Air Commodore Cliff Godwin, bomber pilot who flew anti-submarine missions in the Arctic Circle – obituary

Air Commodore Cliff Godwin, who has died aged 99, was one of the last surviving Second World War pilots to have flown anti-submarine patrols north of the Arctic Circle. He went on to complete a full career in the RAF, which included operations in support of the Berlin Airlift, and was a formative influence in air transport.

In July 1944, Godwin joined Coastal Command’s 86 Squadron as a pilot flying the US-built four-engine Liberator bomber. Operating from his base at Tain in northern Scotland on the first of his 24 long-range missions in support of the Russian convoys, he patrolled 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle on a flight that lasted more than 16 hours.

This set the pattern for all his other operations north of Norway, during which time he made a probable periscope sighting. The crew’s determination to attack left them desperately short of fuel for the return to Tain, where they landed “on fumes”.

Following the German surrender, surviving U-boats were ordered to sail on the surface flying a black flag. During a training sortie on May 14 1945, Godwin was diverted to escort two surrendering U-boats to Loch Eriboll, a remote deep-water anchorage on the north coast of Scotland which was one of the collection points for the U-boats.

In later years Godwin was asked by his family about his (lack of) swimming ability and thus his suitability for Coastal Command duties. He phlegmatically pointed out the unlikelihood of survival in the Arctic Ocean – whether or not one could swim.

Clifford Laurence Godwin (usually known as Cliff) was born in London on May 3 1924 and educated at Southall County School. As a youngster he spent considerable periods looking after his paternal widowed grandmother, who lived in Willesden, which later had a marked influence on him when her home was bombed early in the war.

Before the outbreak of war, Godwin was destined for a career in local government, joining Hounslow Council as a junior clerk. Though he left as soon as he was able, it nevertheless left indelible marks: for the whole of his life he kept financial ledgers – the first of which he had “appropriated” from the Council as he left – leaving a full record of his life’s expenditure.

He applied to join the RAF aged 17, and by October 1942 he had been accepted for pilot training. He trained in Canada under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan and, after converting to the Liberator, he joined 86 Squadron.

In June 1945, 86 Squadron joined Transport Command, first operating from the New Forest into Western Europe before repatriating troops from the Middle and Far East.

Godwin took a permanent commission in the RAF in 1946, from which point his flying career centred on air transport and flying training. By 1948 he had been assessed as an exceptional pilot and sent to the Central Flying School (CFS) to train as an instructor. He was an instructor on the York and Hastings transport aircraft and was sometimes dispatched to forward RAF airfields in Germany. Flying the York, he made resupply flights into Gatow airfield during the Berlin Airlift.

After two years, he returned to CFS to train the next generation of instructors. During this time, he flew in two large formations of Harvard aircraft spelling out “RAF” and “GR VI” at RAF open days and over London, the latter for the 1950 King’s Birthday Parade. In 1953 he was awarded the Air Force Cross.

He subsequently returned to instruct on transport aircraft and later commanded the Transport Command Examination Wing, checking and testing RAF transport crews based around the world.

After a staff tour, he left for a two-year exchange tour with the United States Air Force in Washington State flying the huge C-124 Globemaster. Godwin took his family with him to the US, travelling by the RMS Queen Mary and returning on the Queen Elizabeth; he was mildly irritated to discover later that his return passage had been booked in second class, but before his promotion to wing commander had been promulgated, which would have merited a first-class passage.

In a life largely committed to advancing the professionalisation of aviation in the RAF, Godwin managed to fly a wide array of aircraft. His logbook records qualification on some 30 fixed-wing aircraft and – finally – on one helicopter. In the late 1940s and early 1950s he had added such celebrated aircraft as the Spitfire, Mosquito and Lancaster to his tally.

Following tours as a staff college instructor, command of the Transport Command Examining Unit, and Group Captain Plans in HQ 38 Group at Odiham, Godwin was appointed to command RAF Benson in Oxfordshire, the home of two Argosy transport squadrons where he took every opportunity to fly with his crews.

He moved on promotion to air commodore as Commander RAF Hong Kong in November 1970; during this period, he converted to the Whirlwind helicopter. Part of his training was to winch up aircrew who were practising their drills should they find themselves in hostile territory. A recently arrived pilot officer commented: “As the junior pilot, I was ‘volunteered’ to act as a survivor for his winching practice – I carried the scars of being dragged through the undergrowth as he mastered the art. It cannot have been malicious because I hadn’t then met his eldest daughter at the time, and whom I later married!”

Following a year at the Royal College of Defence Studies in 1973, Godwin held two director posts in MoD before leaving the RAF in 1979. He relished any opportunity to fly and spent many off-duty weekends as a glider tug pilot flying the Chipmunk. Overall, he amassed some 7,000 hours’ flight time.

For the next 10 years Godwin worked as the administrative director of St Godric’s Secretarial College in London, spending his time between their tied house in Hampstead and their new home in Milton Keynes. 

He and his wife were great advocates of the new town and threw themselves fully into developing its identity; right to his death he enthused about its green spaces and the social opportunities it had given them.  

In full retirement he volunteered for the Citizens Advice Bureau, where he was a much-valued “front-of-house” adviser until they realised he was five years beyond his “use-by date”, at which point he graciously reorganised their back-room administration. 

He was an active participant in a number of service associations and a regular attendee at Berlin Airlift reunions.

Cliff Godwin married, in 1948, Agnes Mirams, always known as Ann. She died in 2018 and he is survived by two daughters and a son.

Clifford Godwin, born May 3 1924, died August 13 2023