Keith Park
Sir Keith Rodney Park, was a New Zealand-born officer of the Royal Air Force. During the Second World War, his leadership of the RAF's No. 11 Group was pivotal to the defeat of the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain.
Born in the town of Thames in New Zealand's North Island, Park was a mariner when he enlisted in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force for service in the First World War. Posted to the artillery, he fought in the Gallipoli campaign, during which he transferred to the British Army. On the Western Front, he was present for the Battle of the Somme and was wounded.
On recovery, he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps. After flight training, he served as an instructor before being posted to No. 48 Squadron on the Western Front. He became a flying ace, achieving several aerial victories and eventually commanding the squadron.
In the interwar period, Park served with the RAF in a series of command and staff postings, including a period as air attaché in South America. By the late 1930s, he was serving in Fighter Command, as Air Marshal Hugh Dowding's senior air staff officer. The two worked to devise tactics and management strategies for the air defence of the United Kingdom. Soon after the outbreak of the Second World War, Park was given command of No. 11 Group, responsible for the defence of South East England and London. Owing to its strategic significance and geographic location in relation to the Luftwaffe, No. 11 Group bore the brunt of the German aerial assault during the Battle of Britain. Park's management of his fighter aircraft and pilots helped ensure that Britain retained air superiority along the English Channel.
After the Battle of Britain, Park served in a training role before being posted in late 1941 to the Middle East as Air Officer Commanding, Egypt. In mid-1942, he took charge of the aerial defences of Malta, then under heavy attack from the Luftwaffe and the Regia Aeronautica. When the siege was lifted Park transitioned Malta's RAF forces from a defensive role into an offensive footing in preparation for the Allied invasion of Sicily.
From 1944, he held senior roles in the Middle East and in British India. He retired from the RAF in 1946 as an air chief marshal.
Returning to New Zealand, he worked in the aviation industry for a British aircraft manufacturer and then became involved in local body politics in Auckland.
He died from heart problems in February 1975, age 82.
Early life
Born in Thames, New Zealand, on 15 June 1892, Keith Rodney Park was the third son and ninth child of Professor James Livingstone Park from Scotland, a geologist and director of the Thames School of Mines, and his wife, New Zealand native Frances Rogers. Park was schooled at King's College in Auckland until 1905. The following year he attended Otago Boys' High School in Dunedin, where his father had moved the family following his appointment as a lecturer in mining at the University of Otago. By this time Park's parents had separated, his mother moving to Australia and leaving the children in the care of their father.At Otago Boys' High, Park joined the school's Cadet Corps. Completing his education, he found employment at the Union Steam Ship Company. He had always enjoyed boats and within the Park family was known as "Skipper". He went to sea as a purser aboard collier and passenger steamships, initially on vessels sailing along the coast but later on ships travelling to Australia and islands in the Pacific. He also served as a Territorial soldier in the New Zealand Field Artillery from March 1911 to November 1913.
First World War
Soon after outbreak of the First World War, Park's employers gave him permission to leave the company and join the war effort. He enlisted in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force on 14 December 1914, and was posted to the Field Artillery. He was promoted to corporal in early February 1915. Park departed New Zealand the same month as part of the third draft of reinforcements for the NZEF, destined for the Middle East. On arrival, he was posted to the 4th Howitzer Battery, under the command of Major Norrie Falla.In early April 1915, military planners in London decided that the NZEF should be part of the Allied forces that would open up a new front in the Middle East by landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Park participated in the Landing at Anzac Cove on 25 April, going ashore that evening or early the following morning with his battery. The 4th Howitzer Battery was the only such unit at Anzac Cove but had limited ammunition and initially was unable to expend more than a few rounds a day. When not engaged in artillery fire, Park acted as a messenger. In the trench warfare that followed, Park's achievements were recognised and in July he was commissioned a second lieutenant. He commanded an artillery battery during the August offensive. Afterwards Park took the unusual decision to transfer from the NZEF to the British Army, relinquishing his commission and joining the Royal Horse and Field Artillery. He never explained his motivations for doing so.
Attached to the 29th Division as a temporary second lieutenant, Park was posted to No. 10 Battery, of the 147th Brigade, at Helles. He was commander of a 12-pounder naval gun, which was often subject to Turkish counter-fire. He and the rest of his battery was evacuated from Gallipoli to Egypt in January 1916, after the decision was made to abandon the Allied positions there. The battle had left its mark on him both physically and mentally, though later on in life he would remember it with nostalgia. He particularly admired the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps commander, Sir William Birdwood, whose leadership style and attention to detail was a model for Park in his later career.
In March, Park's battery, along with the rest of the 29th Division, was shipped to the Western Front and assigned to a sector along the Somme. Two months later, Park's rank was made substantive. By this time he had an interest in aviation; while in Egypt preparing for the move to France, he had requested a flight so that he could assess its suitability to help in observations but was told that aerial reconnaissance was a waste of time. Now, prior to the Battle of the Somme, he learned how useful aircraft could be in a military role, getting a taste of flight by being taken aloft to check his battery's camouflage. He reported back on the ready manner in which the British guns could be detected. During the battle itself, which commenced on 1 July, the artillery was heavily engaged. On 21 October, while trying to withdraw an unserviceable gun for repair, Park was blown off his horse by a German shell. Wounded, he was evacuated to England and medically certified "unfit for active service", which technically meant he was unfit to ride a horse. After a brief remission recovering from his wounds, recuperating and doing training duties at Woolwich Depot, he joined the Royal Flying Corps in December. He had been trying for some time to obtain a transfer but the senior officers in the 29th Division would not allow this for its personnel serving in France; in later years Park saw his wounding as being particularly fortuitous for his future military career.
Royal Flying Corps
Park's RFC training commenced at Reading with a course at the School of Military Aeronautics. Much of this initial training involved military basics, such as drill, and theoretical matters, like Morse code. His flight instruction did not commence until he went to Netheravon where, after flying an Avro 504K with an instructor, he soloed in a Maurice Farman MF11 Shorthorn. The RFC still lacked sophistication in its flight training, and many pilots were sent to France with little more than basic flying skills. Park, having accumulated over 20 hours solo and 30 hours flying, had qualified for his wings and was posted to Rendcomb for instructing duties in March 1917.At Rendcomb, Park accumulated over 100 hours flying time before, in June, he was posted to France. The time he had spent in the air at this stage enhanced his survival prospects in aerial combat. On reporting to RFC headquarters in Boulogne, he was advised that he was to be a bomber pilot and sent to a depot pool of pilots at Saint-Omer. This was despite his specialisation in fighter aircraft. After some days without an assignment, he contacted No. 48 Squadron, a fighter unit at La Bellevue; this resulted in Park's posting to that squadron on 7 July.
Service with No. 48 Squadron
Shortly after Park's arrival at No. 48 Squadron, the unit moved to Frontier Aerodrome just east of Dunkirk. The squadron was equipped with the new Bristol Fighter, a two-seat biplane fighter and reconnaissance aircraft, and carried out patrols and reconnaissance flights. It also escorted bombers attacking German airfields in Belgium. Park had his first encounter with fighters of the Imperial German Air Service on 24 July 1917, when he was engaged by three Albatros D.III scout aircraft near Middelkerke. He and his observer, Second Lieutenant A. Merchant, operating a Lewis gun, drove off the attackers, sending one out of control. When the Germans started using their heavy bombers to attack London and other targets in England during the summer, No. 48 Squadron was tasked with interception duties. Park never saw any bombers on these flights.Park achieved his second aerial victory on 12 August when, flying with Second Lieutenant Arthur Noss as his observer, he was attacked by a pair of Albatrosses while returning to base after a patrol. Sustained gun fire from Noss drove an Albatros out of control. On 16 August, again paired with Noss, the duo combined to send a DFW C.V reconnaissance aircraft out of control. The following day Park and Noss engaged in a prolonged dogfight that began at over Slijpe and ended near Ghistelles at a height of. The pair destroyed one Albatros, seeing it crash into the sea, and sent three others out of control. In recognition of their successes, the commander of 4th Brigade, Brigadier-General John Becke, recommended Park and Noss for the Military Cross. This was duly awarded, the published citation for Park's MC reading:
On 21 August Park, flying with Second Lieutenant W. O'Toole while Noss was rested, drove two Albatros scouts out of control. Back with Noss on 25 August, the pair destroyed an Albatros south of Slijpe. On 2 September, with Alan Light, Park had two separate engagements with Albatrosses near Diksmuide; both aircraft that he and Light fired at were seen to be going down in an uncontrolled manner. On 5 September Park, flying with Air Mechanic H. Lindfield, killed a pilot of Jasta Boelcke, Franz Pernet, the stepson of General Erich Ludendorff, off Ostend. Flying near Slijpe on 9 September, he and Lindfield drove an Albatros out of control, and two days later Park was promoted to temporary captain. He destroyed an Albatros on 14 September, with Second Lieutenant H. Owen as his observer, and sent another Albatros out of control. Park was the squadron's most successful pilot over the August–September period and Becke recommended him for the Distinguished Service Order. The senior officer of the RFC in France, Major-General Hugh Trenchard, downgraded this to a Bar to his MC on the basis that this was sufficient reward. The published citation read:
Towards the end of September, No. 48 Squadron moved to the Arras sector, having incurred several casualties in the previous weeks. There, Park, now a flight leader, concentrated on preparing his command, which contained many inexperienced replacement pilots, for aerial combat. It was now involved in less dangerous work, mostly reconnaissance patrols, and casualties were light. In November, he was awarded a French honour, the Croix de guerre, for services in support of the 1st French Army's operations during its time in the Flanders sector of Belgium. On 3 January 1918, Park and his observer, Lieutenant J. Robertson, were flying near Ramicourt on a photo reconnaissance when they were engaged by several German Albatros fighters. Park was able to send one Albatros out of control although his observer's gun jammed. Park eventually evaded the pursuing fighters, although his engine was damaged by machine-gun fire and he force landed behind British lines. He was then sent to England for a rest; this proved to be brief for later in January he was posted to Hooton Park to instruct Canadian trainee pilots.