Air Vice Marshal Air vice-marshal (AVM) is a two-star air officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force. The rank is also used by the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence and it is sometimes u ...

Robert Norman Bateson (10 June 1912 – 6 March 1986) was a

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

(RAF) pilot during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

who flew extreme low-level raids against precision targets in occupied Europe. He started life in the English town of Watford, where he attended the local grammar school from 1914 onwards. Post-war he became a senior RAF officer.

Military career

Second World War

Bateson joined the Royal Air Force in July 1936. After initial flying training, Bateson was granted a short service commission as an acting

pilot officer Pilot officer (Plt Off officially in the RAF; in the RAAF and RNZAF; formerly P/O in all services, and still often used in the RAF) is the lowest commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countri ...

in September 1936. He completed his RAF flying training in May 1937 and in June joined No. 113 Squadron RAF at

RAF Upper Heyford RAF Upper Heyford was a Royal Air Force station located north-west of Bicester near the village of Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire, England. In the Second World War the airfield was used by Bomber Command. During the Cold War, Upper Heyford was one ...

where he initially flew the

Hawker Hind The Hawker Hind was a British light bomber of the inter-war years produced by Hawker Aircraft for the Royal Air Force. It was developed from the Hawker Hart day bomber introduced in 1931. Design and development An improved Hawker Hart bomber d ...

. His squadron moved to

RAF Grantham Royal Air Force Spitalgate or more simply RAF Spitalgate formerly known as RFC Grantham and RAF Grantham was a Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force station, located south east of the centre of Grantham, Lincolnshire, England fronting onto t ...

a few months later. The squadron was one of several RAF units sent to Egypt and the Middle East in mid-1938. Based at RAF Heliopolis, the squadron was among the last in the Middle East to convert to the

Bristol Blenheim The Bristol Blenheim is a British light bomber aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company (Bristol) which was used extensively in the first two years of the Second World War, with examples still being used as trainers until ...

bomber, in June 1939. Bateson later took command of the squadron, from September 1940 to January 1941, in operations against Italian forces in Libya. In January 1942, Bateson took command of

No. 211 Squadron RAF No. 211 Squadron RAF was a squadron in the Royal Air Force active from 1917 to 1919 and from 1937 to 1946. In World War I it operated as a bomber and later a reconnaissance unit on the Western Front. In World War II it operated as a medium bombe ...

in Egypt. The squadron was one of several sent to the Far East after Japan entered World War 2. Flying from airfields in

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

and

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

, the squadron suffered heavy losses to Japanese forces. Bateson, with other officers and men of 211 Squadron, was among RAF survivors evacuated to Australia in early March 1942. From May 1942, he was posted to command No. 11 Squadron RAF in

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. Bateson returned to the United Kingdom in mid-1943 and from February 1944 took over the command of No. 613 (City of Manchester) Squadron RAF. Equipped with De Havilland Mosquito FB.VI fighter bomber aircraft, the squadron was one of several in

No. 2 Group RAF No. 2 Group is a group of the Royal Air Force which was first activated in 1918, served from 1918–20, from 1936 through the Second World War to 1947, from 1948 to 1958, from 1993 to 1996, was reactivated in 2000, and is today part of Air Comm ...

responsible for low level precision attacks, among them strikes against ''

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

'' Headquarters in, for example,

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

(the Central Records Registry attack of 11 April 1944) and

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

(the

Operation Carthage Operation Carthage, on 21 March 1945, was a British air raid on Copenhagen, Denmark during the Second World War which killed 145 civilians. The target of the raid was the , the Gestapo headquarters in the city centre. It was used for the sto ...

attack on 'Shell House' of 21 March 1945).

Post-war

Bateson continued to serve in the RAF after the war, rising to the rank of

air vice marshal Air vice-marshal (AVM) is a two-star air officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force. The rank is also used by the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence and it is sometimes u ...

in January 1960. From February 1963 he was Senior Air Staff Officer, HQ

Fighter Command RAF Fighter Command was one of the commands of the Royal Air Force. It was formed in 1936 to allow more specialised control of fighter aircraft. It served throughout the Second World War World War II or the Second World War, oft ...

, the posting from which he retired on 1 August 1967.

Honours and awards

*Citation for the award of the Distinguished Flying Cross to Acting Squadron Leader Robert Norman Bateson (39054), No. 113 Squadron. *Citation for the award of the

Distinguished Service Order The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typ ...

to Acting Wing Commander Robert Norman Bateson, DFC (39054), No.613 Squadron. *Citation for the award of a Bar to the Distinguished Service Order to Acting Group Captain Robert Norman Bateson, DSO, DFC. *Award of Companion of the Most Honourable

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

(CB) to Air Vice-Marshal Robert Norman Bateson, DSO, DFC in the 1964 New Year Honours. *Award of

Airman's Cross The Airman's Cross ( nl, Vliegerkruis) is a military decoration of the Kingdom of the Netherlands created in 1941. The cross is awarded to members of the Dutch military who display initiative, courage, and perseverance against the enemy or during ...

to Wing commander Robert Norman Bateson (39054), No.613 Squadron.Databank dapperheidsonderscheidingen, Vliegerkruis: Bateson DSO DFC, R.N.. Retrieved on February 16, 2017.
/ref>

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bateson Robert Norman 1912 births 1986 deaths Commanders of the Order of the Dannebrog Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Companions of the Order of the Bath English aviators Knights of the Order of the Dannebrog People educated at Watford Grammar School for Boys Recipients of the Airman's Cross Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom) Royal Air Force air marshals Royal Air Force pilots of World War II Military personnel from Sussex