Lyneham Lad
2nd Feb 2021, 09:06
In The Times.
Spitfire pilot who shot down a Nazi jet and led Britain’s secret air operations against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/5e4b2f58-64be-11eb-908c-00b0fcb974f6?shareToken=907d8ea6a4b5558a777a17c722b66250)
Like many veterans of the Second World War and its aftermath, Derek Rake started telling his family about his experiences only late in life. To their surprise, much of the information was still classified.
Rake had fought a “hot” war, flying Spitfires against the Nazis, and then a “cold” war, flying Canberras and Comets against the Soviet Union. By far the most dangerous and the most frightening, he told his grown-up son and grandchildren, were those flights testing Russia’s defences in “peacetime”.
In 1958 Rake was given command of No 51 Squadron, an elite unit equipped with the latest electronics and ordered to undertake “airborne radio surveillance” of the Soviet Union.
The squadron’s task was to discover “as much as possible about the defensive radar system ranged along the borders of the USSR and its Warsaw Pact allies and around high-value targets that would be prime candidates for destruction in the event of war. Were there any gaps in the coverage? What was the response time?”
According to the author of an RAF Historical Society paper, the Western Allies were concerned that their air forces might be unable to penetrate Soviet defences and, even if they did, that they might not be able to identify their targets. “For all of these reasons, missions operating close to (or within) Soviet airspace were tasked with monitoring the Soviet response.” They needed to know “the specific characteristics and capabilities of each type of radar”.
Rake, then a wing commander, flew 50 missions between 1958 and 1960. Orders appear not to have been issued in writing. If the crews of No 51 Squadron were shot down, the pilots were told, their disappearance would be blamed on “navigational error”. Many of the unit’s records seem to be missing, but some can be found in the National Archive.
By the end of his command, he had flown more than 3,278 hours at the controls of the squadron’s Comets and Canberras, and was rated “exceptional” as a reconnaissance pilot. He was recommended for the Distinguished Service Order, which is one rank below the Victoria Cross, but the ministry ruled that such an award “would draw unwelcome attention to the activities of the squadron”. Instead, he was awarded the Air Force Cross.
Rake was given a number of important roles during the Cold War. He worked for General Lauris Norstad, supreme allied commander in Europe, on planning in support of nuclear attack programmes, and was later appointed station commander at RAF Wyton, near Huntingdon, which was home to four frontline squadrons, including No 51.
He also played a part in Britain’s participation in the U2 spyplane programme, involving high-altitude American reconnaissance aircraft. Indeed, the Lockheed U2 became synonymous with the Cold War after the Russians shot down an aircraft flown by Gary Powers in 1960. Powers was taken prisoner and later exchanged in a spy swap dramatised in the film Bridge of Spies. In an arrangement brokered by the CIA and MI6, backed by the government of Harold Macmillan but kept secret until 2013, RAF pilots joined the U2 programme, flying into the Soviet Union, and would remain part of it until the mid-Seventies. Rake was given the task of supervising and supporting the pilots involved.
“The enemy aircraft went into a spin to port and I followed him down partly because I wanted to confirm his destruction and partly because it looked possible he might pull out,” wrote Rake. “He finally regained control at approximately 300ft . . . [then] flew over an aerodrome and showers of flak came up at me.
“I closed from 800 yards to 100 yards firing continuously and observed strikes in his fuselage and port jet which caught fire. The enemy aircraft attempted to crash-land. I saw it hit the deck ... and blow up. I turned and took a photograph of the wreckage.”
Three weeks later, on May 3, he shot down a Junkers Ju 188 bomber, which was the squadron’s 200th “kill” and possibly one of the last German aircraft to be shot down during the Second World War.
Derek Shannon Vaughan Rake was born at Alderholt, Dorset, in 1922, the son of Herbert Rake and his wife, Emma Lorissa. His father served with the Hampshire Regiment in the First World War, but was invalided out of the army after being gassed. After his partial recovery, Herbert’s well-off parents set him up with a brick-making business.
While Derek grew up in comfortable surroundings, this changed after his eighth birthday when he had a bicycle accident, breaking his right arm. His stay in hospital was prolonged for several months by bouts of mastitis and measles. By the time he was discharged, his father’s business had gone bust, a casualty of the 1929 crash. All this had serious implications for Derek and his two sisters.
Their prospects of a life of relative privilege disappeared. The family moved from their big house to a bungalow in the village and gave up ideas of educating Derek privately. The boy thrived, however. He was sent to a crammer to prepare for his 11-plus exam and won a scholarship to Wimborne Grammar School, where he played for the 1st XV at rugby and the 1st XIs at football and cricket. He was also made head boy.
He later chose to read history at university rather than follow his grandfather and three uncles into medicine and won a place at Southampton.
While there as a student, he saw two Spitfires landing at a nearby airfield; at that moment he decided to be a pilot and joined the university air squadron. After the bombing of Southampton, he cut his studies short and volunteered for the RAF in 1941.
After the end of the war in Europe he was posted to India, where he met Rosamund Barrett, a “fiery” Protestant from Armagh who was working as a nurse with the British Army. Falling for her but being less enamoured of her name, he called her “Sue” for the rest of her life. The couple were married in 1946 and had a son and a daughter: Michael, who became chairman of the BT Group and president of the CBI and was knighted in 2007; and Caroline, who suffered from multiple sclerosis and died in 2013. Rosamund died in 2012.
Rake left the RAF in 1976. After completing a diploma in accounting and finance, he became manager of the newly opened Wembley Conference Centre. In retirement, he had two great passions. The first was golf. He played up to three times a week at the East Berkshire Golf Club until the age of 96 when he broke his hip, then moved to Marlow in Buckinghamshire to be near his son.
His second passion was Europe. He was pro-EU and contemptuous of Brexiteer politicians. “Many of my friends died,” he once said, “and all we wanted was peace and prosperity in Europe.”
Of the 77 pilots in his training unit in 1941-42, only two survived the Second World War. None of the pilots under his command was lost on operations during the Cold War.
Group Captain Derek Rake, OBE, AFC and Bar, RAF officer, was born on May 26, 1922. He died on December 11, 2020, aged 98
RIP.
Spitfire pilot who shot down a Nazi jet and led Britain’s secret air operations against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/5e4b2f58-64be-11eb-908c-00b0fcb974f6?shareToken=907d8ea6a4b5558a777a17c722b66250)
Like many veterans of the Second World War and its aftermath, Derek Rake started telling his family about his experiences only late in life. To their surprise, much of the information was still classified.
Rake had fought a “hot” war, flying Spitfires against the Nazis, and then a “cold” war, flying Canberras and Comets against the Soviet Union. By far the most dangerous and the most frightening, he told his grown-up son and grandchildren, were those flights testing Russia’s defences in “peacetime”.
In 1958 Rake was given command of No 51 Squadron, an elite unit equipped with the latest electronics and ordered to undertake “airborne radio surveillance” of the Soviet Union.
The squadron’s task was to discover “as much as possible about the defensive radar system ranged along the borders of the USSR and its Warsaw Pact allies and around high-value targets that would be prime candidates for destruction in the event of war. Were there any gaps in the coverage? What was the response time?”
According to the author of an RAF Historical Society paper, the Western Allies were concerned that their air forces might be unable to penetrate Soviet defences and, even if they did, that they might not be able to identify their targets. “For all of these reasons, missions operating close to (or within) Soviet airspace were tasked with monitoring the Soviet response.” They needed to know “the specific characteristics and capabilities of each type of radar”.
Rake, then a wing commander, flew 50 missions between 1958 and 1960. Orders appear not to have been issued in writing. If the crews of No 51 Squadron were shot down, the pilots were told, their disappearance would be blamed on “navigational error”. Many of the unit’s records seem to be missing, but some can be found in the National Archive.
By the end of his command, he had flown more than 3,278 hours at the controls of the squadron’s Comets and Canberras, and was rated “exceptional” as a reconnaissance pilot. He was recommended for the Distinguished Service Order, which is one rank below the Victoria Cross, but the ministry ruled that such an award “would draw unwelcome attention to the activities of the squadron”. Instead, he was awarded the Air Force Cross.
Rake was given a number of important roles during the Cold War. He worked for General Lauris Norstad, supreme allied commander in Europe, on planning in support of nuclear attack programmes, and was later appointed station commander at RAF Wyton, near Huntingdon, which was home to four frontline squadrons, including No 51.
He also played a part in Britain’s participation in the U2 spyplane programme, involving high-altitude American reconnaissance aircraft. Indeed, the Lockheed U2 became synonymous with the Cold War after the Russians shot down an aircraft flown by Gary Powers in 1960. Powers was taken prisoner and later exchanged in a spy swap dramatised in the film Bridge of Spies. In an arrangement brokered by the CIA and MI6, backed by the government of Harold Macmillan but kept secret until 2013, RAF pilots joined the U2 programme, flying into the Soviet Union, and would remain part of it until the mid-Seventies. Rake was given the task of supervising and supporting the pilots involved.
“The enemy aircraft went into a spin to port and I followed him down partly because I wanted to confirm his destruction and partly because it looked possible he might pull out,” wrote Rake. “He finally regained control at approximately 300ft . . . [then] flew over an aerodrome and showers of flak came up at me.
“I closed from 800 yards to 100 yards firing continuously and observed strikes in his fuselage and port jet which caught fire. The enemy aircraft attempted to crash-land. I saw it hit the deck ... and blow up. I turned and took a photograph of the wreckage.”
Three weeks later, on May 3, he shot down a Junkers Ju 188 bomber, which was the squadron’s 200th “kill” and possibly one of the last German aircraft to be shot down during the Second World War.
Derek Shannon Vaughan Rake was born at Alderholt, Dorset, in 1922, the son of Herbert Rake and his wife, Emma Lorissa. His father served with the Hampshire Regiment in the First World War, but was invalided out of the army after being gassed. After his partial recovery, Herbert’s well-off parents set him up with a brick-making business.
While Derek grew up in comfortable surroundings, this changed after his eighth birthday when he had a bicycle accident, breaking his right arm. His stay in hospital was prolonged for several months by bouts of mastitis and measles. By the time he was discharged, his father’s business had gone bust, a casualty of the 1929 crash. All this had serious implications for Derek and his two sisters.
Their prospects of a life of relative privilege disappeared. The family moved from their big house to a bungalow in the village and gave up ideas of educating Derek privately. The boy thrived, however. He was sent to a crammer to prepare for his 11-plus exam and won a scholarship to Wimborne Grammar School, where he played for the 1st XV at rugby and the 1st XIs at football and cricket. He was also made head boy.
He later chose to read history at university rather than follow his grandfather and three uncles into medicine and won a place at Southampton.
While there as a student, he saw two Spitfires landing at a nearby airfield; at that moment he decided to be a pilot and joined the university air squadron. After the bombing of Southampton, he cut his studies short and volunteered for the RAF in 1941.
After the end of the war in Europe he was posted to India, where he met Rosamund Barrett, a “fiery” Protestant from Armagh who was working as a nurse with the British Army. Falling for her but being less enamoured of her name, he called her “Sue” for the rest of her life. The couple were married in 1946 and had a son and a daughter: Michael, who became chairman of the BT Group and president of the CBI and was knighted in 2007; and Caroline, who suffered from multiple sclerosis and died in 2013. Rosamund died in 2012.
Rake left the RAF in 1976. After completing a diploma in accounting and finance, he became manager of the newly opened Wembley Conference Centre. In retirement, he had two great passions. The first was golf. He played up to three times a week at the East Berkshire Golf Club until the age of 96 when he broke his hip, then moved to Marlow in Buckinghamshire to be near his son.
His second passion was Europe. He was pro-EU and contemptuous of Brexiteer politicians. “Many of my friends died,” he once said, “and all we wanted was peace and prosperity in Europe.”
Of the 77 pilots in his training unit in 1941-42, only two survived the Second World War. None of the pilots under his command was lost on operations during the Cold War.
Group Captain Derek Rake, OBE, AFC and Bar, RAF officer, was born on May 26, 1922. He died on December 11, 2020, aged 98
RIP.