Percy Pickard
Percy Charles "Pick" Pickard, was an officer in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. He served as a pilot and commander, and was the first officer of the RAF to be awarded the DSO three times during the war. He flew over a hundred sorties and distinguished himself in a variety of operations requiring coolness under fire.
In 1941 he was asked to participate in the making of the Crown film Target for To-night. Attention from the film made him a public figure in England. Later that year he led the squadron of Whitley bombers that carried paratroopers to their drop for the Bruneval raid.
Through most of 1943 he commanded 161 Squadron, the secretive unit that flew SOE agents in and out of occupied France. He was a very active commanding officer, and flew many of the missions himself. In late 1943 Pickard was made the commander of a new unit, 140 Wing, a ground attack formation whose three squadrons had converted to the Mosquito. On 18 February 1944 Pickard led a group of Mosquitos on the Amiens prison raid to destroy the walls of a Gestapo prison and free the prisoners inside. He was killed in this operation. Pickard was one of the RAF's most highly regarded bomber pilots of the war, ranking among the likes of Guy Gibson and Leonard Cheshire.
Early life
Pickard was born in Handsworth, Sheffield, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. He was the youngest of five children, with an older brother and three older sisters. His father was Percy Charles Pickard, a Yorkshireman who moved to London and started a catering company. Having the same name as his father and being the youngest of five in the family, he was affectionately referred to as 'Boy', and the family nickname persisted, even as he grew to be 6' 4". His older brother, Walter, joined the RAF and became an officer. His oldest sister, Helena Pickard, became an actress; she married the actor Cedric Hardwicke.Pickard was sent to Framlingham College. Though bright and engaging, Pickard struggled with reading and writing. There is some evidence to suggest he struggled with dyslexia. Nevertheless, he was an enthusiastic classmate, and was active in school sports. He developed into an excellent shot, and captained his house rifle team. His favourite activity was riding. A farm in British East Africa was owned by the family of another student. To encourage their son in coming to Africa they offered to board one of his classmates when he came down to the farm; Pickard took the offer. After a couple of years the classmate returned to England, but Pickard stayed on. The vast grasslands provided ample opportunity for riding, and Pickard excelled as a Polo player, earning a 3 handicap. While there Pickard enlisted in the King's African Rifles as a reservist.
With war looming in Europe, Pickard and three of his friends chose to return to England. Lacking the funds for a full passage, they drove their car north through Italian Somaliland, British Somaliland, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and finally to Egypt. Along the way Pickard became ill with malaria and the group of travellers had to stop for some time. Eventually they made it to Alexandria, from where they obtained transport back to England.
Upon returning to England Pickard volunteered to serve as an officer with the Army, but was declined on account of his poor school results. He then applied to the Royal Air Force, who were in the midst of a massive expansion, and was accepted. He was granted an RAF short service commission in January 1937, completing his pilot training programme with an "above average" rating. He was posted to 214 Squadron, equipped with the Handley Page H.P.54 Harrow bomber. He received a commission as acting pilot officer 25 January 1937. The post of pilot officer was confirmed and made permanent 16 November 1937. During this period he began seeing Dorothy Hodgkin. Her family did not approve but they wed anyway. He gave his bride the present of an Old English Sheepdog to keep her company while he was away; they named the large dog 'Ming'.
Pickard's skill as a pilot was soon noticed, and in 1938 he was appointed ADC to Air Vice Marshall John Baldwin, the air officer, commanding the training programme at RAF Cranwell.
First tour with 99 Squadron
On 30 October 1939 Pickard was posted to 7 Squadron flying Hampden bombers at RAF Upper Heyford. He was then returned to 214 Squadron until this squadron was disbanded to form an operational training unit. Pickard briefly returned to 7 Squadron before being posted to 99 Squadron at Newmarket Heath, where he flew the Vickers Wellington, one of the best bomber aircraft available at the time. He completed his first tour with 99 Squadron.In the early stages of the war prior to the German invasion of France Bomber command was reticent about escalating the war with attacks on German cities. Instead during this Phoney War period they confined their activities to coastal patrols and dropping leaflets over Germany. Serving as a flight lieutenant, Pickard undertook these leaflet-dropping sorties. He flew alongside Jack Grisman of Great Escape fame. Following the German bombing of Rotterdam the restrictions on Bomber Command were lifted. Pickard participated in fighting over Norway, Germany and France during the Dunkirk evacuation. He gained a reputation for following the Bomber Command dictum to "press on" to the target, regardless of the difficulties you might be faced with. It was during this period that Pickard met fellow Yorkshireman navigator Alan Broadley, who was to become his regular navigator and good friend to the end. Aircraft service crews grew accustomed to Pickard and Broadley returning in an aircraft that had been peppered with flak and night fighter damage.
On one such mission while on a raid to the Ruhr, Pickard's Wellington was hit by flak over the target and he lost his starboard engine. With the loss of power he began to slowly lose altitude. Pickard nursed the aircraft past the coast but was unable to get across the water and had to ditch in the North Sea. The crew were able to escape the sinking aircraft and all entered a rubber dinghy. After a number of hours they were located by an RAF air-sea rescue launch. Unfortunately, Pickard had set down in a naval mine field. It took many more hours for them to drift out of the mine field so they could be picked up. In all they spent 14 hours in the bitter cold of the North Sea.
While stationed at RAF Newmarket, Pickard lived on base with his wife Dorothy and their dog 'Ming'. Horse racing having been suspended due to the war, Pickard was able to acquire two former race horses inexpensively, which allowed him to ride again. Pickard rode each morning, often with his wife, but always with Ming running alongside. Another activity he enjoyed was just flying. He had enough seniority to be allowed use of the station de Havilland Tiger Moth. The two-seat biplane trainer has benign handling characteristics in basic flying, but when pushed hard in aerobatics the demand on the skill of the pilot is quite high. It is an airplane that is "easy to fly, but difficult to fly well". After a hard period of missions a favourite activity of Pickard's was to take up the Tiger Moth and lose himself in flying.
Pickard was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in July 1940 for services rendered over Norway. By the end of November 1940, after a year with 99 Squadron, Pickard and Broadley had completed 31 sorties and were rotated to non-operational duties.
Pilot instruction at 311 (Czech) Squadron
With the completion of his first tour Pickard was promoted to squadron leader and transferred to a training position, working to train up pilots in the No. 311 Squadron operating out of RAF East Wretham. 311 Squadron was not-fully operational. Pickard was one of a number of RAF veterans there to improve morale, performance and the unit's operational standards. Preferring an informal approach, he arrived wearing his uniform and a pair of riding boots notched for stirrups, which is how the Czechs nicknamed him 'cowboy'. Wherever he went he was accompanied by his dog. As an officer, Pickard was mild mannered, approachable and humorous, but on missions he was a very determined pilot.Most of the squadron's flights were coastal patrol missions, but as part of the training process from time to time the crews would join in with the combat squadrons for missions over Germany. Pickard proved a hard task master and persistent instructor. Language obstacles proved a significant barrier. Due to the high variation in competence, Pickard concentrated his efforts on those pilots with the most experience flying. An interpreter directed him to one man with 2,000 hours flying experience. After a single trip together Pickard felt the pilot strangely inept for a man with so many flying hours under his belt. After a few more episodes of ham-fisted flying Pickard lost his patience, shouting how it could possibly be that a man with 2,000 hours flying could handle an aircraft so poorly? "Oh, not pilot," the student replied sheepishly, "I observer." The man had no piloting experience at all. Undeterred, Pickard pressed on, training the man up as a pilot anyway.
In training, Pickard made it a point to accompany pilots on their first sortie over enemy territory. Though the risks of being shot down on such flights were the same, the sortie flights Pickard flew with the Czechs were off the books and did not add to his sortie totals. One such first trip flight was to Berlin. The young pilot had the misfortune of ejecting his side screen window shortly after taking off. With the cold night air filling the cockpit, he went to turn back to base when he was met with the unwavering gaze of Pickard, who pointed him in the direction of Germany. It was a long, cold trip for the both of them, but when they made it back several hours later a very cold but wiser Czech pilot had learned something of the value the RAF placed on pressing on, regardless.
It was while Pickard was training the Czech pilots that he was approached to participate in a film project to promote the service. Pickard was reluctant to appear, but left 311 Squadron in mid-March, returning in April. The film, Target for To-Night, was released that summer, in July 1941. The plot concerned a Wellington bomber, F 'Freddie', taking part in a raid over Germany. Pickard appeared as Squadron Leader Dickson, the pilot, whose aircraft delivers its bombs but is damaged by flak over the target and struggles to make it back to England. The film was produced by the Crown Film Unit and directed by Harry Watt. The film was created to boost the morale of the people of Britain and encourage young men and women to join the service. The film was a box office hit and won an Academy Award in 1942. With the release of the film Pickard became a public figure. Widely known as the pilot of the bomber “F-Freddie”, he was the living symbol of Bomber Command's night war against Germany.
During his time with 311 Squadron Pickard received his first Distinguished Service Order in March 1941. He was also awarded the Czech Cross.