Kenneth Herbert Gatward

Pilot of No. 236 Squadron, who flew over occupied Paris in daylight and dropped a French flag on the Arc de Triomphe. Born on 29 September 1914 in London. He worked in an advertising agency before the war and joined the RAF in 1937, serving in Coastal Command on Blenheims and Beaufighters. In the spring of 1942 he was given an operation devised by the Ministry of Information: to fly over Paris, drop a tricolour on the Arc de Triomphe and attack the building on the Place de la Concorde housing the Kriegsmarine headquarters. The purpose was political — to show occupied France that Allied aircraft could reach its capital. The sortie was postponed eight times: it needed unbroken low cloud to shake off fighters, and at the same time visibility beneath it to find the target. On 12 June 1942 Gatward and his navigator, Sergeant George Fern, crossed the Channel at a few metres, came in over Paris, dropped the flag over the Arc de Triomphe — just as a German parade column was moving down the Champs-Élysées — shot up the Kriegsmarine building and flew home. The aircraft was damaged by a bird strike but made it back. He later commanded 404 Squadron RCAF on anti-shipping operations off the Norwegian coast. He was awarded the DSO and the DFC and Bar. He died on 19 November 1998.