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Heroic pilot who led the way for the Monuments Men

Airman who helped save treasures dies at 100

By Campbell Thomas

HE played a leading role in one of the most daring operations of the Second World War.

Aged just 23, RAF pilot Bill Leckie risked his life to rescue a priceless collection of artworks from the clutches of the Nazis – a mission so bold it was later commemorated in a Hollywood film.

Now tributes have been paid to the Scots airman who has died at the age of 100.

Mr Leckie was an experienced bomber pilot, despite his young age, when he was entrusted in April 1945 with a pivotal role in top-secret Operation Ebensburg. His mission was to deliver a group of agents to a salt mine deep in the Austrian Alps where the Nazis had stockpiled an astonishing 6,755 looted paintings and sculptures.

The artworks – stolen from museums and private collections across Europe – included priceless pieces by Michelangelo, Vermeer, Titian and Rembrandt. With the Allies closing in on Hitler, he had decreed that if Germany lost the war the collection should be blown up as a defiant act of cultural sabotage.

Mr Leckie’s four passengers were all former enemies turned Special Operations Executive agents. The team was to secure the art for the arrival of experts immortalised in The Monuments Men film, starring George Clooney and Matt Damon.

Flying a modified Halifax bomber deep into enemy territory, Pilot Officer Leckie dropped the agents near the Altaussee salt mine. They linked with local resistance fighters to secure the mine and its valuable contents.

Mr Leckie, of Troon, Ayrshire, said later: ‘I now wonder what my feelings would have been if I’d known then one of my passengers was a former Luftwaffe paymaster who had defected to the French Resistance.’ After the drop, the team discovered booby traps ready to go off – 500lb aircraft bombs – but with Allied forces approaching, the Germans fled.

Born in Glasgow in 1921, Mr Leckie joined the RAF in 1941. During the Warsaw uprising against the Nazis, he was involved in dropping guns and food to the Polish, for which he was awarded the Polish Cross of Valour. After the war he retrained as a civilian pilot, working for Aer Lingus for 25 years until he retired in 1979. He died at home last month, surrounded by his family.

Mr Leckie’s life will be celebrated with a service at Holmsford Bridge crematorium in Dreghorn, Ayrshire, tomorrow at 11.30am.

Retired RAF Vulcan bomber pilot group captain Alastair Montgomery paid tribute to Mr Leckie, saying: ‘Bill Leckie did not think he was a remarkable man: I know he was and I am proud to have known him.’

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2021-11-28T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-11-28T08:00:00.0000000Z

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