Lewis Hodges’s lifelong love of France began, improbably, by his being shot down over Brittany in 1940. Later in the war he commanded a special duties squadron responsible for the insertion of Special Operations Executive (SOE) agents into occupied France and their subsequent recovery.

His postwar career included commands in the V-bomber force responsible for launching nuclear weapons.

Lewis Macdonald Hodges was born in Richmond, Surrey, the son of Arthur Hodges. He was educated at St Paul’s School and RAF College, Cranwell, from where he was commissioned into the RAF in 1938 and joined Bomber Command.

On September 4, 1940, he was flying a Hampden bomber of No 49 Squadron home from an attack on Stettin when his aircraft was damaged by ground fire. Realising that he could not nurse it home, he ordered his crew to bale out and crash-landed the Hampden in northern Brittany. He and an air-gunner who had not heard the bale-out order set off on foot in a southeastern direction, keeping away from farms and eating what they could scavenge in the fields.

Having walked for a week and been given some civilian clothes by a friendly farmer, they crossed the Loire east of Nantes with the help of a fisherman and continued on to Parthenay. There a chateau owner provided more clothes, shoes to replace their flying boots and money for a bus to Limoges and a train to the Pyrenees, but before they could cross into Spain the Vichy police arrested and imprisoned them.

Hodges eventually escaped and crossed the Pyrenees only to be arrested again and confined in a Spanish prison. After some diplomatic negotiations, he reached Gibraltar and returned to his squadron in June 1941.

In May 1942, while commanding a flight in No 49 Squadron, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for operations that had included an attack on the German battle-cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau during their dash up the Channel in February 1942. That winter he took over command of the Whitley and Halifax flight of No 161 Special Duties Squadron, flying sorties into occupied Europe in support of SOE. He commanded this squadron from May 1943 and wrote an account of its clandestine operations for Royal Air Force at War, published for the RAF Benevolent Fund by Ian Allan in 1983.

While in command of this squadron he trained himself for picking up SOE agents in occupied Europe. His first Hudson landing in France was in July 1943 on a short flare path of torches north of Angers. Hodges landed Hudsons successfully by moonlight on French meadows five more times. He brought to England two future presidents of France: Vincent Auriol and François Mitterrand.

Such pick-ups were but a few of the many operations that he flew, mainly parachuting agents into occupied Europe. In recognition of his exceptional skill and courage as a pilot and his leadership of an elite squadron, he was awarded a Bar to his DFC in 1943 and a DSO in 1944. He was made Commandeur, Légion d’Honneur in 1950, and advanced to Grand Officier in 1988.

In December 1944, after a rest from operational flying of only nine months, he volunteered for another flying tour and was given command of No 357 Special Duties Squadron at RAF Jessore near Calcutta. This was equipped with Liberators for long-range parachute operations, Dakotas for medium-range sorties, including pick-ups, and a flight of Lysanders for pick-ups in Japaneseoccupied Burma.

One of his flight commanders wrote about their new CO: “Things changed quickly on his arrival. He was impatient with the mystique created locally about our task and with the fusty set-up of Jessore, and he quickly swept away the dramatic trappings of spydom. I found his approach exhilarating, his experience reassuring, and his company relaxing and enjoyable.”

In spite of bad weather, high mountains and poor maps, and bad health on the ground, Hodges developed his squadron into an efficient unit, flying many of the more difficult sorties himself. The last he flew from Jessore was the first Dakota pick-up in Japaneseoccupied Thailand. He map-read from the Mekong river to fetch Flight Lieutenant Nicky Varanand, a Siamese prince serving with the RAF, who had been checking possible landing strips. He then went with his Liberators to China Bay in Ceylon, until posted to the Staff College at Haifa in Palestine as an instructor. His achievements with No 357 were recognised by a Bar to his DSO.

On the formation of the Joint Services Staff College at Latimer in 1947, Hodges was one of the first members of the directing staff. This led to the joint planning staff in Whitehall before he returned to flying in 1952. Commanding the RAF team in the London to New Zealand Air Race in 1953, he established a record as far as Ceylon in his Canberra before being overtaken.

He helped to pioneer the V-bomber force, advised on development of the Vickers Valiant and commanded the V-bomber operational conversion unit at RAF Gaydon. While in command of the V-bomber station at RAF Marham, he received the Soviet leaders Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev on their visit to Britain. He was appointed CBE in 1958.

In 1968 he was appointed AOC-in-C Air Support Command and in 1970 Air Member for Personnel. From 1973 to 1976 he was Deputy Commander-in-Chief Allied Forces Central Europe. In this important post his friendly but determined manner made a great contribution to the knitting together of all the Nato nations within the command.

In retirement from the RAF after 1976 he was president of the RAF Escaping Society, 1979-2000. It still recognises with gratitude the heroism of many ordinary French people who helped RAF men on their way to safety.

He was a director of Pilkington Bros (optical division), 1979-83. He was also chairman of the governors of the Duke of Kent School; chairman of the RAF Benevolent Fund’s education committee; president of the Royal Air Force Association; and president of the Special Forces Club and the RAF Club.

In his home village near Sevenoaks, he was active as a churchwarden and as a successful gardener and beekeeper.

He married Elizabeth Blackett in 1950. She survives him with their two sons.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Lewis Hodges, KCB, CBE, DSO and Bar, DFC and Bar, wartime SOE pilot and Deputy C-in-C Allied Forces Central Europe 1973-76, was born on March 1, 1918. He died on January 4, 2007, aged 88