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This was in yesterday's Telegraph - what a career!
Wing Commander Lenny Lambert, who has died aged 96, escaped from the beaches of Dunkirk as a private soldier and returned to France four years later to lead a squadron in support of the Allied armies as they advanced towards Germany.
By the Normandy invasion in June 1944, Lambert was an experienced fighter-reconnaissance pilot and was second-in-command of a Mustang squadron, No 168 Squadron. Based at an airfield in Hampshire, he flew low-level reconnaissance sorties and carried out a patrol over the beachhead on D-Day. At the end of June his squadron moved to Normandy to operate from a temporary airstrip.
Over the next few weeks, Lambert and his pilots flew in support of the 2nd Army seeking out and attacking German transport columns with reinforcements moving into the invasion area. In October, the squadron replaced its Mustangs with Typhoons and Lambert was appointed as the CO.
The squadron’s role was low-level attack with cannons. Lambert and his pilots flew ahead of other Typhoons armed with rockets and attacked the anti-aircraft batteries to suppress their fire. On November 29, he led eight of his Typhoons to suppress the guns protecting the lock gates on the Dortmund-Ems canal. His formation flew just ahead of a Canadian squadron who were able to bomb the target accurately.
On January 1 1945, when the Luftwaffe launched a mass attack against Allied airfields in the Netherlands, Lambert was airborne on a mission to strafe enemy positions around St Vith. On the return flight his aircraft was badly damaged by anti-aircraft fire. The formation soon ran into a flight of enemy fighters and one closed in on Lambert who was having great difficulty controlling his aircraft. Fortunately, his wingman recognised Lambert’s problem, closed in on the enemy fighter and shot it down.
Lambert led his pilots on attack missions almost every day. On January 23 during an armed-reconnaissance sortie near Munster, he and two of his pilots spotted a German bomber and a fighter preparing to land at Rheine airfield. They attacked them and the fighter pulled into cloud. Lambert fired on the bomber, which crashed as it tried to land and was destroyed.
An important task for Lambert’s squadron was to try and find the mobile launching sites for the V-2 rockets being launched against London and the port of Antwerp. The sites were well camouflaged but Lambert found a V-2 being fuelled. His Typhoons attacked and the fuel installation and the rocket blew up. On another occasion he was circling at 10,000 feet looking for a site when he spotted a “mushroom”� developing on the ground marking the launch of a V-2. The rocket rose and passed between him and his wingman, giving him the closest view of the rocket of any other man on the Allied side. His formation then dived and blew up the fuel tanks and destroyed the site. Newspaper reporters were at Eindhoven when he landed and their headlines claimed “Squadron Commander claims V-2 is pretty!”
At the end of February, Lambert was rested and awarded the DFC. The citation commented on his keenness and courage of the highest order and concluded, “He is an outstanding operational pilot”�.
Leonard Horace Lambert was born in Yardley, Birmingham, on October 21 1919. He joined the Royal Army Service Corps as a private soldier in April 1939.
During the withdrawal of the British Expeditionary Force to Dunkirk, Lambert and his colleagues became isolated and had to make their own way to the coast in an abandoned truck. The small party arrived near Dunkirk after the main evacuation had finished and spent five sleepless nights on the beach. They commandeered a small boat and were eventually picked up by a naval vessel. Lambert had been wounded and he was to spend three months recovering from his ordeal.
He volunteered for service in the RAF and trained as a pilot in Canada before being posted to an army-cooperation squadron. Flying the US-built Tomahawk, he attacked shipping and coastal targets and photographed areas in northern France in preparation for the eventual amphibious landing in Normandy. To maintain security and mislead the Germans, photographic sorties along the whole of the north coast of France were flown at frequent intervals to monitor enemy defences, survey the beaches and monitor the building of the V-1 launch sites.
When Lambert returned to England in March 1945, he was an instructor at a fighter pilot training unit before spending a year on the air staff in West Africa. He returned to fly fighters in September 1946 when he joined the Central Fighter Establishment to help develop tactics.
In January 1949 Lambert left for the RAF base at Gutersloh in West Germany where he took command of No 16 Squadron, which had just re-equipped with the Vampire jet fighter bomber. To support the Berlin Airlift, the squadron moved to Celle near the border with East Germany to mount patrols and be a rapid reaction fighter force in the event of any “incidents”�. When Lambert left the squadron in January 1951 he was awarded the AFC.
A tour on the operations staff at Allied Air Forces Central Europe, based near Paris, Lambert commanded the fighter wing at the former Battle of Britain airfield at North Weald in Essex.
During an exchange appointment with the USAF in California he met Marilyn Monroe and Howard Hughes, the latter offering him a job in his aircraft plant. For his last appointment in the RAF he worked in the operational requirements division at the Air Ministry.
He retired in February 1961 and initially worked for Computing Devices of Canada before starting his own company. Later he became the managing director of Natural Power Systems, specialising in solar and wind energy and continuing to work into his eighties.
Lambert did not forget his experiences in France and in recent years made numerous visits to Normandy, the Pas de Calais region and to Dunkirk. He became involved in the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships and in 1975 he discovered the sailing clipper Falcon II moored on the riverbank at Thames Ditton in a sorry state. It had made five trips to Dunkirk. Once he had restored it he gave it the name Alabama. It is thought to be the oldest surviving Dunkirk veteran.
After the war he became friendly with the German fighter “ace”, Adolph Galland. They reminded each other that they had met twice before "over Antwerp" in late 1944. Lambert enjoyed sailing and good wine, and he and his second wife gave many house parties at their villa in Italy.
In October 2015 Lambert joined six other veterans at a ceremony in Gloucester where he was presented with the Legion d’honneur for his services during the liberation of France.
Lenny Lambert married Diana Boff in 1947. The marriage was later dissolved and he married, secondly, the Hollywood and Broadway actress Virginia Campbell who died earlier this year aged 102. His two sons and two daughters from his first marriage survive him.
Wing Commander Lenny Lambert, who has died aged 96, escaped from the beaches of Dunkirk as a private soldier and returned to France four years later to lead a squadron in support of the Allied armies as they advanced towards Germany.
By the Normandy invasion in June 1944, Lambert was an experienced fighter-reconnaissance pilot and was second-in-command of a Mustang squadron, No 168 Squadron. Based at an airfield in Hampshire, he flew low-level reconnaissance sorties and carried out a patrol over the beachhead on D-Day. At the end of June his squadron moved to Normandy to operate from a temporary airstrip.
Over the next few weeks, Lambert and his pilots flew in support of the 2nd Army seeking out and attacking German transport columns with reinforcements moving into the invasion area. In October, the squadron replaced its Mustangs with Typhoons and Lambert was appointed as the CO.
The squadron’s role was low-level attack with cannons. Lambert and his pilots flew ahead of other Typhoons armed with rockets and attacked the anti-aircraft batteries to suppress their fire. On November 29, he led eight of his Typhoons to suppress the guns protecting the lock gates on the Dortmund-Ems canal. His formation flew just ahead of a Canadian squadron who were able to bomb the target accurately.
On January 1 1945, when the Luftwaffe launched a mass attack against Allied airfields in the Netherlands, Lambert was airborne on a mission to strafe enemy positions around St Vith. On the return flight his aircraft was badly damaged by anti-aircraft fire. The formation soon ran into a flight of enemy fighters and one closed in on Lambert who was having great difficulty controlling his aircraft. Fortunately, his wingman recognised Lambert’s problem, closed in on the enemy fighter and shot it down.
Lambert led his pilots on attack missions almost every day. On January 23 during an armed-reconnaissance sortie near Munster, he and two of his pilots spotted a German bomber and a fighter preparing to land at Rheine airfield. They attacked them and the fighter pulled into cloud. Lambert fired on the bomber, which crashed as it tried to land and was destroyed.
An important task for Lambert’s squadron was to try and find the mobile launching sites for the V-2 rockets being launched against London and the port of Antwerp. The sites were well camouflaged but Lambert found a V-2 being fuelled. His Typhoons attacked and the fuel installation and the rocket blew up. On another occasion he was circling at 10,000 feet looking for a site when he spotted a “mushroom”� developing on the ground marking the launch of a V-2. The rocket rose and passed between him and his wingman, giving him the closest view of the rocket of any other man on the Allied side. His formation then dived and blew up the fuel tanks and destroyed the site. Newspaper reporters were at Eindhoven when he landed and their headlines claimed “Squadron Commander claims V-2 is pretty!”
At the end of February, Lambert was rested and awarded the DFC. The citation commented on his keenness and courage of the highest order and concluded, “He is an outstanding operational pilot”�.
Leonard Horace Lambert was born in Yardley, Birmingham, on October 21 1919. He joined the Royal Army Service Corps as a private soldier in April 1939.
During the withdrawal of the British Expeditionary Force to Dunkirk, Lambert and his colleagues became isolated and had to make their own way to the coast in an abandoned truck. The small party arrived near Dunkirk after the main evacuation had finished and spent five sleepless nights on the beach. They commandeered a small boat and were eventually picked up by a naval vessel. Lambert had been wounded and he was to spend three months recovering from his ordeal.
He volunteered for service in the RAF and trained as a pilot in Canada before being posted to an army-cooperation squadron. Flying the US-built Tomahawk, he attacked shipping and coastal targets and photographed areas in northern France in preparation for the eventual amphibious landing in Normandy. To maintain security and mislead the Germans, photographic sorties along the whole of the north coast of France were flown at frequent intervals to monitor enemy defences, survey the beaches and monitor the building of the V-1 launch sites.
When Lambert returned to England in March 1945, he was an instructor at a fighter pilot training unit before spending a year on the air staff in West Africa. He returned to fly fighters in September 1946 when he joined the Central Fighter Establishment to help develop tactics.
In January 1949 Lambert left for the RAF base at Gutersloh in West Germany where he took command of No 16 Squadron, which had just re-equipped with the Vampire jet fighter bomber. To support the Berlin Airlift, the squadron moved to Celle near the border with East Germany to mount patrols and be a rapid reaction fighter force in the event of any “incidents”�. When Lambert left the squadron in January 1951 he was awarded the AFC.
A tour on the operations staff at Allied Air Forces Central Europe, based near Paris, Lambert commanded the fighter wing at the former Battle of Britain airfield at North Weald in Essex.
During an exchange appointment with the USAF in California he met Marilyn Monroe and Howard Hughes, the latter offering him a job in his aircraft plant. For his last appointment in the RAF he worked in the operational requirements division at the Air Ministry.
He retired in February 1961 and initially worked for Computing Devices of Canada before starting his own company. Later he became the managing director of Natural Power Systems, specialising in solar and wind energy and continuing to work into his eighties.
Lambert did not forget his experiences in France and in recent years made numerous visits to Normandy, the Pas de Calais region and to Dunkirk. He became involved in the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships and in 1975 he discovered the sailing clipper Falcon II moored on the riverbank at Thames Ditton in a sorry state. It had made five trips to Dunkirk. Once he had restored it he gave it the name Alabama. It is thought to be the oldest surviving Dunkirk veteran.
After the war he became friendly with the German fighter “ace”, Adolph Galland. They reminded each other that they had met twice before "over Antwerp" in late 1944. Lambert enjoyed sailing and good wine, and he and his second wife gave many house parties at their villa in Italy.
In October 2015 Lambert joined six other veterans at a ceremony in Gloucester where he was presented with the Legion d’honneur for his services during the liberation of France.
Lenny Lambert married Diana Boff in 1947. The marriage was later dissolved and he married, secondly, the Hollywood and Broadway actress Virginia Campbell who died earlier this year aged 102. His two sons and two daughters from his first marriage survive him.