Percy Charles Pickard

Pickard was born in Handsworth, Sheffield, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England and was educated at Framlingham College. Academically he did not excel, but was a skilled equestrian and shot.[3] Pickard was the son of the late P. C. Pickard and Mrs. J. Pickard. He was the youngest of two boys and three girls. His sister was actress Helena Pickard, married to English actor Sir Cedric Hardwicke.[3] She gave birth to the actor Edward Hardwicke, one of the stars of Colditz and later Dr Watson of Sherlock Holmes fame who also served in the RAF as a pilot during his national service.[4]

During the 1930s, Pickard spent some time living on a ranch in Kenya. He enjoyed hiking in the African bush and indulged his passion for riding horses and shooting. At the same time he discovered polo, a sport he quickly became skilled at. His first taste of service came when he enlisted in the King's African Rifles as a reservist. Unfortunately, Pickard contracted malaria but recovered and returned to England.[5]

After Pickard failed to qualify as an army officer,[6] he was accepted and received a short service commission into the Royal Air Force in January 1937,[7] which was made Permanent in November.[8] After successfully passing his flight training with an 'above average' rating, he was posted to 214 Squadron, flying the Handley Page Harrow.[9] His skill as a pilot was soon noticed, and he was 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.[3] He married Dorothy at this time, despite her family's misgivings. They had one child together, a son named Nicholas Charles Pickard. [10]

During the Battle of Britain while serving as a flight lieutenant in No. 99 Squadron, Pickard flew the Vickers Wellington in raids on Germany, where he began to work with his longtime navigator Flt Sgt Alan Broadley.[11] Involved with early leaflet dropping sorties during the phony war, Pickard flew alongside Jack Grisman of Great Escape fame.[12] While posted to 99, Pickard also flew six missions with David Holford, who served as co-pilot. He rated Holford as a talented pilot.[13]

On 19 June 1940 while on the return from a raid, he was forced to ditch his flak damaged Wellington in the English Channel. He and his crew survived and were picked up by a lifeboat shortly afterwards.[2] He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) in July 1940.

He was promoted to squadron leader with No. 311 (Czechoslovak) Squadron and was awarded a Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in March 1941. Pickard was drafted in to the squadron to improve performance and bring the unit up to operational standards. Preferring an informal approach, he was often seen wearing cowboy boots with his uniform and accompanied by his sheepdog Ming.[14] As an officer, Pickard was mild mannered, approachable and humourous but determined in the face of action, leading him to be popular with his men.[2]

He was awarded the Czechoslovak War Cross in 1941.[15]

Pickard appeared as Squadron Leader Dickson in the RAF propaganda film Target for Tonight, released in July 1941. The plot concerned a Wellington bomber, F for Freddie taking part in a night time raid over Germany which is damaged during its return flight to England.

Pickard was initially reluctant to appear. The film was produced by the Royal Air Force Film Production Unit and directed by Harry Watt. It was seen as a way to encourage people to join the service. It was a box office hit and won an Academy Award in 1942.[16]

Watt later expressed regret that most of the people featured in the film did not survive the war.[17]

In May 1942, as wing commander in charge of No. 51 Squadron based at RAF Dishforth, 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.[18] Pickard's role was to fly in and allow members of the British 1st Airborne Division to parachute behind enemy lines from a Whitley bomber to capture and retrieve a Wurzburg radar installation. The raid was a complete success.[19] After the raid, the King and Queen visited Dishforth. Upon asking why there were two footprints on the ceiling of the mess, Pickard with total honesty explained that the post raid party had led to hi-jinks and the footprints were his.[20]

Pickard pictured in 1942.

No. 161 Squadron missions

October 1942 saw Pickard posted to No. 161 Squadron. In March 1943, while commanding 161 – 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.[21] Flying Westland Lysanders, he was involved in flying British agents and supplies both in and out of occupied Europe on behalf of the SOE alongside Hugh Verity.[22]

Pickard had a talented team of pilots under his command, including Frank Rymills, Peter Vaughan-Fowler and Jim McCairns.[23] Pickard specialised in 'moonlight operations,' flying spies and materiel on a night of the full moon. On one flight in November 1942 he did not receive the expected signal from the ground so that he could land, and had to flee when attacked by two Luftwaffe fighters. Using the Lysander's superior handling and slower speed, Pickard managed to escape back to England despite being repeatedly fired upon and chased across the English Channel.[24] On another occasion, he rescued seven agents and managed to take off despite the agents being closely hunted by the Gestapo.[25]

One of the agents Pickard worked with was Henri Déricourt, who was suspected in some quarters of being a double agent, although he was later acquitted.[26]

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.[32]

On 3 October, Pickard led 12 Mosquitos on an attack against the Pont Chateau power station. The power station was badly damaged and all 12 aircraft returned to base safely.[33]

When Leonard Cheshire was trying to convince his superiors to use the de Havilland Mosquito as a low level marking aircraft to assist 617 Squadron, he approached Pickard for help. Cheshire had just taken command of the Dambusters, who were in a slump after their success with the Ruhr dams raid and the departure of Gibson.[34] On 19 December 1943, Cheshire visited Pickard and the two men went over the merits of the aircraft. Pickard took Cheshire up for a short test flight to demonstrate how good the Mosquito was. Impressed, he was eventually able to obtain the Mosquito for his squadron's use and it was used to good effect, initially with Cheshire flying as the marking pilot.[35]

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

• Bateman, Alex No 617 'Dambuster' Sqn Oxford : Osprey, (2009).
• Bowyer, Chaz Bomber Barons Barnsley : Cooper, (2001).
• Gibson, Guy Enemy coast ahead : the illustrated memoir of Dambuster Guy Gibson Barnsley, S. Yorkshire : Greenhill Books, (2019).
• Otter, Patrick 1 Group: Swift to Attack: Bomber Command's Unsung Heroes Barnsley, South Yorkshire : Pen & Sword Aviation, (2013).
• Shores, Christopher F and Chris Thomas 2nd Tactical Air Force Hersham, Surrey (2004).
• Verity, Hugh We Landed by Moonlight Shepperton, Surrey: Ian Allan Limited (1978).

• 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 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
• 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.