Air Chief Marshal Sir Lewis Macdonald Hodges, (1 March 1918 – 4 January 2007) was a pilot for Special Operations Executive (SOE) in the Second World War, and later achieved high command in the Royal Air Force and NATO. Early life Hodges was born in Richmond in Surrey, England. He was educated at St Paul's School in Barnes and joined the Royal Air Force College Cranwell in 1937. War service Known as "Bob" Hodges, he was commissioned into the RAF as a pilot officer in December 1938, joining Bomber Command and flying Vickers Wellesleys with No. 78 Squadron at RAF Finningley, and then moving to fly Handley Page Hampdens with No. 49 Squadron in 1940. On 4 September 1940, his aircraft was damaged in an air raid on Stettin, and he crash-landed in Brittany. He and a gunner named John Hugh Wyatt who had not bailed out attempted to escape to Spain, but were arrested by the Vichy police near Marseilles. He escaped from custody at Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort, near Nîmes, and crossed the Pyrenees into Spain, only to be arrested and imprisoned at Miranda del Ebro. He was eventually released some weeks later, reaching Gibraltar and then returning to England in June 1941. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) in May 1942, while commanding a flight of No. 49 Squadron, for operations including attacks on the German small battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in February 1942. He was mentioned in despatches in June 1942. Wing Commander Charles Pickard invited him to join No. 161 (Special Duties) Squadron at RAF Tempsford later in 1942, commanding a flight of Armstrong Whitworth Whitleys and Handley Page Halifaxes on SOE operations. He became the commander of No. 161 Squadron in May 1943, and was promoted to squadron leader. In addition to other operations, such as parachute drops, he landed Westland Lysanders and Lockheed Hudsons in occupied France several times, bringing Vincent Auriol and François Mitterrand back to England. Unaware of their identities at the time, the former made him a Commandeur of the Légion d'Honneur in 1950, and the latter a Grand Officier of the Légion d'Honneur in 1988. For his actions with SOE, he received a Bar to his DFC in May 1943, and the Distinguished Service Order in October 1943. He was also awarded the French Croix de guerre. He attended the RAF Staff College in 1944, and served with the Bomber