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From 1929 to 1931, Tedder was assistant commandant of the RAF Staff College. He then held administrative positions at the Air Armament School and the Air Ministry. He headed up training from 1934 to 1936, then was commander in the Far East. He returned to Britain to become director of research in the Air Ministry in 1938.
In the summer of 1940, Tedder was transferred to North Africa as deputy air commander. He became air commander in chief of the Middle East Air Force in June 1941, directing air operations against the Axis powers in North Africa. Tedder constantly struggled with a shortage of air assets. A forceful advocate of airpower, along with his subordinate Arthur Coningham, he worked to combine and coordinate RAF activities with ground forces in innovative ways. In February 1943, as commander in chief of Allied air assets in the Mediterranean, he was overall air commander for the 1943 Tunisia and Sicily Campaigns.
In late 1943, Tedder used the experience gained in these operations to help plan air support for the Normandy Invasion as deputy supreme commander, earning high praise from General Dwight D. Eisenhower. He developed a detailed plan to use airpower to disrupt German communications and supply lines prior to the actual landings. In November 1944, he replaced Air Chief Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory as commander of tactical air forces.
At the end of the war in Europe, Tedder signed the surrender agreement with Germany on behalf of Eisenhower. On his return to Britain, he was promoted to air marshal. In January 1946, Tedder was made a baron and appointed chief of the air staff, a post he held until his retirement in 1950. From 1954 to 1960, he was chairman of the Standard Motor Company. He published his memoirs, With Prejudice, in 1967. Tedder died in Surrey, England, on 3 June 1967.
Harold Wise
Further Reading
Orange, Vincent. A Life of Marshal of the RAF Lord Tedder of Glenguin. London: Frank Cass, 2002.; Tedder, Sir Arthur. With Prejudice: The War Memoirs of Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Tedder G.C.B. Boston: Little, Brown, 1967.; Terraine, John. A Time for Courage: The Royal Air Force in the European War, 1939–1945. New York: Macmillan, 1985.; Weigley, Russell F. Eisenhower's Lieutenants: The Campaigns of France and Germany, 1944–1945. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1981.
