Douglas Evill Air Chief Marshal Sir Douglas Claude Strathern Evill ( 8 October 1892 – 22 March 1971 ) was a Royal Naval Air Service pilot during World War I and senior commander in the Royal Air Force during World War II . Early life . Douglas Evill was born on 8 October 1892 in Broken Hill , New South Wales , Australia . After receiving a private education in England , Evill studied as a cadet at Osborne House naval college on the Isle of Wight before attending Britannia Naval College in Devon . Naval service and World War I . Evill was a cousin of the pioneer aviator Arthur Longmore who encouraged him to take up flying . After taking private flying lessons at Hendon , Evill gained his Aero Club Aviator ' s Certificate ( No . 512 ) on 13 June 1913 , only three months after gaining his naval commission as a Sub - lieutenant . Evill then applied to join the Naval Wing of the Royal Flying Corps but was not accepted and he spent some time serving on destroyer s . Evill was promoted to full lieutenant on 15 August 1914 and was appointed an acting Flight Lieutenant on 4 December 1914 on securing a transfer to the Royal Naval Air Service which by 1914 had gained its independence from the Royal Flying Corps . Evill spent much of World War I on operational flying duties over the Western Front , flying out of Dunkirk from February 1915 onwards . Probably around the summer of 1915 he took up duties on No . 1 Squadron RNAS which was based in Dunkirk . On 22 June 1916 Evill was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross . The citation read as follows : On 5 November 1916 Evill was appointed the Officer Commanding No . 2 Squadron RNAS which like No . 1 Squadron was engaged in flying duties on the Western Front . Less than two months later , on the last day of 1916 , Evill was promoted to the RNAS rank of squadron commander . The summer of 1917 saw Evill back in England in a training role . On 30 July 1917 he became the first commander of the RNAS ' s Naval Seaplane Training School at Lee - on - the - Solent . The work in establishing the unit involved requisitioning of land and several coastal properties . Evill also had to contend with temporary hangarage for his seaplanes and the safe operation of a crane which lowered his aircraft from the top of the cliff on to rails which ran into the sea . On 1 April 1918 , when the RNAS was merged with the Royal Flying Corps , Evill was regraded from squadron commander to major in the new Royal Air Force . Between the wars . Evill remained in the fledgling RAF after the war and in 1919 he was placed in command of flying boat units , granted a permanent commission in the RAF in the rank of squadron leader and awarded the Air Force Cross . On 20 February 1920 , he was appointed to the staff of the School of Naval Co - operation and Aerial Navigation and later that year on 8 October he married Henrietta Hortense , the daughter of Sir Alexander Drake Kleinwort ( the first of the Kleinwort Baronets ) . Evill spent much of 1921 at the British Army ' s Staff College at Camberley . On 1 January 1922 Evill was posted to the headquarters of Coastal Area working on the technical aspects of aircraft carriers . Late 1923 saw Evill return to operational duties . From September to October he probably completed a refresher flying course at No . 4 Flying Training School . On 12 October he was appointed Officer Commanding No . 70 Squadron , flying Vernons from the Hinaidi Cantonment in Baghdad , Iraq . With promotion to wing commander and following his return to Great Britain in early 1925 , Evill was appointed to the Directing Staff of the RAF Staff College in May . After nearly four years of instructing , Evill was posted to the RAF College , Cranwell as the Assistant Commandant where he remained until he was succeeded by Philip Babington in late 1931 . After departing Cranwell , Evill was promoted to group captain in the new year . After a period of illness and time as a supernumerary which occupied most of 1932 , Evill attended the Imperial Defence College in 1933 . In the five years leading up to World War II Evill held a number of air officer staff and administrative appointments . In April 1934 , he was sent to the Air Ministry and served as Deputy Director of War Organization . He was promoted to air commodore on the last day of 1935 ; this promotion may have coincided with his elevation to Director of War Organization . Evill left the Air Ministry in September 1936 for Headquarters Bomber Command where he served as the Senior Air Staff Officer . In January 1937 , whilst on the staff of Bomber Command , Evill accompanied Air Vice - Marshal Christopher Courtney ( the RAF ' s Director of Operations and Intelligence ) as a member of the RAF mission to Germany on a tour of inspection of the Luftwaffe . On 1 January 1938 Evill was promoted to air vice - marshal , three months later he was appointed Air Officer in charge of Administration at Bomber Command . In the spring of 1939 , during the debate concerning airfield deception , Evill argued for the construction of fake aerodromes designed to deceive the enemy . He was in favour of the creation of dummies of all satellite airfields which would be designed to mislead during day and night raids . He also favoured the building of decoy airfields for primary large - scale bases but only to the extent that they would be effective against night operations . Despite some disagreement from other senior RAF commanders , Evill ' s view was adopted as policy in June . Just before the outbreak of World War II , Evill briefly served as the British air deputy on the Anglo - French Supreme War Council . World War II . Following the start of World War II , Evill was moved from Bomber to Fighter Command as the Senior Air Staff Officer at its Headquarters , serving under Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding . In February 1940 Evill was appointed the Senior Air Staff Officer at the Headquarters of the Royal Air Force in France under Air Marshal Sir Arthur Barratt . When the British Air Forces in France dissolved in failure in June 1940 , Evill returned to Fighter Command , once again serving as the Senior Air Staff Officer . He continued at Fighter Command throughout the Battle of Britain , The Blitz and the fighter operations of 1941 . In February 1942 , Evill departed Great Britain for the United States as the head of the RAF delegation to Washington . By March 1943 , Evill had returned to Great Britain where he was appointed Vice - Chief of the Air Staff . Evill continued as VCAS throughout the rest of the war , receiving promotion to air marshal at the beginning of 1944 . On 1 February 1945 , Evill sent a memorandum to the Chiefs of Staff Committee outlining the Air Staff ' s support for the area bombing of eastern German cities . He noted that the ensuing chaos would hamper Wehrmacht reinforcements which were moving up to meet the Russian advance . Evill wrote : Less than two weeks later , the Bombing of Dresden began . In recent times , critics of the RAF ' s bombing of German cities have suggested that because of his support for such bombing , Evill was aptly named . Evill stepped down as VCAS on 1 June 1946 ; the following January he officially retired from the RAF , receiving promotion to Air Chief Marshal just a few days before he left the Service . Later years . As a retired officer , Evill stayed active in Service and civil matters . He was a member of the council for King Edward VII ' s Hospital for Officers and served as the Director - General of the English Speaking Union from 1947 to 1949 . In late 1960 Evill was appointed Honorary Air Commodore of No . 3617 ( County of Hampshire ) Fighter Control Unit in the Royal Auxiliary Air Force . Evill was portrayed by Sir Michael Redgrave in the film " Battle of Britain " ( 1969 ) . Towards the end of his life , Evill suffered with severe arthritis ; he died at his home in Winchester on 22 March 1971 , aged 78 .