Episode 19: Arthur Tedder: A Coalition Strategist of War and Warfare

Marshal of the Royal Air Force Arthur Tedder was General Eisenhower’s Deputy as Supreme Commander for Operation Overlord during the Second World War. A quiet and thoughtful leader, Tedder understood the difference between war and warfare and carefully orchestrated his campaigns – including the transportation plan concerning D-Day – in an alliance context to great effect.

Tedder’s strategic leadership can be characterised as understated and thoughtful, underpinned by his ability to manage relationships with allies and experts to get the most from each. He also understood the importance of waging war economically in a way that exploited logistics capacity as a critical enabler for his own forces and as a means of weakening his enemies. Despite the Allied victory, after the Second World War he recognised the weaknesses that loomed.

This week’s guest, Air Marshal Edward Stringer, was the air component commander for NATO's operation in Libya in 2011, the Director of Operations in the UK Ministry of Defence and the UK liaison officer to the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. In his last role, he was Director General Joint Force Development. Since retirement, he has become an expert commentator and writer on defence, defence strategy and air power.

Arthur Tedder, Air Power in War: The Lees Knowles Lectures, Hodder and Stoughton, 1947, republished 2018.

Arthur Tedder, With Prejudice: The War Memoirs of Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Tedder, Cassell, 1966.

Vincent Orange, Tedder: Quietly in Command, Frank Cass, 2004.

Charles Webster and Noble Frankland, The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany 1939–1945, Volume 1, 1961, available at https://archive.org/details/strat-air-off-germ-vol-1