Raymond Baxter - Life and Career

Life and Career

Baxter worked for a brief period at the Metropolitan Water Board. In August 1940, during the Second World War, he joined the Royal Air Force and trained as a fighter pilot in Canada. He first flew Supermarine Spitfires with No. 65 Squadron RAF in Britain, based in Scotland. He joined No. 93 Squadron RAF, flying over Sicily in 1943, where he was mentioned in despatches. He returned to England in 1944 as an instructor and was later a flight commander, returning to active service with No. 602 Squadron RAF in September 1944. On 18 March 1945, he took part in a daring daylight raid on the Shell-Mex building in The Hague, which was then the German headquarters for V-1 and V-2 attacks on southern England. The commander of the raid, Max Sutherland, received a bar to his DFC and the other four pilots, including Baxter, were mentioned in dispatches.

In an interview about his wartime career, Baxter described once flying over a V-2 rocket site during a launch, and his wingman firing on the missile: "I dread to think what would have happened if he'd hit the thing!"

He later flew North American Mustang and Douglas Dakota aircraft for a year, then worked in Forces Broadcasting from 1945 to 1949, based in Cairo and then Hamburg, becoming its deputy director. He was demobbed in 1946 as a flight lieutenant.