Everitt flew 56 sorties between 1940 and 1943. In the early 1950s he commanded the Flying Wing at RAF Nicosia in Cyprus
Tenacious wartime bomber pilot awarded the DSO and two DFCs who later commanded the RAF’s V-bomber station at Gaydon
Joining No 50 Squadron flying twinengined Handley Page Hampden bombers in September 1940 as the Battle of Britain raged over England, Hugh Everitt took part in the early stages of the strategic air offensive against Germany, as the RAF’s bombers struggled, with the primitive navigational equipment available to them, first to find, and then inflict, damage on targets in occupied Europe. After resting (though not completely) from operations during the first half of 1942 he was to return to a squadron now equipped with the superlative fourengined Avro Lancaster, and a Bomber Command which, under the new and dynamic leadership of Sir Arthur “Bomber” Harris, was gradually being forged into an instrument capable of striking meaningful blows at Germany.
A resolute and wise pilot, and an inspiration to his crew, Everitt was noted for his tenacity in delivering his aircraft’s attacks on targets and his success in securing the flash photograph evidence for their efficacy. In 56 sorties flown between 1940 and 1943 he was awarded the DSO and two DFCs. In the postwar jet age he flew the first of the RAF’s V-bombers, the Vickers Valiant, and later commanded the V-bomber station at Gaydon in Warwickshire.
Gordon Hugh Everitt was born in 1917 and educated at King’s College School, Wimbledon, from which he joined Hambros Bank. With war clouds gathering he joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve in June 1938 and learnt to fly.
When war broke out in September 1939 he was called up and trained as a bomber pilot. Joining 50 Squadron he flew on a number of night operations over Germany in its Hampdens which had been serving with the RAF since 1938 but had been provided with a more effective defensive armament after suffering heavy losses in the early, daylight, raids. Notwithstanding the cramped accommodation which made it unpopular among its four-man crews, the Hampden was surprisingly effective among the “first generation” Second World War RAF bombers, which included the Wellington and Whitley, and Everitt flew on one of its raids to Berlin, a round trip of 1,000 miles. For his first tour of operations he was awarded the DFC.
He was then rested from ops and posted to an operational training unit, instructing bomber crews. It was not to be such a “rest” as might have been imagined, because in the spring of 1942 Bomber Harris was planning to demonstrate to the Germans — and his political masters — the destructive power of his Command when its aircraft were deployed en masse over a large city. This thinking led to the first of the 1,000-bomber raids, against Cologne. “Area bombing” — though not originally his idea, found in Harris an enthusiastic executant.
As Harris did not actually have enough frontline bombers to carry out such a plan, aircraft were drawn from training units, as well as from Coastal Command, to make up the magical four figures, and Everitt found himself plucked from his training berth as the captain of a Wellington for the raid which took place on the night of May 31/June 1, 1942. Of the 1,046 bombers that took off about 910 are estimated to have found the target, and of these 36 were lost. The city was not destroyed, but the damage to factories and houses was a graphic demonstration to the Nazi leadership of their country’s vulnerability to the growing might of Allied air power. Everitt and his training crew also took part in a similar operation against Essen two days later, though this achieved nothing like the success of the attack on Cologne.
Everitt returned to his training unit, but in June he was back on operations with 50 Squadron, now equipped with Lancasters. Among targets against which he flew were Kiel, Milan, Genoa and Aachen. During the Aachen raid in October 1942 his Lancaster was hit by flak over the target, and his two starboard engines were put out of action. He managed however to nurse the stricken bomber back to the Kent coast and in spite of dense cloud down to 300ft was able to locate RAF West Malling where he executed a wheels-up landing. For this he was awarded the DSO. After a couple of days’ leave he took part in attacks on the Baltic port of Wismar and the naval base at Kiel, and was awarded a Bar to his DFC at the end of his tour.
He was then posted as chief instructor to a bomber training unit before going to the Air Ministry where for the rest of the war he worked in the Directorate of Bomber Operations.
After the war Everitt was given a permanent commission. He took part in the Berlin Airflift of 1948-49, flying supplies into the beleaguered city by Douglas Dakota. Another relief operation of the postwar period was to the starving population of the Aden Protectorate, which he carried out when he commanded 114 Squadron in the Canal Zone. Other postwar commands were of the Flying Wing at RAF Nicosia in Cyprus in the early 1950s and of RAF Gaydon in 1960. In 1963 he went to Ghana as head of the RAF training team there. In a turbulent time in which diplomatic relations with Britain were broken off and then in 1966 President Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown by a coup while he was out of the country, Everitt was thankful to get out of the country unscathed.
Everitt retired from the RAF in 1967. He was advanced to CBE that year, having been appointed OBE in 1953. He also held the Air Efficiency Award (AE). In retirement he enjoyed squash, golf and parachute jumping, and in his eighties abseiled down Berry Head at the southern side of Tor Bay, Devon, for charity.
He married Enid Thomas in 1942. She died in 1962, and in 1964 he married Sheila Mercer. She died in 2005 and he is survived by a daughter of his first marriage and by a stepson.
Group Captain Hugh Everitt, CBE, DSO, DFC and Bar, AE, bomber pilot, was born on December 29, 1917. He died on July 31, 2012, aged 94
Charlie Daley
Остался в живых после "бойни в Ворму" когда эсэсовцы из ЛАГ убили около 80 британских пленных в мае 1940 года
