Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, (11 July 1892 – 14 November 1944) was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force. Leigh-Mallory served as a Royal Flying Corps pilot and squadron commander during the First 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 the Second World War, Leigh-Mallory was Air Officer Commanding (AOC) No. 12 (Fighter) Group and during the Battle of Britain. However he has been criticised for his political machinations within the Air Ministry, particularly with Sholto Douglas, that led to the replacement of Hugh Dowding and Keith Park on 25 November 1940, less than a month after the end of the Battle of Britain. Leigh-Mallory replaced Park at No. 11 (Fighter) Group and Sholto Douglas replaced Dowding as head of RAF Fighter Command. 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 the Allied Expeditionary Air Force, which made him the air commander during the Allied Invasion of Normandy.

Leigh-Mallory died in November 1944 while en route to Ceylon to take up the post of Air Commander-in-Chief South East Asia Command when his aircraft crashed in the French Alps, killing all eight people on-board including his wife.

Early life

Trafford Leigh-Mallory was born in Mobberley, Cheshire, the son of Herbert Leigh Mallory, (1856–1943), Rector of Mobberley, who legally changed his surname to Leigh-Mallory in 1914. He was the younger brother of George Mallory, the noted mountaineer. 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 at Haileybury and at Magdalene College, Cambridge He was commissioned as a second lieutenant on 3 October 1914 and transferred to the Lancashire Fusiliers though officer training kept him in England when his battalion embarked. In the spring of 1915, he went to the front with the South Lancashire Regiment

After recovering from his wounds, Leigh-Mallory joined the Royal Flying Corps in January 1916 and was accepted for pilot training. to No. 7 Squadron,

Leigh-Mallory's first combat command was No. 8 Squadron in November 1917. and command of the Armistice Squadron. Leigh-Mallory passed through the RAF Staff College in 1925 and received command of the School of Army Cooperation in 1927 before eventually being posted to the Army Staff College, Camberley in 1930. Leigh-Mallory received a posting to the Air Ministry in 1932 and was then assigned to the British delegation at the Disarmament Conference in Geneva he returned to England to be appointed commander of No. 12 Group, Fighter Command in December 1937. one of the younger air vice-marshals then serving in the RAF. He was greatly liked by his staff, but his relations with his airfield station commanders were strained.

No. 12 Group and the "Big Wing"

During the Battle of Britain, Leigh-Mallory quarreled with Air Vice-Marshal Keith 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 with Squadron Leader Douglas 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 Sir Hugh Dowding, head of Fighter Command. Leigh-Mallory believed that not enough was being done to allow wing-sized formations to operate successfully. 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.

thumb|Leigh-Mallory at No. 11 Group Headquarters, Uxbridge, Middlesex.

After the Battle of Britain, Dowding retired and Air Chief Marshal Charles 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. (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 for Operation Barbarossa and few Luftwaffe fighters remained in western Europe. It was indeed a steep learning curve for Leigh Mallory despite the fact that the Luftwaffe 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 while Malta and Singapore 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. Leigh-Mallory was promoted to acting air marshal on 13 July 1942.

In November 1942, Leigh-Mallory replaced Sholto Douglas as head of Fighter Command

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 – including Arthur Tedder, Arthur Harris at Bomber Command, and Carl 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 the Allied Expeditionary Air Force for the Normandy invasion. and to the substantive rank of air marshal on 1 January 1944.

thumb|250px|right|Leigh-Mallory at a squadron briefing in France in September 1944.

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. General Bernard 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."

Personal life

Leigh-Mallory married Doris Sawyer in 1915; the couple had two children.

Death

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 of air chief marshal. But before he could take up his post, on 14 November, he and his wife were killed en route to Burma when their Avro York MW126, crashed in the French Alps, killing all on board.

He and his wife are buried, alongside eight aircrew, in Le Rivier d'Allemont, 15 miles (24 km) east-southeast of Grenoble, a short distance below the site of the air crash. To mark the 60th anniversary of the accident and Leigh-Mallory's death, the local commune opened a small museum near the crash site, dedicated to him, in 2004.

Legacy

Battle of Britain-class steam railway locomotive number 34109, built for the Southern Region of British Railways in 1950, was named Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory.

References

Sources

  • Deighton, Len. Battle of Britain. London: Michael Joseph, 1980. .
  • Gilbert, Martin. Finest Hour. London: Heinemann, 1983. .
  • Korda, Michael. With Wings Like Eagles: A History of the Battle of Britain. New York: HarperCollins, 2009. .
  • Regan, Geoffrey. The Guinness Book of Flying Blunders. London: Guinness Books, 1996. .

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