Donald Swain Lewis

Donald Swain Lewis, DSO (5 April 1886 - 10 April 1916) was a Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army^[1] and was the second highest-ranked officer in the Royal Flying Corps/Royal Air Force to be killed in action in the First World War.^[2]

On 14 September 1914 Major Geoffrey Salmond, CO of No.3 Sqdn and Captain Donald Swain Lewis carried out a successful experiment with a Royal artillery battery using a radio transmitter to communicate the fall of artillery shells. Lewis is also credited with creating the "grid square" map system which revolutionized British wartime cartography.

On 15 September the British Third Corps assigned its RFC squadrons to support the divisional heavy & howitzer batteries. The radio-equipped aeroplanes successfully supported the artillery in taking out German positions during the offensive on the Aisne.

In April 1915 Lewis was appointed to command No. 3 Squadron, operating on the Western Front. He returned to duties in Great Britain during the winter of 1915-16 before returning to France in February 1916 to take up command the Second Wing which was assigned to work with the Second Army in the Ypres salient at that time.^[3]

Lewis was shot down on the 10 April 1916 by the very guns of the battery with which he had been co-operating.

References

1. ^ Flight 29 June 1916
2. ^ O'Connor, M. “Airfields & Airmen – Ypres”. Leo Cooper, 2001. p.39 ISBN 0-85052-753-8
3. ^ Raleigh, Walter (1922). War in the Air, Volume I. p. 339. http://www.readcentral.com/chapters/Walter-Raleigh/The-War-in-the-Air-Vol-1-The-Part-played-in-the-Great-War-by-the-Royal-Air-Force/009. Retrieved 2011-10-03. 

Military offices
Preceded by J M Salmond	Officer Commanding No. 3 Squadron April 1915 – 1 November 1915	Succeeded by E R Ludlow-Hewitt

Persondata
Name	Lewis, Douglas Swain
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Date of death	10 April 1916
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