Group Captain Group captain is a senior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force, where it originated, as well as the air forces of many countries that have historical British influence. It is sometimes used as the English translation of an equivalent rank i ...

Robert Gordon Yaxley, (1912 – 3 June 1943) 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 ...

pilot and commander 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 ...

Early life

Yaxley was born in

Bath, Somerset Bath () is a city in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary area in the county of Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman-built baths. At the 2021 Census, the population was 101,557. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, ...

, the son of Robert and Agnes Elizabeth Yaxley. After attending the

Royal Air Force College Cranwell The Royal Air Force College (RAFC) is the Royal Air Force military academy which provides initial training to all RAF personnel who are preparing to become commissioned officers. The College also provides initial training to aircrew cadets and ...

, he commissioned into the

(RAF) on 4 September 1934, with seniority of 28 July 1934.

RAF career

Yaxley served with the

No. 2 Armoured Car Company RAF The Number 2 Armoured Car Company RAF was a military unit of the British Royal Air Force (RAF) which was based at Amman in what was then called the Transjordan. It was the counterpart of No.1 Armoured Car Company RAF, which performed a similar ro ...

in the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine, and was awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

on 6 November 1936. He had been promoted to the rank of flying officer on 28 January 1936. At the beginning of the Second World War, Yaxley was serving with No. 252 Squadron RAF and by December 1940 he was the unit's Commanding Officer. On 9 September 1941 he was promoted to wing commander, and took command of

No. 272 Squadron RAF No. 272 Squadron RAF was a Royal Air Force Squadron formed as an anti–submarine unit in World War I and a coastal fighter unit in World War II. History Formation and World War I No. 272 Squadron Royal Flying Corps was formed on 25 July 1918 ...

, a unit equipped with

Bristol Beaufighter The Bristol Type 156 Beaufighter (often called the Beau) is a British multi-role aircraft developed during the Second World War by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. It was originally conceived as a heavy fighter variant of the Bristol Beaufort ...

s. On 17 October 1941 Yaxley was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his command of raiding detachment of fighter aircraft. The citation for the award read: This was followed by 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 ...

on 12 December 1941 for his leadership in the Western Desert Campaign. The decoration was the first awarded during the campaign in Libya, and was announced with the following citation: On 8 July 1942 became Commanding Officer of

No. 117 Squadron RAF No. 117 Squadron RAF was a Royal Air Force Squadron formed to be a bomber unit in World War I and reformed as a transport and communications unit in World War II. History Formation and World War I No. 117 Squadron Royal Flying Corps was formed ...

and under his leadership the squadron began to play a big part in the advance from

El Alamein El Alamein ( ar, العلمين, translit=al-ʿAlamayn, lit=the two flags, ) is a town in the northern Matrouh Governorate of Egypt. Located on the Arab's Gulf, Mediterranean Sea, it lies west of Alexandria and northwest of Cairo. , it had ...

. On 3 June 1943, Yaxley was killed while piloting a

Lockheed Hudson The Lockheed Hudson is a light bomber and coastal reconnaissance aircraft built by the American Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. It was initially put into service by the Royal Air Force shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War and prim ...

over the

Bay of Biscay The Bay of Biscay (), known in Spain as the Gulf of Biscay ( es, Golfo de Vizcaya, eu, Bizkaiko Golkoa), and in France and some border regions as the Gulf of Gascony (french: Golfe de Gascogne, oc, Golf de Gasconha, br, Pleg-mor Gwaskogn), ...

en route to North Africa.Imperial War Museum – ROYAL AIR FORCE: OPERATIONS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA, 1939–1943.
Retrieved 11 January 2016. His plane, carrying several passengers including Osgood Hanbury, was shot down by a German

Junkers Ju 88 The Junkers Ju 88 is a German World War II ''Luftwaffe'' twin-engined multirole combat aircraft. Junkers Aircraft and Motor Works (JFM) designed the plane in the mid-1930s as a so-called ''Schnellbomber'' ("fast bomber") that would be too fast ...

C flown by Lieutenant Hans Olbrecht.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yaxley, Robert 1912 births 1943 deaths Aviators killed by being shot down Royal Air Force personnel killed in World War II Royal Air Force pilots of World War II Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Graduates of the Royal Air Force College Cranwell Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom) Recipients of the Military Cross Royal Air Force group captains Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in international waters Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1943 Military personnel from Bath, Somerset British military personnel of the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine