The Airmen's Stories - W/Cdr. J M Thompson

Air Commodore (Wing Commander during the Battle) J M "Tommy" Thompson has dIed aged 79. He
was born on August 16, 1914. Even before the Battle of Britain began, "Tommy" Thompson was already a wise and highly experienced combat pilot. When the Blitzkrieg burst in the West on May 10 1940, No 111 squadron, which he commanded, was flung into the air battle from the outset. Thompson was thus deeply involved in the desperate engagements which raged high over the struggle on the ground, as the fighters of the Armee de l'Air and the RAF strove to stem the Luftwaffe's onslaught.

By the time the Battle of Britain opened in July, he had three kills and as many probables to his credit.
Throughout the air battle No 111 was again in the thick of the fighting, engaged without respite until the crisis had passed. Thompson's was a career replete with highly varied active service. He took part in the air defence of Malta and played an important role in the organisation of the Berlin airlift. In a number of senior postwar appointments he rendered signal service to the RAF in the spheres of air defence and air traffic control.

John Marlow Thompson was born at Saltford, Somerset. His father, a Bristol builder, died when he was 12 and he was brought up by his mother. He was educated at Bristol Grammar School where he was good at sport, particularly rugby for which he represented the RAF from 1935 to 1938. He had joined it on a short service commission in 1934. Until 1939 he had varied experience, including floatplanes and a parachute course. But his natural bent made him a fighter man and at the outbreak of war he was a flight commander with No 151 (Hurricane) Squadron. By the time No 151 was sent to France in May 1940 in an attempt to stem the German air offensive, Thompson had already been given command of No 111, also a Hurricane squadron. Though, too, committed to the battle this squadron was, mercifully, based in England and did not have to experience the dreadful relocation problems experienced by France-based squadrons as their forward airfields were overrun. Under Thompson's command the feats of No 111 in this battle against heavy odds were quite spectacular. This had much to do with his own philosophy of taking the enemy head on. Sometimes a whole flight would attack in line abreast, guns blazing. This was done with the sort of bravura associated with a prewar Hendon Air Display. One of its pilots, Flying Officer H M Ferris, shot down eight German aircraft in three sorties, a feat which can seldom have been equalled. Thompson's own bag during this frenetic period included an He111 bomber and a Me110 fighter. Late in May he was shot down by an Me110 over Valenciennes. This was a bit of bad luck, given the generally dismal combat performance of that particular German escort fighter, but by this time the daily battle against such colossal odds was taking its toll on the British airmen. In the event, Thompson managed to avoid capture by the advancing Wehrmacht and got back to England. Very soon he was in action again and had several more kills in the air fighting which took place in the immediate aftermath of Dunkirk.

There was now a brief respite for Thompson and No 111 before the Battle of Britain was joined in earnest. Based at Croydon, 111 was at the very heart of the aerial maelstrom which followed. Thompson's own flying exploits might have been made legendary except that he was such an austere, reticent man (qualities he also displayed as a commander) that he had no taste for being interviewed for the sort of books of derring-do which proliferated after the war. He felt the loss of so many comrades too keenly. This was a pity, since his name is absent from many publications in which it should feature largely. A typical example of his combat and flying skills, happily well documented, was his low level pursuit of an Me 110, so low in fact that the bursts from his machine guns actually blasted tiles off the roof of a Sussex farmhouse. He registered another four certain kills, plus a host of "probables". At length, in September 1940 No 111 was sent north for a well-earned rest By this time the job had been done and the Germans had received their first check of the Second World War.

After commanding No 350 Belgian squadron, the first all-Belgian squadron to be formed from flyers who had escaped from the Germans, Thompson was sent to another theatre which was to be the scene of desperate air fighting – Malta. There, leading a Spitfire Wing, he was awarded a bar to his DFC. His spent much of the rest of his war in the Mediterranean theatre and then went to serve with the RAF in occupied Germany, based at Buckberg in Lower Saxony.

A stern test was soon to face him. In June 1948 the Russians blockaded Berlin, cutting off the city’s land and water access routes. For almost a year two million people had to be supplied by air. As Wing Commander Ops during this period Thompson played an important role in ensuring that an aircraft carrying vital coal, food and other necessities was able to land at RAF Gatow in the British sector every two minutes. In the late 1940’s Thompson learnt how to fly jets and had senior staff appointments in the new jet-propelled Royal Air Force.

From 1958 to 1960 he was Director of Air Defence then commanded Military Air traffic Control in 1962. Thompson retired from the RAF in 1966 and was immediately appointed to arrange the air defences of Saudi Arabia. This involved search radar for the Lightning fighters which Britain had supplied to the Saudis, as well as air defence missiles and communications. Thompson held this appointment for two years before returning home in 1968.

In retirement he was, for five years, secretary of the Moor Park Golf Club before taking over as secretary of Monte Carlo Golf Club in 1973 in succession to the film actor Anthony Bushell. He spent a happy ten years in Monte Carlo, where he was friendly with Prince Rainier and Princess Grace. He finally retired to Brighton where he died after a long battle with cancer.

Besides his DFC and Bar Thompson was awarded the DSO in 1943 for his leadership in Malta and was given the AFC in 1952. He was appointed CBE in 1954.

His is survived by his wife Sylvia whom he married in 1938 and by a son and a daughter. Another son was killed in a car crash.

With acknowledgments to the Times July 1994