Douglas Evill - World War II

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:

Evacuees from German and German-Occupied Provinces to the east of Berlin are streaming westward through Berlin itself and through Leipzig, Dresden, and other cities in the East of Germany. The administrative problems involved in receiving the refugees and re-distributing them are likely to be immense. The strain on the administration and upon the communications must be considerably increased by the need for handling military reinforcements on their way to the Eastern Front. A series of heavy attacks by day and night …is likely to create considerable delays in the deployment of troops at the Front, and may well result in establishing a state of chaos in some or all of these centres.

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.