Last updated at 17:07, Friday, 10 April 2009

AS war heroes go, James Milne Robb did not quite fit the mould.

Rather than being a dashing, strapping Captain Flashheart type, he was prematurely bald, slightly built and softly spoken.

But in the high octane world of fighter planes, battle strategy and international diplomacy, he was a giant, worshipped by “The Few” as one of them.

This son of the Hexham department store dynasty proved himself one of the most prominent personalities of the Second World War.

He rose from being a lynx-eyed fighter pilot in the infant Royal Flying Corps in the First World War to become one of the key figures in the defeat of Germany in World War Two.

He rubbed shoulders with Montgomery, Eisenhower and Mountbatten as part of the Allied high command, and was one of the signatories of the German surrender in 1945.

He had his own personal Spitfire – the only five-star Spitfire in the air – and as well as being knighted thrice over, had honours heaped upon him from all over the world.

He didn’t do badly for a youngster born in 1896 at Hencotes, Hexham, the third son of James Thomas Robb and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Wear.

Like his brothers Ridley and William, he was educated at George Watson’s School, Edinburgh, and Durham University.

A life in the family haberdashery business was not for him, and when the First World War broke out he was among the first to enlist.

He signed on as a private in the 4th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers, in September 1914, but by November he had been commissioned, and a year later he was promoted to captain.

He left the horrors of the trenches behind in August 1916, when he transferred to the newly formed Royal Flying Corps.

He soon learned to fly, and swooped into action on the Western Front with 32 Squadron.

He was one of the first to pilot a purpose-built single-seat aircraft designed specifically for air combat by the legendary engineer Geoffrey De Havilland – the DH2.

It was a ‘pusher’ biplane, with the engine mounted behind the pilot to give him a wide forward field of fire for his machine-gun.

He shot down his first enemy aircraft in January 1917, and was promoted to flight commander in March – shortly before being admitted to hospital in Rouen in France with gunshot wounds to both thighs.

Later a piece of shrapnel was removed from above his left ankle, and a bullet remained embedded near his hip.

He recovered well and after service in England with a training unit went back to the front in May 1918 with the newly formed 92 squadron as senior flight commander.

He flew the latest SE 5a, a single-seat biplane armed with two machine-guns.

Milne had the honour of achieving the squadron’s first victory, shooting down a Fokker D.VII fighter south of Bailleul railway station.

In the remaining months of the war he destroyed three enemy aircraft, helped to shoot down a fourth and drove down several others, apparently out of control.

He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in February 1919.

He was granted a permanent commission as a flight lieutenant in August 1919, but it could have all ended in 1921.

He was flying back from Paris when he crashed landed in the English Channel. His plane sank in 12 minutes, but he was rescued by boat.

Some time later he killed three sheep when landing, explaining he couldn’t see them because they were hidden by the long grass!

In 1923 he was flying a Bristol Fighter two-seater biplane in Iraq, putting down a revolt by tribesmen.

His log laconically records a raid on one unfortunate village as: “Hostile chiefs and Turks in village.

“Bombing good, then came down and shot up cattle and horses. Rear gunner finished ammunition, then used his revolver.”

He was promoted to squadron leader in January 1924 and took command of 30 squadron.

His chest ribbons were soon fluttering again, as in May 1926 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for outstanding co-operation with ground forces over difficult terrain, where forced landings were likely to prove fatal.

The war hero returned to England in 1926 and served as chief flying instructor at the Central Flying School, in Wiltshire.

He was promoted to wing commander in January 1932 and after a year at the Royal Naval Staff College, Greenwich, was appointed senior air force officer aboard HMS Eagle, an aircraft carrier stationed in the Far East.

He then became fleet aviation officer to the commander-in-chief, Mediterranean Fleet.

By 1936 he was commandant of the Central Flying School, winning promotion to group captain.

As the war clouds gathered over Europe again, he went to Canada in September 1939 to help establish the empire air training scheme, which made a vital contribution to British aircrew strength throughout the Second World War.

More promotions followed, as he was made an air commodore in January 1940, and commanded 2 group, Bomber Command, from April.

He was awarded the Air Force Cross in July, before being made air vice-marshal, in September, and was appointed Commander of the Bath in January 1941.

Among his tasks was evaluating the RAF’s new generation of monoplanes and embodying the results in detailed notes.

However, his observations that the twin-engined light bomber, the Bristol Blenheim, was ill-equipped to carry out raids across the English Channel without an escort, led the head of Bomber Command, Sir Richard Peirse, to sack him weeks later.

Robb was proved right, as in the months after his departure numerous Blenheims were shot down in ineffective attacks on shipping.

After a spell with Coastal Command, he was appointed deputy chief of combined operations to Lord Louis Mountbatten, and was involved in Operation Torch – the Allied landings in Morocco and Algeria in November 1942 – as air adviser to the supreme commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

In December 1943 Eisenhower was appointed commander of all Allied forces assigned for the liberation of German-occupied Europe – and specifically asked that Milne Robb be made deputy chief of staff (air) at Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force in March 1944.

In October he was promoted to air marshal and became chief of staff (air) under Eisenhower's deputy, Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder.

Unusually for so senior an officer, Robb remained a keen pilot and was delighted to be appointed head of Fighter Command in May 1945.

Whilst in charge of Fighter Command he received his own Mark XVI Spitfire, with its guns removed as well as the bulk of combat equipment, and the bays modified to take luggage.

The plane was painted light blue, with his initials JMR in large letters on each side of the fuselage.

Originally, there were three stars and a pennant defining his rank below the windscreen.

In July 1948, piloted by Air Vice-Marshall John Boothman, it crashed on landing when Boothman forgot to put the landing gear down!

The plane was repaired and, as Sir James was now air commander of the Western European Defence Union, the plane was repainted with five stars.

In August 1951, just before retirement and now aged 56, he flew the plane one last time to the Central Flying School where it was handed over for safe keeping.

When the High Speed Flight under his command was achieving the world's absolute speed record in 1946, he kept in touch, flying in a Meteor jet fighter to Tangmere where the flight was stationed.

It was one of more than 150 different types of aircraft he flew during his glittering career

Lord Tedder, now chief of the air staff, appointed Robb as his vice-chief in November 1947 and had him promoted to air chief marshal in October 1948.

Honours were heaped on honours in the years after the war, as he was made a Knight Commander of the British Empire in 1945, a Knight Commander of the Bath in 1949, and elevated to Knight Grand Cross in January 1951.

Across the Atlantic, he received the Distinguished Service Medal – America’s second highest decoration –from President Harry Truman himself.

He was awarded the Czechoslovak Order of the White Lion and Military Cross in June 1947, and was appointed a commander in the French Légion d'honneur in May 1948.

Milne Robb’s glittering career ended with his appointment as inspector general of the RAF, retiring in 1951.

He died on December 18 1968, in a nursing home at Bognor Regis, not far from his home in Felpham, Sussex.

First published at 09:51, Friday, 10 April 2009
Published by http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk