page_title: Leonard Cheshire
section_title: 617 Squadron
hierarchical_section_title: Leonard Cheshire / Military career / 617 Squadron
caption_attribution_description: English: H.B. "Mick" Martin of 617 Squadron
context_page_description: Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire, Baron Cheshire, VC, OM, DSO & Two Bars, DFC was a highly decorated Royal Air Force pilot and group captain during the Second World War, and a philanthropist.
  Among the honours Cheshire received as a pilot was the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. He was the youngest group captain in the RAF and one of the most highly decorated pilots of the war.
  After the war he founded a hospice that grew into the charity Leonard Cheshire Disability. He became known for his work in conflict resolution. In 1991 he was created a life peer in recognition of his charitable work.
context_section_description: No. 5 Group Commander Ralph Cochrane provided the avenue for Cheshire's escape. Cochrane's elite unit, 617 Squadron, was in difficulty. Guy Gibson had been withdrawn from flying and taken on a publicity tour. He was succeeded by Wing Commander George Holden. Soon thereafter the squadron attempted the disastrous raid against the Dortmund Ems Canal, which resulted in the loss of five of the eight Lancasters sent, including that of the new squadron commander, Holden. Temporary command of the squadron had been passed to H. B. "Mick" Martin, one of the squadron's flight commanders. Of the original nineteen pilots that had flown the mission against the Möhne and Edersee Dams in Operation Chastise, only five remained alive. In September Cochrane asked Cheshire if he would be willing to take the job. Returning to squadron commander would require Cheshire giving up his rank of group captain and taking the step down to wing commander. Cheshire agreed without hesitation. Cochrane instructed Cheshire that first off he needed to complete a three-week conversion course on Lancasters at RAF Warboys. 
  Cheshire knew the new post would be a challenge for him. Arriving at 617 Squadron he was regarded as an outsider. Though an experienced bomber pilot from the command's campaign against Germany, these missions were flown at high altitude and solo. Hundreds of aircraft were on each raid, but in the dark of night they rarely saw each other. Each plane was in isolation from the others, and flew in strict radio silence. 617 Squadron had become Bomber Command's masters of low flying. Low altitude had kept them under German radar, allowing them to approach their targets undetected. For months they had been flying together at low level, at night, in formation, and below tree level. They had learned to avoid obstructions, and to tuck their wings inside the leader's, a move that decreased turbulence but was very unnerving to attempt. It was very dangerous flying that no other squadron could perform. Here Cheshire benefited from a friendship that he formed with the man he superseded. Cheshire later said "Everything I know about low level flying I learned from Mick Martin." He had been warned that Cochrane was strict, and that they would not get along. He found Cochrane to be very bright, and though strict, it was strictness in the best possible way. As an experienced pilot on the Halifax, Cheshire felt the training flying he had to do at Warboys was somewhat demeaning, but after his second day there he realised Cochrane had been quite right. 
  It was at 617 Squadron where Cheshire came to real distinction as a remarkable air officer. It was here that his ability to lead, accept risk and think unconventionally resulted in the development of the most successful techniques the RAF developed to deliver extremely large bombs with remarkably deadly accuracy.
caption: Australian "Mick" Martin
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