Group Captain Percy Charles "Pick" Pickard, DSO & Two Bars, DFC (16 May 1915 – 18 February 1944) was an officer in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.

Pickard was one of the RAF's most highly regarded bomber pilots of the war, ranking among the likes of Guy Gibson and Leonard Cheshire.

The two-seat biplane trainer has benign handling characteristics in basic flying, but when pushed hard in aerobatics the demand on the skill of the pilot is quite high.

With the cold night air filling the cockpit, he went to turn back to base when he was met with the unwavering gaze of Pickard, who pointed him in the direction of Germany.

Pickard appeared as Squadron Leader Dickson, the pilot, whose aircraft delivers its bombs but is damaged by flak over the target and struggles to make it back to England.

[30] While on a leave from 3 Group HQ Pickard managed to talk his way into the right-hand seat of a 138 Squadron Whitley for an 8-hour flight and a low-level drop for the French resistance at Châteauroux.

He then managed to get aboard one of the squadron's Wellingtons in a flight over the Netherlands to help deliver its cargo of six 250 lb bombs (for the Germans) and half a million cigarettes (for the Dutch).

In January planning had begun by the Combined Operations Headquarters under Lord Mountbatten in response to a request by R. V. Jones and the TRE to capture a German radar, an example of which was located on the bluffs overlooking the French coast near Bruneval.

[8] The mission was for 51 Squadron to carry a group of paratroopers to the German radar station, where they would dismantle it and bring it back, along with a couple of technical operators.

Arriving over the fighter base he circled the area to burn off the extra time, and then led out to Selsey Bill where they left the coast, heading across the Channel.

The Würzburg radar crew watched the group of bombers approach Fécamp till they got within 5 km, then saw them suddenly turn south and seemingly head directly for them.

[56] Upon returning to base Pickard debriefed, got a short rest and then drove down to Portsmouth and the command ship HMS Prins Albert to be on hand when the paratroopers made it back from France.

"[64][66] In his time there Pickard gathered a talented team of pilots around him, including Hugh Verity, Frank Rymills, Peter Vaughan-Fowler and Jim McCairns.

After some months of service together Hugh Verity, the officer commanding 161's 'A' Flight, remarked wryly to his wife: "I am being restrained from personal effort by Pick, who thinks I have been hogging.

Unfamiliar with air travel, his passengers were completely unaware of the danger, and thought a landing performed with the engine killed and propeller feathered was their normal operation!

He wanted his force to perform precision attacks on the continent, and was pushing hard to get Mosquitos to replace the Ventura and Mitchell bombers a number of his squadrons were equipped with.

Patterson continues "Due to the dynamic drive and determination of Basil Embry, all three Ventura squadrons were re-equipped with the Mosquito FB VI fighter-bomber.

He spoke for two hours, remarking on his experiences flying, but mostly commenting on the Mosquito and its utility as a marking aircraft and a precision daylight bomber.

[30] About this time Leonard Cheshire was looking for a smaller aircraft to use for low-level marking, and came over to ask Pickard about the feasibility of using the de Havilland Mosquito.

Known as the Dambusters, the squadron was struggling after the departure of Guy Gibson and a number of losses suffered following their success on the Ruhr dams raid.

[111] Initially rocket firing Typhoons were to be deployed to break holes into the prison walls, but Embry soon changed this to Mosquitos, dropping bombs at low altitude.

[108][116] Embry had intended to be on the raid, however because of his knowledge of the planning underway for the Normandy invasion air marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory strictly forbade him from going, as his capture was a risk that could not be accepted.

New Zealand Pilot Officer Maxwell Sparks recalled:"The loud speaker broke rudely into my sleep early on that February morning.

[62] At the end of the briefing, Pickard, who had spent many months supporting the resistance while flying with 161 Squadron, emphasised the importance of the mission: "It's a death-or-glory show.

There they would bend their course to the right and travel another two miles to Albert, where they would make their final hard right to place them on course toward Amiens, following the long, straight Albert-Amiens road till they reached the prison.

Seeing all this in front of him, Wing Commander "Black" Smith placed his six Mosquitoes in a wide orbit south of the Albert-Amiens road to allow time for the first wave to clear.

F/Lt Tony Wickham was flying the PRU Mosquito, circling the target at 400 to 500 feet while P/O Leigh Howard used a cine film camera to record the effects of the bomb blasts.

[3] Looking back years later, the woman who had been Broadley's fiancée, Kitty Jeffery, described Pickard as "tall, dashing, very foolhardy at times, a bit of a lad.

"[120] Writing about him later, Basil Embry wrote "It is impossible to measure Charles Pickard's loss to the RAF and Britain, but in courage, devotion to duty, fighting spirit and powers of real leadership, he stood out as one of the great airmen of the war, and a shining example of British manhood."

A year after his death his family ran a note in The Times to his memory, which read: Historical author Chris Hobbs wrote: "His long operational career, covering many aspects of aerial conflict, included some of the most daring episodes in the RAF's history.