Squadron Leader Alastair Lang RIP

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Squadron Leader Alastair Lang obituary - Times Online

Though the Pathfinder Force was at first opposed by Bomber Command's chief, Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur “Bomber” Harris, who felt that to create an elite would be bad for service morale, it came inexorably to birth in the summer of 1942 under the vital imperative to improve the effectiveness of the RAF's strategic air offensive against Germany. The theory of its founder, the Australian-born Donald Bennett, was that bombing accuracy could be much improved if specialist crews flew ahead of the main force and marked the target with flares using the radar aids that were becoming available.

In September 1942, Alastair Lang joined one of its first four squadrons, No 156, equipped with Wellingtons. The twin-engined bomber was of a type that had been in service from day one of the war — the other three squadrons were equipped with the newer four-engined Stirlings, Halifaxes and Lancasters. But the squadrons were chosen for the proven skill of their crews, not for the modernity of their aircraft.

Joining the RAF when war broke out in 1939 with his brother, Hugh (who trained as a fighter pilot and was later killed), Lang had been flying operations with Wellingtons of 150 Squadron since April 1941. After 19 trips he was posted to an operational training unit. But this meant no let-up from ops, since the aircraft of OTUs had been drafted in to Harris's 1,000-bomber raid on Cologne, to make up the magic figure. Lang flew two more big raids in OTU aircraft, but was desperate to get back to regular operations and volunteered when he heard that the Pathfinder Force (PFF) was being formed.

There were no instant miracles to be worked in PFF's early months. Some early marking efforts were wide of the target and casualties were high. Even after 156 converted to Lancasters, its losses continued to rise. But the PFF stuck at its task and gradually refined its techniques. Lang was awarded the DFC in March 1943 for “displaying exceptional ability and consistently setting a high example of courage and determination”.

His luck ran out on his 50th operational sortie, over Dortmund, on May 4, 1943. His target indicator flares “hung up” in the bomb bay and the aircraft became a fireball when it was hit by flak. The rear half of the aircraft disintegrated, and only Lang and his flight engineer, Sergeant Jack Clark, got out alive and parachuted to earth.

Lang spent most of the rest of the war in Stalag Luft III at Sagan before being moved to Stalag IIIA at Luckenwalde, south of Berlin, where he was liberated by the Red Army in May 1945.

Offered a permanent commission after the war, he toured the US as a flight commander in 617 (“Dambusters”) Squadron in 1947; switched to fighters, converted to jets and commanded 66 (Meteor) Squadron, 1949-52, leading it in an aerobatic display at Farnborough in 1950; trained Ceylon Air Force cadets, 1952-54; and tested a new generation of fighters, Swift, Hunter and Gnat, while at the Ministry of Supply from 1954.

He left the RAF in 1957 and joined Mobil Oil for which he worked for the next 25 years, becoming manager of the wholesale fuel department. He retired as a director in 1983.

His wife, Barbara, whom he married in 1941, died in 1992 and his second wife, Tessa, whom he married in 1999, also predeceased him. He is survived by the three daughters of his first marriage and by two stepdaughters.

Squadron Leader Alastair Lang, DFC, Pathfinder Force pilot, was born on October 26, 1919. He died on October 28, 2007, aged 88

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156 Squadron RAF