Percy Charles Pickard

Group Captain Percy Charles "Pick" Pickard, DSO & Two Bars, DFC (16 May 1915 – 18 February 1944) was an officer in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. He served as a pilot and commander and was one of the only officers of the RAF to be awarded the DSO three times in the Second World War. He flew over a hundred sorties and distinguished himself in a variety of operations requiring coolness under fire.

Percy Charles Pickard
Nickname(s)"Pick"
Born(1915-05-19)19 May 1915
Handsworth, Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Died18 February 1944(1944-02-18) (aged 28)
Amiens, France
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service/branchRoyal Air Force
Years of service1937–1944
RankGroup Captain
Commands heldNo. 140 Wing RAF
No. 51 Squadron
No. 161 Squadron
Battles/warsSecond World War
AwardsDistinguished Service Order & Two Bars
Distinguished Flying Cross
Mentioned in Despatches
Czechoslovak War Cross 1939

In 1941 he participated in the making of the 1941 wartime film Target for To-night, which made him a public figure in England. He led the squadron of Whitley bombers that carried paratroopers to their drop for the Bruneval raid.

Throughout 1943 he flew the Lysander on nighttime missions into occupied France for the SOE, performing insertions of agents and picking up personnel from very small landing strips. Pickard led a group of Mosquitos on the Amiens raid, in which he was killed in action 18 February 1944.

Background

Pickard was born in Handsworth, Sheffield, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England and was educated at Framlingham College.[1] Pickard was the son of the late P. C. Pickard and Mrs. Pickard. His sister was actress Helena Pickard, married to English actor Sir Cedric Hardwicke.[1]

Service history

Pickard received a short service commission into the Royal Air Force in January 1937,[2] which was made Permanent in November.[3] He served with a bomber squadron before being appointed personal assistant to the air officer commanding a training group at Cranwell in 1938. He participated in fighting over Norway, France and during the Dunkirk evacuation.[1] He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) in July 1940 while serving as a flight lieutenant in a bomber squadron. He was promoted to squadron leader with No. 311 (Czechoslovak) Squadron and was awarded a Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in March 1941.

In May 1942, as wing commander in charge of No. 51 Squadron, he was awarded a bar to the DSO in recognition of his leadership in Operation Biting (also known as the Bruneval raid) on 27 February 1942. In March 1943, while commanding No. 161 Squadron – which carried out operations in support of the SOE in occupied Europe – at RAF Tempsford he was awarded a second bar to the DSO for outstanding leadership ability and fine fighting qualities.[4]

He was the first RAF officer in the Second World War to be awarded the DSO and two bars.[5]

Jim McCairns, Hugh Verity, Pickard, Peter Vaughan-Fowler and Bunny Rymills with Verity's Lysander in 1943.

For a while Pickard was station commander at RAF Sculthorpe. In October 1943 he was given command of No. 140 Wing of the Second Tactical Air Force by Basil Embry. This put him in charge of three squadrons of de Havilland Mosquito fast bombers. They became specialised in low level precision attacks.[6]

Pickard led the February 1944 low-level attack on the Amiens Prison, in the raid known as Operation Jericho. The attack was carried out at the request of the French resistance in order to allow a considerable number of their imprisoned members, who were soon to be executed by the occupying Nazis, the chance to escape. The Resistance stated that the prisoners had said they would rather take the chance of being killed by RAF bombs than be shot by the Nazis.

Operation Jericho was a success but Pickard, together with his Navigator, Flight Lieutenant J. A. "Bill" Broadley, were killed when their Mosquito, HX922/"EG-F", was shot down by a Fw 190 flown by Feldwebel Wilhelm Mayer of 7. Staffel Jagdgeschwader 26 in the closing stages of the operation. Pickard and Broadley were initially reported missing and then in September 1944 it was announced that they had been 'killed in action'.[1]

Pickard is buried in plot 3, row B, grave 13 at St Pierre Cemetery near Amiens, France.[7] Broadley is buried in plot 3, row A, grave 11 of the same cemetery. Pickard was married and had a son at the time of his death.[1]

The French government called for him to receive a posthumous Victoria Cross.[8]

References
  1. "Deaths". Issue 49962; col D. The Times. 22 September 1944. p. 7.
  2. "No. 34369". The London Gazette. 9 February 1937. p. 895.
  3. "No. 34457". The London Gazette. 23 November 1937. p. 7352.
  4. "No. 35954". The London Gazette (Supplement). 23 March 1943. p. 1413.
  5. K. R. M. Short, ‘Pickard, Percy Charles (1915–1944)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edition, May 2008, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/62384. Retrieved on 5 November 2008 Archived 13 February 2011 at WebCite
  6. Heroes of the Skies Michael Ashcroft
  7. Casualty details—Pickard, Percy Charles, Casualty details—Broadley, John Alan, Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved on 5 November 2008. Archived 13 February 2011 at WebCite
  8. 'Operation Jericho', BBC (TV), 20 October 2011

Further reading
  • Bourne, Merfyn The Second World War in the air : the story of air combat in every theatre of World War Two Leicester: Matador, (2013).
  • Bowyer, Chaz Bomber Barons Barnsley : Cooper, (2001).
  • Bowyer, Chaz Mosquito at war London: Allan (1979). ISBN 978-0-7110-0474-0
  • Hamilton, Alexander Wings of Night : Secret Missions of Group Captain Pickard, DSO and Two Bars, DFC Crecy Bks., (1977). ISBN 978-0-7183-0415-7
  • Harclerode, Peter Wings Of War – Airborne Warfare 1918-1945 Weidenfeld & Nicolson (2005). ISBN 0-304-36730-3
  • McCairns, James Lysander Pilot (2015).
  • O'Connor, Bernard RAF Tempsford : Churchill's most secret airfield Stroud: Amberley (2010).
  • Oliver, David Airborne Espionage Stroud, UK: Sutton Publishing Limited (2005).
  • Orchard, Adrian Group Captain Percy Charles “Pick” Pickard DSO**, DFC 1915 - 1944 February 2006
  • Otway, T.B.H The Second World War 1939-1945 Army — Airborne Forces Imperial War Museum, (1990). ISBN 0-901627-57-7
  • Verity, Hugh We Landed by Moonlight Shepperton, Surrey: Ian Allan Limited (1978).
  • Ward, Chris and Steve Smith 3 Group Bomber Command: an operational record Barnsley : Pen & Sword Aviation (2008).
  • Williams, Ray Armstrong Whitworth's Night Bomber Aeroplane Monthly, October 1982.


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