Charles Portal, 1st Viscount Portal of Hungerford

Charles Portal, 1st Viscount Portal of Hungerford (May 21 1893 - April 22 1971) was a British Marshal of the Royal Air Force and Chief of the Air Staff during World War II and an advocate of strategic bombing.

Early life and career

Charles Portal was born May 21, 1893 in Hungerford, England, and was educated at Christ Church, Oxford.

At the beginning of World War I, Portal joined the British Army and served as a dispatch rider in the motorcycle section of Royal Engineers on the western front. In December 1914 he was given command of all riders in the 1st Corps Headquarters Signals Company.

In 1915 Portal transferred to the Royal Flying Corps, serving first as an observer and eventually a flying officer. He reached the rank of lieutenant colonel and earned the Military Cross and the Distinguished Flying Cross. In April 1918 he became an officer in the new Royal Air Force, following the Royal Flying Corps' merger with the Royal Naval Air Service.

After the war, he took over No. 7 Squadron RAF and concentrated on improving bombing accuracy. In 1934 he was appointed commander of British forces in Aden, where he tried to control the local tribesmen by air power. In January 1935 he was promoted to Air Commodore and in July 1937 to Air Vice-Marshal.

World War II

By 1939 Portal was a member of the air council and Director of Organization in the Air Ministry. Just prior to outbreak of World War II, he was ordered to establish 30 new air bases in Britain. At the outbreak of the war in September he was made Acting Air Marshal and in April 1940 commander-in-chief of Bomber Command.

Portal advocated strategic area bombing against German industrial areas instead of bombing of specific factories or plants. He gave the first order to bomb Berlin on August 25 1940. The result was that Hermann Göring ordered the Luftwaffe to bomb London instead of British airfields. The Blitz had begun. Prime Minister Winston Churchill was impressed with Portal's strategy and Portal was knighted in July 1940.

In October 1940, Portal was appointed as Chief of the Air Staff with the rank of Air Chief Marshal and became involved with the controversy over the Big Wing that resulted in Hugh Dowding's removal as the head of Fighter Command. He concentrated on improving bomber navigation systems and bombing aids and increasing the power of the bombs themselves.

In August 1941 he received a report of the relative inefficiency of RAF daytime raids and proposed area bombing by night. To implement his directive he replaced the chief of bomber command, Air Chief Marshal Richard Peirse, with Arthur Harris. The new policy caused 600.000 civilian casualties in Germany and also the loss of 57,142 men in bomber crews due to heavy anti-aircraft fire.

Portal accompanied Churchill to all the conferences and made a good impression on Americans. In January 1943, at the Casablanca Conference, the Combined Chiefs of Staff selected him to coordinate the bomber forces of both the United States and Britain in a combined bomber offensive over Germany. The forces were transferred to General Eisenhower for the duration of Operation Overlord; but when their control reverted to the Combined Chiefs, Portal still advocated area bombing of German cities instead of specific targets.

In January 1944 Portal was promoted to Marshal of the Royal Air Force. In early 1944 Portal's view of strategic bombing changed; he felt that bombers should play a more auxiliary role in Allied offensive. In this he disagreed with Sir Arthur Harris, an advocate of heavy-duty strategic bombing, who forced Portal to back down. In March 1945 Churchill gave the final order to stop area bombing.

Retirement

In 1945, after the war's end, Portal retired from the RAF and in August was created Baron Portal of Hungerford, of Hungerford in the County of Berks, and a year later Viscount Portal of Hungerford, with the same territorial designation. From 1946-1951 he was Controller of Atomic Energy and in 1960 was elected chairman of the British Aircraft Corporation.

Lord Portal of Hungerford died on 22 April 1971. His Viscountcy became extinct, but his Barony, which had been created with a special remainder, passed to his daughter Rosemary.