AIR STAFF CHANGES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 44, 21 February 1942, Page 7

AIR STAFF CHANGES

NEW BOMBER CHIEF'S

CAREER

LONDON, February 19,

Air Marshal Sir Richard Peirse, who is,'relinquishing the position of Com-mander-in-Chief of the Bomber Command, has. been given a special appointment. He has issued the following special order of the day to the. Bomber Command:—"l say good-bye to you all with very deep regret, but with a feeling of great pride that I should have had the privilege of commanding for 15 months so gallant a company of men and women. The unconquerable spirit of the Bomber Command'l shall take with me, and your progress and deeds I shall follow always, with the certain conviction that you are well set on the road to victory."

Air Marshal A. T. Harris, who succeeds Sir Richard Peirse, was Deputy Chief of the Air Staff from November, 1940 r till May, 1941, when he was ap-

pointed for special duty with the British Air Staff at Washington. He is 52 years of age. During the last war he served in the ranks of the First Rhodesiari Regiment, and he joined the Royal Flying Corps as a second lieutenant in 1915. In 1937 he was promoted air commodore arid appointed to command the No. 4 (bomber), group.

Air Vice-Marshal D. C. S. Eyill, who succeeds' Air Marshal Harris in Washington, is also 52. He. was appointed senior Air Staff officer at the Fighter Command in August, 1940, following his return to England from France, where he was senior Air Staff officer with the . British, air forces in France,