Dereck French DFC was one the RAF's most effective bomber pilots during the Second World War. An engaging and uncompromising character, he lived and travelled in Britain, Egypt, and India. His battered old suit case with the label D. J. French RAF was taken on all his trips away from home tied up with a leather belt and sporting a bullet hole.
French 's war started in the early, primitive stages of the European air campaign. He flew RAF operational bomber tours over Europe (with 50, 106, 207, 97 and 455 RAAF Squadrons), North Africa (108 Squadron) and India/Burma (CO of 215 Squadron). During this time he experienced the death of friends and comrades on a daily basis, met many of the leading figures in RAF Fighter and Bomber Command, and on one occasion had dinner with Churchill. French was the first Australian to be decorated in the war, and was one of the RAF's most daring officers, who passed on his knowledge to several famous flyers. After the war, he witnessed the huge social changes in British life, before returning to Australia, where he has typically forthright about the treatment of war veterans, and resigned from the RAAF.
