The Airmen's Stories - S/Ldr. F E Rosier

Air Chief Marshal (Squadron Leader during the Battle) Sir Frederick Rosier, who has died aged 82, ended his career as Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Allied Forces Central Europe, but he made his mark as an exceptional fighter commander in the Desert War.

In the spring of 1941, No 229, a Hurricane squadron, embarked for North Africa in the aircraft carrier ‘Furious’. Neither Rosier, then a Squadron Leader, nor his pilots had ever taken off from the deck of a carrier, but when ‘Furious’ steamed within range of Malta he led the squadron to it. The next day he flew on to Egypt to reinforce the Desert Air Force. On hearing that several Italian-crewed Ju87 Stuka dive bombers had force-landed in a forward area, Rosier determined to bag one. Accompanied by hls Wing Commander and helped by an Army patrol he duly located a Stuka. As the Wing Commander saw to refuelling, Rosier fiddled with the switches in the cockpit. Suddenly there was a thud, a shout and everyone scattered. Rosier had released the bombs. Fortunately they had to fall rather further than they had before they were armed. Rosier and his companion then took off but after 20 minutes the engine spluttered, forcing them to land. "The outlook was bleak" Rosier recalled "we were far away from any established route. That night we slept in the folds of our parachutes. At dawn, after leaving a message in stones, we walked due north".

For hours they saw no sign of life. Then, after streaming a parachute in the wind, they were spotted by some Allied trucks. The Stuka was repaired and the pair flew their prize back to base. Rosier both loved and hated the desert. He cursed its extremes of heat and cold, the sandstorms, flies, and shortage of water, but he was fascinated by the desert's beauty at night, its sunrises, and its silences which he took every opportunity to break with his violin.

In 1941, aged just 25, Rosier was promoted Wing Commander and took charge of the newly formed No 262 Wing. With Group Captain "Bing" Cross, in command of 258 Wing, Rosier was responsible for the operational control of the Desert Air Force's fighter squadrons.

In November 1941 Operation Crusader Defensive began; Rosier stuffed his kit and a prized silver tankard into his Hurricane and headed for the airfield at Tobruk to organise fighter support. He was escorted by two Australian Tomahawk squadrons and soon encountered a force of Me109 fighters. Rosier spotted a Tomahawk being forced to crash land and touched down alongside. In order to squeeze the Tomahawk's pilot, Sergeant Burney, into the single seat of his Hurricane, Rosier took off his parachute, sat on Burney and attempted to take off. But a tyre burst, and for the second time in two months Rosier faced the prospect of a long walk, this time through enemy territory.
He hid the precious tankard, his wife's photograph and a few other possessions in brushwood then, as he was about to set off, truckloads of Italian troops appeared and found his belongings. Rosier and Burney hid in a wadi. They began to walk across the desert, navigating by the Pole Star and coming within a whisker of German tanks. On the fourth day, with shells passing overhead, they ran towards the sound of gunfire and found a Guards unit. Rosier went to Cairo for a short leave soon afterwards and fell into conversation with a South African officer over a drink. He began to tell how he had lost his much-prized tankard when the major suddenly produced it like a rabbit from a hat. His men had found it in a captured Italian truck.

Rosier went on to assume further responsibility as second-in-command of No 211 Fighter Group and made important contributions to the 8th Army's victory at El Alamein and to the eventual capture of Tripoli. For his leadership in the desert theatre, he was awarded the DSO in 1942.
Frederick Ernest Rosier, the son of a railway engineer on the Great Western Railway, was born at Wrexham on October 13 1915. He went to Grove Park School and played for North Wales Schoolboys at rugby. In 1935 he was granted a short service commission. The next year he joined No 43, a Fury biplane fighter squadron stationed at Tangmere, Sussex. By May 1940, he was a Flight Commander in No 229 which he had helped to form and convert from Blenheims to Hurricanes. During the fall of France he led a detachment to Vitry, near Arras. Two days later he was shot down over the airfield by a Me109. Though badly burned about the face, Rosier managed to bail out before his Hurricane plunged into the ground. As he got to his feet, he was fired on by French troops until a fellow pilot intervened.

By October he had returned to active service and led 229 from Northolt for the last 12 days of the Battle of Britain after its squadron commander had been shot down.

After his desert exploits, Rosier returned home in 1943 to take charge of No 52 Operational Training Unit and then the fighter stations at Northolt and Horsham St Faith. Rosier subsequently dealt with Group Captain Operations at the Central Flying Establishment, and then, under Lord Mountbatten, was the first director of the Joint Planning Staff. From 1956 to 1958 he was an ADC to the Queen.

In 1961 he was posted to Aden as Air Officer Commanding Air Forces, Middle East - an appointment for which his wartime desert experience suited him well. He arrived in the wake of the Kuwait crisis, and was confronted by tribal unrest in the Aden protectorates and hostile moves from Yemen. In 1964, he returned home as Senior Air Staff Officer at Transport Command, moving over in 1966 to Fighter Command as Commander-in-Chief. He was its last C-in-C before it was amalgamated with Bomber Command to form Strike Command. From 1968 Rosier served on the Permanent Military Deputies Group and then at Allied Forces, Central Europe, Ankara. He was promoted to Air Chief Marshal in 1970, and became Deputy Com-mander-in-Chief Allied Forces Central Europe.

Rosier retired in 1973 and was appointed Military Adviser and Director of the British Aircraft Corporation at Preston. He later served on the board of BAC in Saudi Arabia, paving the way for the Al Yamamah arms deal.

Rosier was appointed OBE in 1943, CBE in 1955, CB in 1961, KGB in 1966 and GCB in 1972. At Northolt he had been much impressed by the spirit shown by Polish pilots and later became chairman of their benevolent fund. He was appointed to the Polish Order of Merit this year.

He married, in 1939, Hettie Blackwell; they had three sons and a daughter.

 "Fellow fighter commanders in the Desert war: Rosier (right) and Kenneth 'Bing' Cross in 1942"

With acknowledgments to the Daily Telegraph September 1998