Air Chief Marshal Sir Kenneth Brian Boyd Cross, KCB (1911-2003)
Michael Rhodes
survived the sinking of the aircraft carrier Glorious by the German
battle-cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau on June 8 1940.
Three weeks earlier, "Bing" Cross had led 18 Hawker Hurricane fighters
of No 46 Squadron off Glorious to reinforce the already faltering
Norwegian campaign. They were destined for Skaanland near Narvik, but
the airstrip proved boggy. Cross damaged his propeller in landing, and
another Hurricane was flung on its back.
So he declared the strip unfit, and moved 50 miles north-east to
Bardufoss, where the squadron launched a series of successful
operations although, unknown to Cross, the decision to evacuate had
already been taken.
At 3 am on June 7, Cross spotted in the Arctic daylight four Heinkel
111 bombers beginning a shallow dive attack on their airfield. He
damaged one himself, then the port tank on his Hurricane was blown to
pieces and a bullet hit the side of the windscreen; but it missed
Cross's head because he had failed to put on his harness and was
crouched forward over the control column; he managed to glide back
from a height of 4,000 ft to the airfield.
Since Glorious was not equipped with arrester hooks for Hurricanes,
Cross had sandbags placed on their tails when No 46 Squadron's 10
remaining aircraft landed on the flight deck. Eventually all arrived
safely, and Cross turned in at 4.30 am after a warming mug of cocoa.
He was awakened by the sounding of action stations.
Cross reached the flight deck as a shell tore a hole only 15 ft away,
and more landed around him as he made for the quarterdeck at the stern
of the carrier. The hangars caught fire. "Bad luck your Hurricanes got
it with the first salvo," shouted a passing Fleet Air Arm pilot over
the din of the continuing crashes and explosions. Then the public
address system packed up, and the word to abandon ship was passed from
man to man.
Inflating his Mae West, Cross jumped overboard and swam to a Carley
float, where he was joined by his New Zealand-born flight commander,
Squadron Leader Pat Jameson, with a "Permission to come aboard, sir?"
Soon they were joined by 35 other survivors. Attaching a shirt to an
oar for a sail and a mast, they found that there was no food or water;
then a naval warrant officer came up with a small tin of brown sugar.
By June 11, after they had spent 70 hours exposed to the Arctic
weather, a Norwegian fishing vessel picked up Cross, Jameson and the
four other survivors. They were taken to the Faroes where they joined
the destroyer Veteran.
Suffering from considerable pain in their feet, Cross and Jameson were
landed at Rosyth a week later, and sent for treatment at the
Gleneagles Hotel which had been turned into a military hospital.
Kenneth Brian Boyd Cross was born on October 4 1911, at Portsmouth,
where his father was a surveyor and estate agent. Young Bing was
educated at Kingswood School, Bath, until his father fell on hard
times and he had to leave at 16 to work at a local garage for 10
shillings (50p) a week. In 1930 Cross was granted a short service
commission in the RAF, and the next year he was posted as a pilot
officer to No 25, an Armstrong Whitworth biplane fighter squadron
stationed at Hawkinge, Kent.
After the squadron was re-equipped with the Hawker Fury, a biplane
then considered the RAF's most modern fighter, Cross showed a talent
for aerobatics which he demonstrated at the 1934 Hendon aerial
pageant.
He was then selected for the prestigious Central Flying School course,
where the pilots wore unorthodox breeches and light blue stockings. He
played rugby for the RAF and Harlequins. After qualifying as an
instructor he was next posted to No 5 Flying Training School at
Sealand, near Chester.
In 1936 Cross was awarded a permanent commission and attached to the
Cambridge University Air Squadron; he was reluctant to leave the easy
tempo and golf there when he was later given an intelligence staff
post at Fighter Command's 12 Group headquarters.
Eight weeks after the outbreak of war on September 3 1939, Cross was
highly relieved to receive command of No 46, a 12 Group squadron at
Digby, Yorkshire. Following a brief interlude leading ineffective
night fighter sorties, guided solely by searchlight beams, he was sent
to Norway.
By late August, when the Battle of Britain was at its height, Cross
was passed fit enough for light duty. Still wearing carpet slippers on
his damaged feet he was posted as group controller to Fighter
Command's 12 Group headquarters at Watnall, Nottinghamshire.
Passed fit to fly in November, Cross pulled strings with a former
Harlequins and Hawkinge friend at the Air Ministry and was posted at
the end of the year to Egypt, though he was uneasy about sailing in
Glorious's sister carrier Furious.
Moreover, he found himself with the onerous task of commanding 40
Hurricanes and their pilots, which were bound for Takoradi in West
Africa, before making a 3,600-mile flight to Egypt.
After arriving in Cairo, Cross received command of No 252 Air Defence
Wing at Alexandria, then was posted in the rank of group captain to
command No 258 Wing, Desert Air Force, during the frustrating retreats
and advances of the Crusader offensive in November 1941.
Amid these difficulties Cross had the encouragement of Fred Rosier,
commander of No 263 Squadron, who liked to remark, "You know, a shave
every morning makes all the difference between an orderly withdrawal
and a disorderly rout."
Following the final advance from El Alamein, Cross, commanding No 242
Group, supported the First Army in Tunisia, then covered the Sicily
landings and the Italian campaign. In the New Year of 1944 he returned
home to staff appointments at the Air Ministry, including a spell as
director of weapons and air defence operations.
When, in 1958, it was decided to pep up a decidedly moribund post-war
Bomber Command with some legendary fighter boys' get-up-and-go, Cross
received command of No 3 Group. This put him in charge of the group's
new Valiant and Victor nuclear deterrent V-bombers.
The next year Cross became Bomber Command's commander-in-chief. It was
an inspired appointment in which he established close relations with
the leaders of the US Strategic Air Command.
During this period Cross, a man who always knew his own mind, insisted
- with a ferocity that filled even the ante-room to his office with
tension - that the Command would be the best in the Air Force. During
the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 he brought his Vulcan and Victor
crews to unprecedented and prolonged states of quick reaction alert.
The following year Cross moved over to the comparatively tranquil
fiefdom of Transport Command, where he was commander-in-chief until
his retirement in 1967.
Cross worked successively as director of the Suffolk and London
branches of the British Red Cross Society, and was president of the
RAF Rugby Union.
He was awarded the DFC in 1940 and DSO in 1943; and appointed CBE in
1945 and KCB in 1959. He also held the Norwegian War Cross, the US
Legion of Merit, the French Croix de Guerre and Legion d'Honneur and
the Dutch Order of Orange Nassau.
His memoirs, Straight and Level, were published in 1993.
Towards the end of the war, Cross met Brenda Powell, a WAAF officer,
when she was updating map positions in the Air Ministry war room; he
married her within a month. She was murdered in 1991 at an antiques
shop in Chelsea where she worked.
They had two sons and a daughter.
Louis Epstein
: Air Chief Marshal Sir Kenneth Cross, who died 18 June, 2003, aged 91,
: survived the sinking of the aircraft carrier Glorious by the German
: battle-cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau on June 8 1940.
[snip]
: Kenneth Brian Boyd Cross was born on October 4 1911, at Portsmouth,
: where his father was a surveyor and estate agent. Young Bing was
: educated at Kingswood School, Bath, until his father fell on hard
: times and he had to leave at 16 to work at a local garage for 10
: shillings (50p) a week. In 1930 Cross was granted a short service
: commission in the RAF, and the next year he was posted as a pilot
: officer to No 25, an Armstrong Whitworth biplane fighter squadron
: stationed at Hawkinge, Kent.
: After the squadron was re-equipped with the Hawker Fury, a biplane
: then considered the RAF's most modern fighter, Cross showed a talent
: for aerobatics which he demonstrated at the 1934 Hendon aerial
: pageant.
: He was then selected for the prestigious Central Flying School course,
: where the pilots wore unorthodox breeches and light blue stockings. He
: played rugby for the RAF and Harlequins. After qualifying as an
: instructor he was next posted to No 5 Flying Training School at
: Sealand, near Chester.
: In 1936 Cross was awarded a permanent commission and attached to the
: Cambridge University Air Squadron; he was reluctant to leave the easy
: tempo and golf there when he was later given an intelligence staff
: post at Fighter Command's 12 Group headquarters.
[snip]
: When, in 1958, it was decided to pep up a decidedly moribund post-war
: Bomber Command with some legendary fighter boys' get-up-and-go, Cross
: received command of No 3 Group. This put him in charge of the group's
: new Valiant and Victor nuclear deterrent V-bombers.
: The next year Cross became Bomber Command's commander-in-chief. It was
: an inspired appointment in which he established close relations with
: the leaders of the US Strategic Air Command.
: During this period Cross, a man who always knew his own mind, insisted
: - with a ferocity that filled even the ante-room to his office with
: tension - that the Command would be the best in the Air Force. During
: the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 he brought his Vulcan and Victor
: crews to unprecedented and prolonged states of quick reaction alert.
: The following year Cross moved over to the comparatively tranquil
: fiefdom of Transport Command, where he was commander-in-chief until
: his retirement in 1967.
[snip]
: His memoirs, Straight and Level, were published in 1993.
: Towards the end of the war, Cross met Brenda Powell, a WAAF officer,
: when she was updating map positions in the Air Ministry war room; he
: married her within a month. She was murdered in 1991 at an antiques
: shop in Chelsea where she worked.
So...was he the senior living RAF officer in rank?
The senior Marshal of the RAF,Sir John Grandy,is about a year
and a half younger...and succeeded Sir Kenneth at Bomber Command.
Is Sir David Lee still alive?
-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.