In October 1942 Lakin was commanding the submarine Ursula during the Allied landings in North Africa. He was on his way back to Gibraltar when, on November 11, he encountered on the surface the German submarine U-73. Lakin fired six torpedoes from a range of 5,200 yards, and, as he later told Time magazine: “Through the periscope I saw ... his stern sink lower and lower, and his bow came up out of the water, right straight up, and woof! We got credit for the sinking and I collected a DSO. That is the standard payment for a submarine.” After the war it was discovered that U-73 had in fact escaped.
On his next patrol, in late November, Lakin was ordered to the Gulf of Genoa with a detachment of commandos. The aim was to distract Axis forces from attacking Allied convoys off Tunisia. Despite damage to his boat caused by bad weather, Lakin reconnoitred the French coast off Hyères, where he found several targets close inshore; but the sea was too rough to set his torpedoes for shallow running.
Off Savona, northern Italy, he spent the day watching the railway, and just after dark closed to 400 yards to land his commandos. They blew up part of the railway line, and when a train “popped up” from a tunnel Lakin shelled it, hitting the overhead power cable which caused a sheet of flame between several gantries. Next he met an anti-submarine schooner, Togo; he engaged her with his gun, boarded her and captured her secret books.
Moving south, Lakin entered the harbour at Maurizio, coming in slowly and soundlessly, on the surface. He could see traffic moving in the town, lovers strolling on the seafront, the glow of a cigarette; and he could hear dogs barking. It was so peaceful that he almost regretted lobbing 25 shells into an oil-tank farm and shelling the pier.
Then, on the morning of December 28, he sank a heavily escorted freighter, and two days later he carried out a moonlight attack on a convoy of three ships escorted by four destroyers. This time, however, he had taken one risk too many: he was run down by one of the merchant ships, which smashed both periscopes, took away the bridge and jammed the conning tower hatch. Thus blinded, rather than attempt to take the route to Malta through minefields Lakin headed for Algiers for emergency repairs, completing the 500-mile journey in six days; he surfaced only at night to use Ursula’s gyrocompass, his only remaining navigational device.
His crew called him “Lucky Lakin”, but he hated the nickname and never believed in it, always insisting: “No bloody luck, just good planning and professionalism.”
Lieutenant-Colonel Terry Willett
Pioneering artillery spotter pilot who later became an expert on the criminal aspects of dangerous driving
In 1940, after being evacuated from Dunkirk, Willett volunteered for pilot training. An enthusiastic amateur pilot, Major Charles Bazeley, had suggested that pilots in light aircraft would be more likely to survive than the men in the baskets of static balloons used as air observation posts for artillery; Willett was one of six “gunner” subalterns selected to test the theory.
He became a member of “D” Flight, commanded by Bazeley, and was trained in artillery target spotting and fire control techniques. Many in the RAF had reservations because the aircraft were unarmed and had to fly at low levels. The pilots had to have exceptional skills if they were going to survive.
Bazeley’s flight proved so successful, however, that 12 AOP squadrons were eventually formed. In 1942 Willett was promoted to major and given the task of raising and training No 654 (AOP) Squadron RAF.
After training on Tiger Moths and then Austers, the squadron was soon in action. It deployed to North Africa in March 1943, carrying out more than 70 shoots in support of the Eighth Army at Enfidaville and then taking part in the Sicilian and Italian campaigns. It flew several thousand sorties, proving especially valuable in its hazardous role as tank hunter
Group Captain Tom Barrett
Station commander at RAF Northolt who led his squadron into war zones
Barrett was the first Jaguar pilot to serve on the Air Warfare Centre's Operational Evaluation Unit at Boscombe Down, after which he completed a tour on the air staff of the MoD. In October 2000 he returned to the Jaguar force at 54 Squadron as a flight commander. On promotion to wing commander in 2003, Barrett served on the staff of HQ 1 Group before attending the USAF Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama.
On his return he was appointed to command 32 (The Royal) Squadron at Northolt. The squadron's task was to provide a rapid deployment capability for high-priority personnel and equipment in support of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as to provide a safe, secure and responsive air transport service for members of the Royal family, government ministers and military personnel. For his contribution to the operations of the Command Support Air Transport Fleet, Barrett was appointed OBE.
Naval engineer whose skill helped the carrier Indomitable to survive kamikaze attacks
Brian Mungo’s career as naval engineer was bound up with aviation. Graduating from the engineering college at Plymouth in April 1943, he was immediately appointed to the aircraft carrier Indomitable as flight deck engineer officer, responsible for the operation and maintenance of arrester wires, catapults, tractors and firefighting equipment. It was a nerve-racking occupation with always the fear that a heavily-loaded aircraft would get a “cold shot” off the catapult and fall into the sea. Intensive day and night flying operations demanded the highest standard of professional skill.
Indomitable joined Force H in the Mediterranean and took part in the invasion of Sicily where she was torpedoed by an aircraft in July. After repairs in America, she was in the East Indies by June 1944 delivering air strikes against Japanese airfields and oil installations. In January 1945, with three other British large carriers, she joined the US 5th Fleet for attacks on Formosa (Taiwan), Okinawa and the Sakishimas.
Indomitable was hit by a kamikaze aircraft on April 1 with 14 men killed, but the flight deck was cleared and fires extinguished by Mungo’s teams within an hour, a tribute to the armoured flight deck fitted to British large carriers. Another attack on May 9 only briefly interrupted flying operations.
After the war, Mungo qualified as a pilot and earned high praise for his work with the Ministry of Supply at Farnborough. Another highlight was at the Belfast aircraft repair yard where he reorganised production, persuading unions to give up some very Spanish practices by firm and fair conciliation. He was the development project officer for the Scimitar jet fighter, leading it through to the first production aircraft which flew on January 11, 1957.
He was particularly acclaimed for his collaborative work with the US Navy while on the British military mission in Washington. His particular field was research and development of air weapons and the technicalities of aircraft cross-operations between Nato navies.
After a tour as second-in-command of the engineering school HMS Sultan at Gosport, subsequent appointments dealt with policy matters at high level within the Ministry of Aviation and the naval staff. Two years in Rome as a faculty adviser at the Nato Staff College was followed by appointment in charge of the Fleet Air Arm’s engineering standards, training and development on the staff of the Flag Officer Naval Air Command.
He was appointed CB in 1975, retiring in 1976. His wife Mary, whom he married in 1945, died in 1986. He is survived by his second wife, Doreen Drew, and the son of the first marriage, a commodore in the Royal Navy.
Rear-Admiral Brian Mungo, CB, Rear-Admiral Engineering, Naval Air Command, 1973-76, was born on February 20, 1922. He died on December 28, aged 88
Infantry commander who rallied his flagging troops during a battle for control of a river crossing in the Netherlands in 1944
Eric Cooper-Key achieved success as a soldier and a businessman thanks to a calm insouciance combined with a clear grasp of what was required at any given moment. Unusually, the citation for his Military Cross conceded that his exhausted men wavered when yet another attack was demanded of them, but he led them forward, encouraging and turning round the odd waverer until the objective was reached and taken.
He came from a predominantly naval family, the son of Captain A. D. C. Cooper-Key, RN, and grandson of Admiral Sir Astley Cooper-Key, a former First Sea Lord. Educated at Beaumont and RMC Sandhurst, in 1938 he was commissioned — appropriately enough — into the Royal Norfolk Regiment, which had Rule Britannia as its quick march. He served in Gibraltar and India until the outbreak of war required his battalion to return to England.
On D-Day (June 6, 1944), 1st Royal Norfolk landed on Sword Beach with 185 Infantry Brigade, the second wave of the 3rd (British) Divisions assault designed to capture Caen before last light. That objective was not achieved because of the intensity of German resistance and the battalion suffered more than 150 men killed or wounded in the first 24 hours.
Cooper-Key survived the initial battles and two months later, on August 6, while the battalion was holding the Normandy town of Sourdeval, his company position was attacked by units of the German 10th SS Panzer Division. The ensuing battle lasted for five hours at the end of which, after launching a counter-attack, he eliminated an enemy wedge to restore his position.
On October 14, 1944, after taking over from units of the 82nd (US) Airborne Division following Operation Market Garden — the failed attempt to lay an airborne carpet over the bridges leading to the Ruhr — 1st Royal Norfolk fought a three-day battle at Venray in the Netherlands. On the third day, in foul weather and with his men seriously fatigued, Cooper-Key’s company was required to make an assault river crossing.
Shortly after forward movement began, enemy machinegun and mortar fire caused one of his three platoons to hesitate. He went to it at once, rallied the men and led them onto the objective with the others. Again he survived unwounded and seven months later, at the end of the war in Europe, was still in command of the company with which he had landed on the Normandy beaches; it is believed that he was one of only two officers in the 3rd Division to have done so. He was awarded the MC and mentioned in dispatches for his part in campaign.
He attended the Staff College, Camberley, after the war and in 1950 was appointed Brigade Major (chief of staff) of the 18th Infantry Brigade in Malaya. The communist insurrection had begun two years earlier and at that point of the 12-year emergency the terrorists still held the local initiative in much of the peninsula.
For his successful co-ordination of the work of the units of the brigade with the Malay police, Special Branch and supporting squadrons of the RAF he was appointed MBE.
Later he was a college chief instructor at RMA Sandhurst, served in Korea with his own regiment and at Suez as second in command of 2nd battalion The Parachute Regiment. He was appointed a lieutenant-colonel on the staff butthe views of the Colonel of the Royal Norfolk Regiment about divorcés precluded him from command of its only regular battalion, so he left the Army and embarked on a successful business career.
He joined De La Rue and within two years was appointed managing director of Security Express. During the next seven years he developed the company from a handful of armoured vans for the transportation of cash and valuable goods to one operating a fleet of 700 vehicles. He was a founder member of the British Security Industry Association and in 1971 became managing director of AngloInternational Military Services.
A fine sportsman, he represented the Army at cricket, tennis and squash and Buckinghamshire at squash. He was vice-chairman of the Army and Navy Club from 1994 to 1996.
He was married three times, on the third occasion to the former Betty Southall who predeceased him. He is survived by two daughters of his first marriage and a stepson and a stepdaughter.
Lieutenant-Colonel E. A. Cooper-Key, MBE, MC, was born on December 8, 1917. He died on March 5, 2011, aged 93
Soldier and engineer who served in Cyprus, Ghana and Northern Ireland and became head of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering
As a mechanical engineering specialist, Dennis Shaw spent a notable proportion of his military career on active service. Commando-trained, he served with 3rd Commando Brigade of the Royal Marines and later commanded their Logistics Regiment, never subsequently losing his close interest in the force, even in retirement. He was also an exceptional cricketer with a speciality of hitting sixes over cover point.
After a few years as an engineering apprentice in the steel industry, in 1955 he enlisted as a regular soldier in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and was granted a short-service commission a year later, subsequently becoming a career officer.
Active service began almost immediately with an assignment to the REME recovery and support team of 46 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment as the unit was deployed to Cyprus in the infantry role in 1958. This was at the height of the EOKA terrorist campaign for the union of Cyprus with Greece, an objective opposed by the Turkish Cypriots, Turkey and the Greek Government. It was, nevertheless, a particularly nasty business with the murder of civilians, including women, featuring in EOKA tactics until stability of a kind imposed by British security forces permitted a negotiated settlement.
On return to England in 1960, Shaw studied for a mechanical engineering degree at the Royal Military College of Science, from where he graduated with 1st class honours. He then completed the notoriously rigorous commando training course at Lympstone in Devon. With that behind him, he qualified to accompany 3rd Commando Brigade to Singapore and then on to his next stint of active service in North Borneo during Indonesia’s “confrontation” with the Federation of Malaysia.
After the two-year technical staff course at Shrivenham, Oxfordshire, and Camberley, Surrey, in 1968, he spent 1969-70 in Ottawa as a member of the British Defence Liaison Staff in the Canadian capital, a period that saw a consolidation of his conversion from cricket to golf and, subsequently, a move to Germany to command No 1 Field Workshop REME, part of the corps troops of the 1st (British) Corps in the Army of the Rhine.
Promotion to lieutenant-colonel after the National Defence College course at Latimer, Buckinghamshire, in 1975 led to his appointment as CO of the Commando Logistic Regiment based in Plymouth. Over the next three years he was involved in support for 3rd Commando Brigade on exercises in the Netherlands, Norway and Turkey and, markedly less exotically, deployment to the West Midlands to provide emergency fire service cover during the firemen’s strike of 1977. He was appointed OBE in January 1978.
Another representative post took him to Ghana, where he joined the Commonwealth Military Advisory Team in 1978. CMAT’s task was to help Ghana develop its own Armed Forces, but its work was interrupted by a coup d’état and the execution of six former heads of state by firing squad. A request by the head of the Revolutionary Council to CMAT to assist in restoring order within the Ghanaian Armed Forces was rejected on the advice of the Foreign Office and Shaw returned home.
Further active service followed his promotion to colonel and appointment as Assistant Chief of Staff (Logistics) at Headquarters Northern Ireland in 1981. As the Army prepared for a long haul in the campaign to curtail the terrorist outrages of the Provisional IRA, Shaw was involved in building up the requisite support infrastructure; the success of which was recognised by his advancement to CBE in 1983.
After staff appointments in the Logistic Executive at Andover, Hampshire, and Headquarters UK Land Forces, he was promoted major-general in 1988 to become the Director-General of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering at the Ministry of Defence, where he faced three redoubtable challenges. The first entailed providing the maintenance and repair back-up facilities for the wide range of complex military equipment being accepted into service and the second the programme for absorption of all the logistic corps, including his own, into the Army Logistic Corps with all the structural and personnel changes that entailed.
The third and most difficult challenge was the provision of electrical and mechanical support for the armoured division hastily assembled to fight the Gulf War of early 1991 with tanks, vehicles and radios designed for war in Europe. The compromises and cannibalisation this demanded made clear the need for the modernisation of the logistic support for the Army as a whole, as well completion of the structural changes already begun. He was appointed CB on retiring from the Army towards the end of that year.
The son of Nathan and Frances Ellen Shaw, Dennis Shaw was educated at Scunthorpe Grammar School and the Royal Military College of Science, Shrivenham. On leaving the Army he joined Greig Fester insurance brokers in the City, eventually to become a director of Greig Fester Group Services in 1995.
He was the Representative Colonel Commandant REME from 1992 to 1993, a liveryman of the Turners Company and a Freeman of the City of London. It gave him special pleasure to be made an honorary member of the Royal Marines Officers’ Dining Club in recognition of his service with 3rd Commando Brigade RM 1963-66 and command of the Commando Logistic Regiment from 1975 to 1978.
He is survived by his wife Barbara, née Tate, and two daughters.
Major-General Dennis Shaw, CB, CBE, DGEME (Army) 1988-1991, was born on May 11, 1936. He died from cancer on January 20, 2011, aged 74
Val ffrench Blake took command of the 17th/21st Lancers (17/21L) in Italy in September 1944. He had been in England recovering from his wounds and rejoined his regiment north of Florence, where it was facing the outposts of the Gothic Line.
Val ffrench Blake with two tiger cubs he adopted in India It was close country intersected by marshes, rivers and dykes. The Germans manned mountain observation posts from which mortar and artillery fire could be directed. They had well-sited infantry positions covering mined bridges and culverts, and the heights could be cleared only by infantry with mules and jeeps supported by sappers.
Operating armour in those conditions, ffrench Blake wrote afterwards, was like trying to open a tin can with a dagger: the point was blunted and the tin did not open properly.
In April 1945, in the final offensive in the Po Valley, ffrench Blake commanded an all-arms group comprising his own regiment, an infantry battalion, an artillery battery and a squadron of engineers. After a night approach march they crossed a river and, moving at full speed to the town of Póggio Renático, they closed the last escape route for the retreating German forces. ffrench Blake was awarded a DSO for his part in the campaign.
Energetic officer in the Parachute Regiment who saw service in a number of the world’s trouble spots
As a young officer Mike Gray’s ebullient energy, broad grin and dedication to the job made him popular with fellow officers and soldiers alike. Initially, due to his obvious keenness, they regarded him in a bemused way, but they quickly learnt that his close attention to their wellbeing, whatever their individual merits, was relentless.
This characteristic persisted throughout his service and received a broader focus after his retirement, in particular with regard to former members of the Parachute Regiment. His contemporaries would speak of him with a wry smile, recognising his ability as a general but wary of his restless vigour.
Michael Stuart Gray was born in the East Riding county town of Beverley, the eldest son of Lieutenant Frank Gray, RNVR, who was killed at sea in 1940. From his grammar school he won a scholarship to Christ’s Hospital, Horsham, Sussex, from where he went to RMA Sandhurst. He was commissioned into the East Yorkshire Regiment in 1952 and served for two years with the 1st Battalion in Malaya, during the communist insurrection. Having undertaken parachute training at Sandhurst — and volunteered for secondment — he was called for service with the Parachute Regiment in 1955.
Aside from attending the Staff College, Camberley, he alternated regimental and staff appointments in the airborne forces, at that time comprising two brigades, one regular and one Territorial Army, for some 14 years. He saw further active service in Cyprus, as Intelligence Officer of 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment during the EOKA terrorist campaign and in the 1956 Suez operation. He went to Jordan during the emergency deployment of 16 Parachute Brigade to block the main approach road from Iraq, after the assassination of King Faisal II by Baath Party extremists in July 1958.
As a company commander with 2nd Battalion in the mid-1960s he served in Bahrain, the Trucial States and in Aden and the Western Protectorate during operations to counter the violence fostered by the National Liberation Front and the Front for the Liberation of South Yemen. After two years with Military Operations in the MoD he was appointed to command 1st Battalion The Parachute Regiment in March 1969. That August the British Army was deployed in Londonderry and Belfast.
His early experience in Northern Ireland was during an emergency tour of duty in Belfast in 1970; then he took his battalion back for an 18-month stint as Province Reserve, based near Belfast. His main task was to reinforce any unit facing excessive pressure anywhere in the Province. He was twice sent with his battalion to Londonderry, so he knew the city and the circumstances well. This unit was to be involved in “Bloody Sunday” six months after he had given up command.
With his former experience of counter-terrorist operations, Gray’s instructions on opening fire were specific. His men were to shoot only if shot at and only if a man with a weapon was identified. There were ten ranges in Palace Barracks and every man fired not less than ten rounds a day at a variety of practice targets. This was a hard but very professional battalion commanded by as experienced a CO as the Army had at the time. He had confidence in the Belfast brigade commander, Brigadier Frank Kitson, as the latter had in him — and in the GOC, Major-General Anthony Farrar-Hockley.
He was appointed OBE after his battalion command and went to the Staff College as a member of the Directing Staff. Two years later he was posted to the British Army of the Rhine as Chief of Staff of the 1st Division. In the Cold War the principal threat to the Central Region sector of the 1st (British) Corps was an armoured onslaught over the open ground facing the 1st Division. This was forecast as predominantly a tank battle, and the divisional commander, immersed in armoured tactics, awaited the arrival of his new parachutist chief of staff with interest. It proved a sound partnership, and Gray never looked back.
He attended the Royal College of Defence Studies as a colonel in 1976 before returning to 16 Parachute Brigade as commander. He saw through the conversion of this veteran formation to become the 5th Field Force, as part of the late 1970s Defence Review, and then went to Washington as Head of British Army Staff and Military Attaché in 1979.
The US Defence establishment had come to expect the British MA to be unusual and highly professional. Gray was both and it was a measure of his success that, for the final half year of his tour of duty, he took on the additional responsibilities of Head of Defence Staff and Defence Attaché in the acting rank of major-general.
On return to England in 1981 he was appointed to command South West District, which carried the additional responsibility of commander of the United Kingdom Mobile Force. This was assigned for the reinforcement of the Nato flanks in war, or to the Central Region. The programme of contingency planning and exercises was intense, and Gray’s ebullient personality did much to ease relations with host countries, some of which were less enthusiastic about having British troops trampling over them in peacetime, however much they might welcome them in war.
From February 1984 he was Chief of Staff HQ British Army of the Rhine until promoted to lieutenant-general to take over the 3-star post of GOC South East District housing the largest number of troops in the UK. The post also provided the ground force element of the Joint Force Headquarters, introduced after the Falklands War, to which his previous service made him well suited.
He left the Army aged 55 in 1988 and threw himself into many projects, of which probably the most ambitious was the preparation of the airborne forces’ part in the 50th anniversary of the D-Day landings in 1944. For this service France appointed him an Officer of the Legion of Honour in 1994.
He was chief executive of Rainford Developments 1990-94, Colonel-Commandant of the Parachute Regiment 1990-93, Lieutenant of the Tower of London as well as a patron, chairman or associate of more than 30 charitable organisations. The strain of this huge voluntary workload was exacerbated by recurrent trouble with a leg damaged in a parachuting accident in his mid-thirties. When this necessitated the shortening of the leg, he insisted on a further operation to restore it but he became increasingly lame. Despite this and heart problems, he maintained a strenuous working schedule.
He married Juliette Noon of Northampton in 1958. She survives him with two sons and a daughter.
Lieutenant-General Sir Michael Gray, KCB, OBE, was born on May 3, 1932. He died on March 13, 2011, aged 78