Tedder read history at Cambridge, then joined the RFC in the First World War. He commanded the Middle East Royal Air Force, May 1941 to February 1943. Next he was in charge of allied air forces in the Mediterranean before becoming deputy supreme commander of ‘Overlord’. Tedder's contribution to allied success, especially in Normandy, 1944, involved ‘interdiction’: preventing enemy supplies and reinforcements from reaching the battlefield by attacking road and rail transport, direct and prompt tactical support for ground troops, using fighter‐bombers as mobile artillery, and his occasional diversion of British and American heavy bombers to support big offensives. He became marshal of the RAF and was made viscount in 1946.
Subjects: Contemporary History (Post 1945).