Alfred ' Ken ' Gatward Group Captain Alfred Kitchener " Ken " Gatward ( 28 August 1914 – 19 November 1998 ) was a British Royal Air Force ( RAF ) pilot of the Second World War . Early life . Born in 1914 above Hornsey police station , Gatward ’ s father was Chief Inspector of police . He attended St George ' s College in Palmers Green , and later became a journalist before joining the wallpaper manufacturers Colorall . He joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve in 1937 . RAF career . At the outbreak of war in 1939 Gatward was a sergeant pilot and was commissioned on 27 July 1940 and flew Bristol Blenheim s with No 53 Squadron on low level raids . Converting to Bristol Beaufighter s in 1941 he flew with No 236 Squadron . Operation Squabble . Intelligence gathered by Major Ben Cowburn of the Special Operations Executive ( SOE ) in the early Spring of 1942 showed that the Germans paraded down the Champs - Elysees every day between 12 . 15 and 12 . 45 . With this information , Air Chief Marshal Sir Philip Joubert de la Ferté , the Commander - in - Chief of Coastal Command , devised a propaganda idea to boost the morale of the French by draping the Arc de Triomphe with the French Tricolour . He called in Flt Lt Gatward to see if he would volunteer for the " unsafe " mission . Gatward had already undertaken numerous low - level day light attacks , so he , along with his navigator , Sgt Gilbert ' George ' Fern , both agreed . The plan was to fly low level down the Champs - Elysees , strafe the German soldiers on parade , and as a back up target , attack the Kriegsmarine headquarters in the Ministre de la Marine ( the former home of the French Naval Ministry ) . On the 5 May 1942 Gatward and Fern began to practice for the daring raid by attacking a shipwreck in the English Channel . They also pored over maps of Paris and the best routes to both get in and out of the city . Prior to the raid Gatward and Fern obtained a Tricolour from Portsmouth Harbour and had it cut into two . Each section was weighted with iron and they tested dropping them from a hangar roof to see how they unfurled . The flags were then installed on their Bristol Beaufighter ( code ND - C , serial T4800 ) . One section was to be draped over the Arc de Triomphe , the other over the ministry . They first attempted the raid on May 13 , but encountered poor weather after crossing the French coast . They were under orders to return if this happened . On 12 June 1942 , Gatward and Fern took off again at 1129 hours from Thorney Island in heavy rain . Initial weather conditions of ten tenths cloud at 2 , 000 feet with heavy precipitation were encountered and the aircraft set course for the target at 1131 hours . Crossing the French coast a few miles eastward of Fecamp at 1158 hours , the cloud cover thinned out and by they reached Rouen there was bright sunshine . With excellent visibility the aircraft passed over the suburbs of Paris at a very low altitude and some light flak was encountered for the first time . They circled the Eiffel Tower at 1227 hours . During this low level flying he suffered a bird strike in his starboard engine radiator but managed to fly on . At approximately 1228 hours he banked to port and headed towards the Champs - Elysees . The intelligence information about the time of the parade was incorrect so there were no German soldiers to strafe , but Fern released the first Tricolour down the flare shute over the Arc de Triomphe . Gatward then attacked the Ministre de la Marine in the Place de la Concorde , and strafed the building with 20mm cannon shells , scattering German sentries . Fern , then dropped the second part of the Tricolour . Gatward then turned for home at 1230 hours and landed at RAF Northolt at 1353 hours . Later intelligence confirmed that the parade had been assembling at the time of the attack but had to be abandoned due to the confusion following Gatward ’ s raid . Gatward was awarded an immediate DFC for his actions that day and Fern received the DFM . Gatward recorded the raid in his log book as : Following the Paris raid he was appointed the personal assistant to Lt Gen Noel Mason - Macfarlane , the Governor of Gibraltar . Later RAF career . Returning to the active duty roster in June 1943 , Gatward became a Flight Commander with No 404 Royal Canadian Air Force squadron , operating from Wick . Following the loss of the squadron ' s commanding officer in March 1944 , Gatward took over command . He received his DSO in June 1944 . In August his raid with 24 Beaufighters against enemy shipping in Norwegian waters succeeded in sinking four minesweepers and putting a destroyer out of action , but the squadron suffered a high casualty rate . Gatward ended the war in command of No 157 Wing . Post war career . Remaining in the RAF , Gatward became the liaison officer with the USAF in Germany in 1946 . In 1955 he took command of RAF Odiham and later served with Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe . After serving 30 years in the RAF he retired on 3 September 1964 with the rank of Group Captain at the Air Cadet Headquarters at White Waltham . He married Pamela Yeomans and retired to Frinton - on - Sea , in Essex . Honours and awards . < br > Sale of medals . Following the death of his wife in 2012 , Gatward ' s medals were put up for sale on 30 November 2012 at Colchester auctioneers Reeman Dansie with an estimate of £8 , 000 . The medals , along with cartoons of the Paris attack , original photographs and congratulatory telegrams sold for £41 , 000 .