Obit: SBS commander

The Telegraph has the obituary of Colonel Richard Pickup who commanded the British Special Boat Service in Afghanistan.

The British government's response to 9/11 was to launch Operation Veritas, an attempt to deny al-Qaeda its Afghan base. Two months later Pickup was in the leading aircraft which landed unannounced at the former Soviet airbase in Bagram, which was being strongly contested by thousands of government fighters and the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, led by Uzbek warlords.

Although vastly outnumbered, Pickup and his 100 men held on for a day and a night. This infuriated both contending armies, who were insulted by a fourth British invasion in two centuries; it also exasperated the American army's large Delta Force, which had planned to arrive first.

Obit: RAF pilot who tried to escape in Nazi plane

The Telegraph has the obituary of Flight Lieutenant Walter Morison. While a POW during WWII Morison tried to escape from Germany by stealing a Nazi plane.

Obit: Colonel David Smiley

The Telegraph has the obituary of Colonel David Smiley. Smiley was a British Army officer who worked in special forces and intelligence from the Second World War onwards.

During WWII he served behind enemy lines in Albania, Greece, Abyssinia and Japanese-controlled eastern Thailand. After the war he ran operations in Albania and Poland then moved to the Middle East where he worked in Oman and Yemen.

He also found time to command the Royal Horse Guards and rode beside the Queen as the commander of her escort at her coronation.

Followup: The Independent also has his obituary.

Obituary: Don Blakeslee, American fighter pilot

The Telegraph has the obituary of Colonel Don Blakeslee who was a Second World War fighter pilot who served with the RCAF, the RAF and the USAAF.

His greatest asset was his outstanding ability as a leader in the air. One eminent aviation historian wrote: “He was everywhere in the battle, twisting and climbing, bellowing and blaspheming, warning and exhorting. His ability to keep things taped in a fight with 50 planes flying at 400mph was a source of wonder.” One of his pilots described Blakeslee as “George S Patton Jr in a P-51 Mustang”.