Group Captain Douglas Iveson's obituary
Title
Group Captain Douglas Iveson's obituary
Description
Details the service career of Douglas 'Hank' Iveson including operations to prevent the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau leaving port, damage sustained to his Halifax aircraft, low level attacks on Tirpitz, participation in the 1,000 aircraft raids, the 'mail run' bombing in Tobruk and supporting the 8th army in El-Alamein. Hank went on to be chief flying instructor and spent time in Canada, the United States of America and Singapore and became commander of RAF Waddington and ended his career in the headquarters of Signals Command.
Date
1986
Temporal Coverage
Spatial Coverage
Coverage
Language
Format
One newspaper article
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
Identifier
NIvesonD181213-01
Transcription
Group Captain Douglas Iveson
Photograph
Iveson (1963): bombers
GROUP CAPTAIN DOUGLAS ‘HANK’ IVESON, who has died aged 77, survived numerous bombing raids during the Second World War.
In 1941 Iveson, then with No 76, flew daylight sorties in a Halifax to prevent the [italics] Scharnhorst [/italics] and [italics] Gneisenau [/italics] leaving the harbour at Brest. The ships were protected by one of the heaviest concentrations of anti-aircraft guns in German-occupied Europe.
On Dec 18 his Halifax was badly damaged by a shell through the astrodome hatch; on Dec 30 his formation was attacked by 30 Me 109s, one of them claimed by Rear-Gunner Sgt Holmes.
Between January and April the next year Iveson took part in three low-level attacks on the [italics] Tirpitz [/italics] at Trondheim, on one of which he drew anti-aircraft fire so that other aircraft could press home their attacks; he was afterwards awarded his first DFC.
Iveson flew in “Bomber” Harris’s 1,000-aircraft raids against Cologne, Hamburg and Essen; and in North Africa he took part in the “mail run” bombing of Tobruk and supported the 8th Army at El Alamein.
Douglas Iveson was born in Hull on Nov 21 1917 and educated locally, before becoming an office boy at a cement manufacturer’s.
In May 1939 Iveson joined the RAFVR and learned to fly at weekends; his career was almost curtailed when on his first flight with an instructor the engine of their Blackburn B2 failed.
When war broke out he was commissioned as a pilot officer. He was sent on an instructor’s course at the Central Flying School, but in 1941 was posted to No 77, a Whitley bomber squadron.
On his first take-off as captain his engine failed, and the Whitley careered into a bomb dump, where its bomb load exploded. Iveson was lucky to survive.
In July 1942 Iveson was sent with others of 76 Squadron to the Middle East. It was supposed to be a temporary move for a special operation, and the crews left their kit behind. But they remained there, and in September were amalgamated into No 462 of the Royal Australian Air Force.
The next November Iveson returned home to command No 76. After a further tour of European bomber operations and a spell as a chief flying instructor he was sent on a public relations visit to the United States.
From August 1945 he commanded 51 Stirling and York Transport Squadrons. The next September he went to No 1639 Heavy Transport Conversion Unit as Chief Instructor on Dakotas. After staff appointments and a winter trials command in Canada, Iveson ran the staging post set up in Moscow for the Four-Power conference of March 1947.
That month he was appointed to a permanent commission. He subsequently commanded the navigation research and development squadron at the Empire Navigation School.
In 1949 he attended the Royal Canadian Air Force Staff College at Toronto, and the next year was posted to HQ 2nd Air Force, Strategic Air Command in Louisiana; he then took a B47 Stratojet course in Florida.
On his return to Britain Iveson took up Bomber Command staff appointments, and was chief instructor at No 232 Operational Conversion Unit.
On Oct 14 1958, flying a Victor at an average speed of 655mph, Iveson set a world record between London and Malta of two hours and 44 seconds.
From 1958 to 1960 he commanded the nuclear deterrent V-bomber base at Waddington. In 1961 he was posted to Singapore as Far East Air Force command intelligence officer. Three years later he joined HQ Signals Command, before retiring in 1967.
He served as secretary and director of the Sheffield and Rotherham chambers of commerce, and in 1982 moved to Filey on the Yorkshire coast.
Iveson received a second DFC in 1943, and a DSO in 1944. He was mentioned in despatches and also received a Queen’s Commendation.
He married, in 1940, Joyce Everest, a nurse at RAF Brize Norton. They had two daughters and a son, now Group Captain Robert Iveson, who was awarded the AFC as a Harrier pilot in the Falklands campaign and has since commanded No 617.
Photograph
Iveson (1963): bombers
GROUP CAPTAIN DOUGLAS ‘HANK’ IVESON, who has died aged 77, survived numerous bombing raids during the Second World War.
In 1941 Iveson, then with No 76, flew daylight sorties in a Halifax to prevent the [italics] Scharnhorst [/italics] and [italics] Gneisenau [/italics] leaving the harbour at Brest. The ships were protected by one of the heaviest concentrations of anti-aircraft guns in German-occupied Europe.
On Dec 18 his Halifax was badly damaged by a shell through the astrodome hatch; on Dec 30 his formation was attacked by 30 Me 109s, one of them claimed by Rear-Gunner Sgt Holmes.
Between January and April the next year Iveson took part in three low-level attacks on the [italics] Tirpitz [/italics] at Trondheim, on one of which he drew anti-aircraft fire so that other aircraft could press home their attacks; he was afterwards awarded his first DFC.
Iveson flew in “Bomber” Harris’s 1,000-aircraft raids against Cologne, Hamburg and Essen; and in North Africa he took part in the “mail run” bombing of Tobruk and supported the 8th Army at El Alamein.
Douglas Iveson was born in Hull on Nov 21 1917 and educated locally, before becoming an office boy at a cement manufacturer’s.
In May 1939 Iveson joined the RAFVR and learned to fly at weekends; his career was almost curtailed when on his first flight with an instructor the engine of their Blackburn B2 failed.
When war broke out he was commissioned as a pilot officer. He was sent on an instructor’s course at the Central Flying School, but in 1941 was posted to No 77, a Whitley bomber squadron.
On his first take-off as captain his engine failed, and the Whitley careered into a bomb dump, where its bomb load exploded. Iveson was lucky to survive.
In July 1942 Iveson was sent with others of 76 Squadron to the Middle East. It was supposed to be a temporary move for a special operation, and the crews left their kit behind. But they remained there, and in September were amalgamated into No 462 of the Royal Australian Air Force.
The next November Iveson returned home to command No 76. After a further tour of European bomber operations and a spell as a chief flying instructor he was sent on a public relations visit to the United States.
From August 1945 he commanded 51 Stirling and York Transport Squadrons. The next September he went to No 1639 Heavy Transport Conversion Unit as Chief Instructor on Dakotas. After staff appointments and a winter trials command in Canada, Iveson ran the staging post set up in Moscow for the Four-Power conference of March 1947.
That month he was appointed to a permanent commission. He subsequently commanded the navigation research and development squadron at the Empire Navigation School.
In 1949 he attended the Royal Canadian Air Force Staff College at Toronto, and the next year was posted to HQ 2nd Air Force, Strategic Air Command in Louisiana; he then took a B47 Stratojet course in Florida.
On his return to Britain Iveson took up Bomber Command staff appointments, and was chief instructor at No 232 Operational Conversion Unit.
On Oct 14 1958, flying a Victor at an average speed of 655mph, Iveson set a world record between London and Malta of two hours and 44 seconds.
From 1958 to 1960 he commanded the nuclear deterrent V-bomber base at Waddington. In 1961 he was posted to Singapore as Far East Air Force command intelligence officer. Three years later he joined HQ Signals Command, before retiring in 1967.
He served as secretary and director of the Sheffield and Rotherham chambers of commerce, and in 1982 moved to Filey on the Yorkshire coast.
Iveson received a second DFC in 1943, and a DSO in 1944. He was mentioned in despatches and also received a Queen’s Commendation.
He married, in 1940, Joyce Everest, a nurse at RAF Brize Norton. They had two daughters and a son, now Group Captain Robert Iveson, who was awarded the AFC as a Harrier pilot in the Falklands campaign and has since commanded No 617.
Collection
Citation
“Group Captain Douglas Iveson's obituary,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed May 20, 2026, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/collections/document/44749.