RIP, Air Commodore Peter Cribb (WW2 bomber pilot, over 100 missions)
Air Commodore Peter Cribb, who has died aged 92, was one of the most successful and gallant master bombers of the Pathfinder Force; he flew more than 100 wartime operations, including one when he made an unauthorised raid on Hitler’s retreat at Berchtesgaden.
Cribb was already a veteran of more than 70 missions when he returned to operations in May 1944 to fly the Lancaster. He attacked targets in the run-up to D-Day, often acting as the master bomber directing the main force against rail yards and gun emplacements.
In July he was put in command of the newly-formed No 582 Squadron and flew 16 daylight sorties in support of the Normandy landings. On July 18 he was the deputy master bomber when more than 1,000 aircraft pulverised the German panzer divisions in front of Montgomery’s stalled army at Caen.
Cribb also controlled more than 700 bombers which attacked the V-1 sites before the bombing campaign resumed its efforts against major oil targets in Germany.
On October 3 he was master bomber for the attack on the sea walls of Walcheren Island. Coastal gun batteries dominated the approaches to the important port of Antwerp; the aim was to breach the walls and flood the island, most of which was reclaimed polder below sea level.
As the first to arrive at the head of 252 Lancasters, he orbited the target and directed eight separate waves of bombers, correcting the aiming point with flares and markers to widen the initial breach. The sea poured in, forcing the German defenders to abandon their carefully prepared positions. Cribb was the last to leave the target after a brilliantly controlled attack, which allowed Canadian ground forces to capture the island and open Antwerp to the Allies. Newspapers hailed the achievement with the headline “RAF sinks an island”.
On promotion to group captain at the age of 25, Cribb was appointed to command the Pathfinder airfield at Little Staughton in Bedfordshire, and shortly afterwards he was awarded a Bar to an earlier DSO. Frustrated at being desk-bound, he flew unofficially on a number of operations. On April 24 1945 he learned that a force of Lancasters was to bomb Hitler’s Bavarian retreat at Berchtesgaden, but the Lancaster squadron on his airfield was stood down.Determined not to miss this final attempt to eliminate Hitler, Cribb commandeered a Lancaster and some bombs and made up a crew from the senior executives on his station. He took off at dawn, catching up with the main force as it was approaching the target. He dropped his bombs and obtained an excellent aiming point photograph.
Anxious to get back to Britain before anyone realised what he had had been up to , Cribb returned on a direct route at top speed — but to no avail. Air Vice-Marshal Donald Bennett, head of the Pathfinder Force, had tried to contact him and his deputy, only to be told that they were airborne on “a 10-hour navigation exercise”. It was said that, when he learned the truth, Bennett “hit the roof”.