Orders, Decorations and Medals

The important Second World War Wing Leader’s and fighter ace’s D.S.O., D.F.C. group of eleven awarded to Group Captain G. H. Westlake, Royal Air Force, who first flew operationally in Hurricanes in the Battle of Britain and went on to score at least 10 confirmed “kills”, many of them in the Syrian and Tunisian Campaigns 1941-42: having then risen to command of No. 239 Wing, he led “Operation Bowler”, a one-off attack on enemy shipping in the port of Venice, and a superbly executed pinpoint operation that attracted an admiring roof-top-audience of Venetians

Distinguished Service Order, G.VI.R., the reverse officially dated ‘1945’, silver-gilt and enamel; Distinguished Flying Cross, G.VI.R., the reverse officially dated ‘1942’; 1939-45 Star, clasp, Battle of Britain; Air Crew Europe Star; Africa Star, clasp, North Africa 1942-43; Italy Star; War Medal 1939-45, M.I.D oak leaf; General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Cyprus (Wg. Cdr. G. H. Westlake, R.A.F.); Campaign Service 1962, 1 clasp, Malay Peninsula (Gp. Capt. G. H. Westlake, R.A.F); Coronation 1953; Air Efficiency Award, G.VI.R (A./Sqn./Ldr. G. H. Westlake, R.A.F.V.R), the first with slightly chipped enamel, generally good very fine (11) £18000-22000

D.S.O. London Gazette 22 June 1945. The original recommendation states:

‘On 15 April 1945, Wing Commander Westlake led an attack on forward enemy positions in preparation for an assault by our ground forces. The attack was pressed home with great determination and the infantry, attacking immediately after the aircraft, were able to report the capture of 180 enemy troops, together with the Battalion Commander, and the destruction of eight enemy tanks.

On 21 March 1945, this officer led a Wing attack against shipping and harbour installations in the strongly defended port of Venice. By his leadership and tactics, the attack was completely successful, resulting in the destruction of one 3500-ton motor vessel, one war Parpenope torpedo-boat sunk, one 700-ton coaster sunk and very extensive damage to stores and dock installations. This was accomplished for the loss of only one aircraft, the pilot of which was saved.

Since taking over the duties of Wing Commander Flying, he has led many successful attacks, both in close support to the Army, and on long armed reconnaissance sorties in Northern Italy.

Leading two separate attacks in direct support of the Infantry on the opening day of the present offensive, Wing Commander Westlake, by sound leadership and determination, attacked and destroyed many enemy occupied houses and strong points.

In aerial combat he has destroyed 11 and a half enemy aircraft. He has also destroyed much enemy M.T. and rolling stock. For his achievements in the air, and his ability on the ground, I recommend him for an immediate award of the Distinguished Service Order.’

D.F.C. London Gazette 18 September 1942. The original recommendation states:

‘This recommendation is in respect of continuous gallantry displayed by this officer. He now has eight confirmed enemy aircraft destroyed and one damaged to his credit. He has always shown exceptional daring and tenacity when engaging the enemy, and at all times his keenness and high sense of duty have been an inspiration to everyone.

He has been a singular success as Flight Commander of ‘B’ Flight, No. 213 Squadron, and when leading the Squadron on all occasions he has shown brilliant resource and a high degree of courage, and an offensive spirit which has had a very active and successful influence on his fellow pilots.’

Mention in despatches London Gazette 14 January 1944.

George Herbert Westlake was born at Rangoon in April 1918, where his father was Harbour Master. Educated at Shoreham School and the de Havilland Aeronautical Technical School, he enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in September 1937 – he also qualified as an assistant flying instructor at the London Aeroplane Club, thereby notching up many hours flying time prior to the outbreak of hostilities.

No. 213 Squadron: The Battle of Britain

On being mobilised, he was employed as an instructor at Ansty, near Coventry, but keen to see active service, Westlake orchestrated his transfer to Fighter Command, was commissioned, and joined No. 43 “Fighting Cocks” Squadron, a Hurricane unit based at Usworth, in August 1940. Rapidly instructed in the finer details of combat flying by 43’s veterans – ‘five trips a day was quite normal and if you weren’t wringing wet at the end of each sortie, you hadn’t been trying’ - he was posted to No. 213 Squadron at Tangmere, another Hurricane unit, at the end of September: just three hours after his arrival the Squadron was scrambled to intercept a heavy plot of 300 plus Dorniers, Heinkels and Me. 109s over the Isle of Wight:

‘I had been told to stay with my No. 1, so I tried. One moment there was a sky full of aeroplanes going in every direction; collision was the main risk, and then suddenly there wasn’t another aeroplane anywhere in sight. It was quite uncanny how the sky cleared so quickly … I used to marvel most of the time, how some pilots could lay claim to shooting down anything in the middle of the battle - I was always too busy trying to see where my shots ended up or trying like mad to keep out of someone else’s range. When an Me. 109 was behind you could see what looked like electric light bulbs whipping past - these were cannon shells!’

In October and November the main fighting was against Me.109s and on the 15th of the latter month he claimed one destroyed in a combat at 22,000 ft. 20 miles south of Selsey Bill:

‘I was Green One and after the Squadron was attacked and broken up I tried to join up with another Hurricane chasing 109s out to sea. I lost them when they entered cloud but seeing a smoke trail above me I climbed to chase it. The aircraft dived and I lost it but then I saw two 109s approaching ahead and about 400 ft. above. They turned and continued turning and I was able to get inside them and when at this level I was able to close up and get a bead on one of them. He immediately burst into flames after a very short burst [at 200 yards range]. The flames came out of the cockpit and there was lots of black smoke. The aircraft went into a spin. By now the other 109 was behind me and I saw him firing with no results. I turned after him but he dived and headed for France. I tried to catch him but couldn’t.’

Here then the opening chapter of a remarkable combat career, Westlake’s “kill” being verified by Squadron Leader Boyd of No. 145 Squadron.

Withdrawn to Yorkshire at the end of the year, and thence to Castletown, near Thurso, on fleet protection duty, 213 was ordered overseas in the Spring of 1941, and embarked at Liverpool with 29 and 249 Squadrons in the carriers Ark Royal and Furious. Having flown off and refuelled at Malta on 21 May, 213 was split up between various squadrons in the Middle East, until its ground crews and equipment arrived, via the Cape.

Attachment to No. 80 Squadron: the Syrian Campaign 1941

For his own part, Westlake was attached to ‘B’ Flight, No. 80 Squadron at Haifa, a unit charged with protecting the Fleet from the Germans and Vichy French. And among his fellow pilots was Roald Dahl, who later described the unit’s activities in his acclaimed wartime memoir, Going Solo (Jonathan Cape, 1986):

‘We had nine Hurricanes at Haifa and the same number of pilots, and in the days that followed we were kept very busy. Our main job was to protect the navy. Our navy had two large cruisers and several destroyers stationed in Haifa harbour and every day they would sail up the coast past Tyre and Sidon to bombard the Vichy French forces in the mountains around the Damour river. And whenever our ships came out, the Germans came over to bomb them. They came from Rhodes, where they had built up a strong force of Junkers Ju. 88s, and just about every day we met those Ju. 88s over the fleet. They came over at 8,000 feet and we were usually waiting for them. We would dive in amongst them, shooting at their engines and getting shot at by their front- and rear-gunners, and the sky filled with bursting shells from the ships below and when one of them exploded close to you it made your plane jump like a stung horse. Sometimes the Vichy French air force joined up with the Germans. They had American Glenn Martins and French Dewoitines and Potez 63s, and we shot some of them down and they killed four of our nine pilots.’

Dahl did indeed raise himself to ace status with the destruction of a Potez 63 and a Ju. 88 - on the back of earlier victories gained over Greece and Crete - while Westlake claimed two “shared” victories and a confirmed Dewoitine 520 off Saida on 9 June 1940. And such marksmanship quickly paid dividends, the dwindling strength of the retreating Vichy forces now being subjected to relentless ground strafing by 80’s surviving pilots. One such occasion was an attack on a Vichy airfield, an extraordinary event best described by Roald Dahl:

‘Once we went out to ground-strafe some Vichy French planes on an airfield near Rayak and as we swept in surprise low over the field at midday we saw to our astonishment a bunch of girls in brightly coloured cotton dresses standing out by the planes with glasses in their hands having drinks with the French pilots, and I remember seeing bottles of wine standing on the wing of one of the planes as we went swooshing over. It was a Sunday morning and the Frenchmen were evidently entertaining their girlfriends and showing off their aircraft to them, which was a very French thing to do in the middle of a war at a front-line aerodrome. Every one of us held fire on that first pass over the flying field and it was wonderfully comical to see the girls all dropping their wine glasses and galloping in their high heels for the door of the nearest building. We went round again, but by this time we were no longer a surprise and they were ready for us with ground defences, and I am afraid that our chivalry resulted in damage to several of our Hurricanes, including my own. But we destroyed five of their planes on the ground.’

In fact, when Westlake visited Rayak at a later date, he found nine burned out wrecks, while of the attack itself he recalled ‘there was fuel and pandemonium everywhere.’

No. 80 Squadron: Cyprus 1941

Following his part in the Syrian campaign, Westlake - and three other pilots from No. 80 - was ordered to Cyprus in July to form a “Local Defence Force” against daily Italian attacks on Nicosia airfield. As he later recalled, ‘They would come over at 9 and 11 o’clock every morning and also around 5 o’clock in the evenings’, but, as a result of no radar, interceptions were rare.

Nonetheless, when contact was made, Westlake acted swiftly, a Ju. 88 falling to his guns at 50 feet over Morphon Bay on 18 July – a spectacular action witnessed by some Cypriot fishermen, who saw the enemy aircraft explode in a fireball – and an Italian Cant Z 1007 on 26 August, the latter crashing on the foreshore between Capo Greco and Cape Napa, the first enemy aircraft to fall on Cypriot soil. Both victories prompted extensive coverage in the local newspapers and did much for the Island’s morale – so much so that one local businessman presented Westlake with a splendid silver tankard, a gift that witnessed much use in the Squadron’s bar, “The Hornet’s Nest”, but one which was subsequently stolen with other mess silver when in transit at Port Said.

Westlake had also been given a bottle of whisky by the Governor after claiming his Ju. 88 in July, but the further promise of a crate if he downed another raider eluded him, the Governor having departed to another posting by the time of his combat with the Italian bomber in August.
No. 213 Squadron: North Africa 1941-43

Back with a reformed 213 Squadron by the end of 1941, Westlake was employed in the defence of Alexandria, but it was not until the Squadron’s move to the Western Desert in the following year, as part of No. 224 Wing, that he was able to increase his score – in fact in comparison to Alexandria, ‘Life here was very different and quite dangerous too’. Westlake continues:

‘We flew three or four times a day, usually meeting Me. 109s or Italian Macchi 200s and 202s. We occasionally ran into Stuka parties and Me. 110s, and life was hectic. Personally, I would rather run into Germans than Italians any time. Germans, in pairs, kept up their “pecking” tactics from out of the sun and zooming away out of reach after having had his crack at you (You can’t blame him!). The Italians, on the other hand, also in pairs and also higher than you and behind, just like the 109s, would dive down behind our formations, then zoom up, in front, out of range, doing a series of upward rolls – this was just to let you now he was ready and the game was “on”! Unlike the German, he would even do head-on attacks, which the German never did. The ensuing dogfights were frantic … ’

Yet over the summer of 1942, during the course of the Gazala battles, head-on attacks or not, Westlake – by now a Flight Commander – rapidly increased his score, June witnessing him claim a “Probable” 109 and a damaged Ju. 87 over Bir Hacheim on the 10th, confirmed 109s over El Adem and Tobruk on the 12th and 16th, and a Ju. 87 over Mersa Matruh on the 26th. While in July, on the 5th, over the Egyptian frontier area, he fought a series of combats, claiming a confirmed Me. 110 and a Macchi 202, in addition to damaging two further 202s.

Westlake had now been a frontline pilot for nearly two years, flown in excess of 250 sorties, and amassed around 275 hours of operational flying – he was recommended for a long overdue D.F.C., advanced to Squadron Leader and “rested” as a Fighter Operations Controller in the Desert Air Force’s No. 211 Group. As it transpired, his new role was far from restful:

‘I was turned into a Fighter Controller on the ground, directing aircraft visually to targets of opportunity. At Alamein our radio unit was in front of British 25-pounders – very noisy and, at times, rather hairy, especially when the Germans fixed your position by radio and laid down a “stonk” of mortars – Flammenwerfers, I think they were called, and very unpleasant to be under.’

And it was for his direction of Kittyhawks of 5 (S.A.A.F) Wing against huge Messerschmitt 323s ferrying German troops out of Tunisia that he won his mention in despatches:

‘It was murder. So many of these huge aeroplanes were being shot down it was impossible to keep a tally. Then later on, at night, we sent in the Beaufighters to strafe those which had landed on the beach and were under repair.’

Sicily and Italy 1943-44

Notwithstanding the close attention of enemy units on the ground, Westlake saw through the desert campaign and beyond, taking charge of a mobile operations unit in the rank of Wing Commander for the Sicilian and Italian landings. And it was during the course of the latter operations that he found time to persuade the A.O.C. to allow him to return to operational flying, even though he had to drop rank to Squadron Leader. An enjoyable sojourn with the pilots of No. 3 (R.A.A.F.) Squadron ensued, the enthusiastic Australians teaching him the ‘gentle art of fighter-bombing’ in their Kittyhawks, but, following the Italian capitulation, Westlake discovered his seniors had another task in mind: reinstated in the rank of Wing Commander, he was appointed to the command of one of the first Italian units to fight alongside the Allies – the Quatro Stormo.

Operating out of Sicily on ground attack operations, the Quatro Stormo comprised three squadrons of Airacobras, one squadron of Spitfires and two squadrons of Baltimores, and, by Westlake’s reckoning, the Italian aircrew were superb – most of them, of course, were long-served veterans from the North African and Sicilian campaigns, including one pilot who had sunk 23 Allied ships (and who showed a doubtful Westlake photographic evidence of his success). Quite a few of them were from the higher echelons of Italian society, too, thus assorted Counts and Barons, one of whom obtained Westlake an audience with Pope Pius XII – and Prince Umberto was a regular visitor to the unit’s tented quarters behind Vesuvius. But, three months later, in September 1944, he was appointed to a new command.

Command of 239 Wing

Prior to “Operation Bowler” off Venice in March 1945, Westlake led 239 Wing in ground attack operations against the retreating enemy in Yugoslavia and Northern Italy, himself gaining credit for destroying assorted enemy transport and communications. Yet as he would later observe - though the enemy was in retreat and the Luftwaffe’s presence rarely felt - ‘a fighter bomber’s life was far more risky than that of an ordinary fighter pilot’:

‘We had to fly through flak on every sortie, and in some cases it was like flying down the gun barrels themselves. It wasn’t the heavy flak that did the damage, it was the light stuff – 40mm., 37mm. and 20mm. - we attacked everything from tanks, transport, railways, bridges, ships, patrol craft, airfields, gun positions, concentrations of troops, everything possible.’

“Operation Bowler” 21 March 1945

‘Venice’, Westlake recalled, ‘was a protected city but the harbour offered a number of targets, so was fair game, provided we did no damage to Venice itself. At the planning sessions, the A.O.C., Air Vice Marshal “Pussy” Foster, told me (I was to lead the show) that if so much as one bomb fell outside the target area, both he and I would be “bowler-hatted”. So the Op. itself was named “Operation Bowler”. I led over 100 fighter bombers that day, with three Squadrons of Spitfires giving us top cover, as well as a couple of Spitfires taking photographs. It was a great success because apart from every vessel in the harbour, we hit a stockpile of their mines that rocked the P.R. Spitfire at 22,000 and blew a hole in the dockside about 100 yards across - this was a sheer fluke, we didn’t know they were there. The other bonus, and again we did not know of its existence, was destroying their underwater establishment, where they did all the training for their frogmen and two-men submarines. It was on a small island near Venice itself, on its own in the Lagoon, but it had a flak post on it that we had to take out. We caught him completely by surprise and, although their flak was pretty fierce later on in the raid, our only loss was one Kittyhawk and we picked up the pilot within 40 minutes of him baling out. I was given an immediate D.S.O after this show, which had earned another three D.S.Os and five D.F.Cs as well for some of the other pilots. And the only damage to Venice was a few broken windows - no casualties, except in the harbour area.’

Post-war

Having returned to the U.K. in June 1945, Westlake attended R.A.F. Staff College, the stepping stone for a distinguished post-war career that witnessed his advancement to Group Captain in July 1961, but one which came to a grinding halt as a result of his “man management” confrontation while serving as Director of Command and Staff Training at the Air Ministry in the late 1960’s. In the interim, he witnessed further active service in Cyprus and the Malay Peninsula, but the terrorists in the former place left him alone:

‘My previous experience in Cyprus, and the fact I had become fairly well-known in 1941, gave me immunity from the EOKA terrorists who were pestering us at the time. As long as I wore mufti and did not carry a pistol, the Greeks who ran EOKA promised me I would not be shot at – they kept their word too.’

The Group Captain, who enjoyed a second career as Deputy General Manager of Aviation for Abdulla Al Rifai & Sons in Kuwait, later retired to Cyprus, and thence to Stratford-upon-Avon, where he died in January 2006, aged 87 years.

Sold with a Battle of Britain commemorative dirk (‘Dedicated to the Royal Air Force Victors of the Battle of Britain, 1940’), by Wilkinson, London, the blade inscribed, ‘George Herbert Westlake, D.S.O., D.F.C., 213 Squadron, 1940’, contained in its fitted wooden case, the inside of the lid with inscribed gilt plaque and the medallions and the outside with named gilt plaque; together with the recipient’s typed memoirs, 10pp., signed.