fighter Command in December 1937.[6] He was visitingHarlaxton Manor when he received the news that he was now commander of No. 12 Group.[6]
Leigh-Mallory took command of 12 Group and proved an energetic organiser and leader. On 1 November 1938, he was promoted toair vice-marshal,[15] one of the younger air vice-marshals then serving in the RAF. He was greatly liked by his staff[citation needed], but his relations with his airfield station commanders were strained.
During theBattle of Britain, Leigh-Mallory quarreled with Air Vice-MarshalKeith Park, the commander of 11 Group.
Park, who was responsible for the defence of south east England and London, had stated that 12 Group was not doing enough to protect his airfields in the south-east.
This was because Leigh-Mallory had devised withSquadron LeaderDouglas Bader a massed fighter formation known as the "Big Wing", which they used to hunt German bomber formations.
Leigh-Mallory was critical of the tactics of Park who was backed by SirHugh Dowding, head of Fighter Command. Leigh-Mallory believed that not enough was being done to allow wing-sized formations to operate successfully.[5]
The problem was that many RAF fighter stations and other vital targets were in the county of Kent, relatively close to German airfields in France.
To defend these targets before bombs could be dropped on them needed quick reaction from RAF fighters. To do this there was not time to form fighters into a large "Wing" before they were ready for combat with German bombers. This was critical if they were to be attacked before they had already dropped their bombs on vital targets.
Leigh-Mallory then worked energetically in political circles to bring about the removal of Park from command of 11 Group. The exaggerated claims for the effectiveness of theDuxford Big Wing successes played a part.
However, throughout the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940 , his lack of rapid support for Park's 11 Group contributed to the damage that theLuftwaffe was able to inflict on 11 Group's airfields.[16] Fortunately, after RAF bomber raids on Berlin (which inflicted little damage) Goering was so incensed that he diverted the German bombing effort from the RAF fighter airfields to London. This produced much damage to London but saved Fighter Command bases from further destruction that could have been disastrous to their continued ability to respond to German attacks.
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After the Battle of Britain, Dowding retired and Air Chief MarshalCharles Portal, the new Chief of the Air Staff, transferred Park to a new post.
Leigh-Mallory took over from Park as commander of 11 Group in December 1940.[6]
One of the reasons for Leigh-Mallory's appointment to command 11 Group was that he was seen as an offensively-minded leader in theTrenchard mould. Once appointed he soon introduced wing-sized fighter sweeps into France, known as "rodeos"[17][page needed] (when accompanied by bombers to provoke enemy fighters, these were known as"Circus" operations).
However, Leigh-Mallory came in for criticism as these raids over enemy territory caused heavy RAF casualties with over 500 pilots lost in 1941 alone, losing four aircraft for each German aircraft destroyed and having little effect on ground targets. Indeed, during this period the German armed forces were mobilizing forOperation Barbarossa and fewLuftwaffe fighters remained in western Europe. It was indeed a steep learning curve for Leigh Mallory despite the fact that theLuftwaffe had made similar mistakes during the Battle of Britain and there were few other senior RAF commanders who had understanding of this. One of his staff officers pointed out: "In my opinion we learned a hell of a lot – how to get these raids in, by deceiving radar and by counter-offensive techniques. [In the Middle East] they were still in the First World War business – they'd learned none of the deception techniques such as sending in high-level fighters and sneaking the bombers in underneath." Keeping 75 squadrons of fighters, mainly to conduct ineffective offensive operations from Britain during 1941, was also questionable whileMalta andSingapore were only defended by older, obsolete types of aircraft. The RAF's best commanders and air-warfare tacticians were in the Mediterranean area around this time achieving greater success over Malta and North Africa than their counterparts back home.[citation needed] Leigh-Mallory was promoted to actingair marshal on 13 July 1942.[18]
In November 1942, Leigh-Mallory replacedSholto Douglas as head of Fighter Command[6] and was promoted to the temporary rank of air marshal on 1 December 1942.[19]
He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in January 1943 and following a tour of air and army headquarters in Africa began lobbying for a unified command of the Allied air forces for the forthcoming invasion of Europe. There was considerable resistance to such a post with none of the vested air force interests – includingArthur Tedder,Arthur Harris at Bomber Command, andCarl Spaatz of the US Army Air Force – appearing interested in ceding any authority or autonomy. This was, of course, exactly why a unified commander was needed and Leigh-Mallory, with his experience with army cooperation, was a candidate for the job. In August 1943, Leigh-Mallory was appointed commander-in-chief of theAllied Expeditionary Air Force for the Normandy invasion.[6] He was promoted to the substantive rank of air vice-marshal on 15 December 1943[20] and to the substantive rank of air marshal on 1 January 1944.[21]
As many of these "interdiction" bombing missions took place against transport nodes, such as towns and villages, Leigh-Mallory came under political pressure to limit the effects of attacks on French civilians. He resisted, insisting that sacrifices were unfortunate but necessary if the air plan was to have any effect. His air plan succeeded in greatly slowing the mobilization of the German Army and his experience at army cooperation paid dividends.[citation needed] GeneralBernard Montgomery was pleased with the air support and told the War Office: "We must definitely keep Leigh-Mallory as Air Commander-in-Chief. He is the only airman who is out to win the land battle and has no jealous reactions."[citation needed]
Leigh-Mallory married Doris Sawyer in 1915; the couple had two children.[5] He was a keen sailor and cricket fan.
After one of his children survived a serious illness, Leigh-Mallory became interested infaith healing and spiritualism. He was a practicing Christian and consistently donated portions of his salary to charity, which he kept private during his life, and it was only revealed after his death. In one anecdote, he suggested he had seen the ghost ofEmily Langton Massingberd, the women's rights campaigner, atGunby Hall inLincolnshire. When the building was threatened with demolition during the Second World War to make way for an airfield, Leigh-Mallory intervened to save it. The property is now managed by theNational Trust.[22]
On 16 August 1944, with the Battle of Normandy almost over, Leigh-Mallory was appointed Air Commander-in-Chief of South East Asia Command (SEAC) with the temporary rank ofair chief marshal.[23] But before he could take up his post, on 14 November, he and his wife were killed en route toBurma when theirAvro YorkMW126,[2] flown by Squadron Leader Charles Gordon Drake Lancaster (DFC and Bar),[24] crashed in the French Alps, killing all on board.[5] A court of inquiry found that the accident was a consequence of bad weather and might have been avoided if Leigh-Mallory had not insisted that the flight proceed in such poor conditions against the advice of his aircrew.[5] His replacement at SEAC was hisBattle of Britain rival Air Marshal SirKeith Park.[25]
He and his wife are buried, alongside eight aircrew, in Le Rivier d'Allemont, 15 miles (24 km) east-southeast ofGrenoble,[26] a short distance below the site of the air crash. To mark the 60th anniversary of the accident and Leigh-Mallory's death, the localcommune opened a small museum near the crash site, dedicated to him, in 2004.[27]
Battle of Britain-class steam railway locomotive number 34109, built for theSouthern Region of British Railways in 1950, was namedSir Trafford Leigh-Mallory.[28]
| Military offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Air Officer CommandingNo. 12 Group 1937–1940 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Air Officer CommandingNo. 11 Group 1940–1942 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Commander-in-ChiefFighter Command 1942–1943 | Succeeded by |
