Obituary

Dick’s first posting was to No 3 Squadron – a fighter squadron. Dick had outstanding skill as a pilot and so just two years after joining the Force, he was instructing others at the Service Flying Training School in Wagga. Two years later, in March 1942, the nation was in trouble. Dick was promoted to Squadron Leader and sent to Perth to raise and command No 77 Squadron. Dick Cresswell was just 21 years old.

Dick related the story of his raising of No 77 Squadron. The challenge of assembling and learning to fly brand new Kittyhawk aircraft; his taking over the golf course at Guildford because the base at Pearce was too crowded to support his squadron; the unsupported deployment to Darwin that required Dick to organise everything the squadron required to be trucked from Adelaide; and the final transit of his aircraft across the most remote regions of Australia.

When Dick arrived in Darwin just three months after starting the process in Perth, the Chief of Air Staff had the temerity to ask what took him so long. In his customary manner Dick merely replied with a message telling Air Vice Marshal Jones to “take a look at a map”. He never did get a reply to that message.

This exceptionally gifted pilot became the first Australian to shoot down a Japanese aircraft over mainland Australia at night. On November 23 1942, while on patrol, Dick spotted three Japanese ‘Betty’ bombers flying in a close formation. Skilfully approaching the bombers undetected, he attacked, hitting all three aircraft. Coming under fire from two of the aircraft, he chased the third in a dive and fired again, sealing its fate.

This early morning intercept was Dick’s first ‘kill’, as well as being the first for the squadron.

Dick finished his Second World War service as a Wing Commander and he elected to continue to serve his nation in the post war Air Force.

In early September 1950 in Korea, 77 Squadron’s commanding officer, WGCDR Lou Spence, was killed on operations. A sequence of combat losses and the loss of the commanding officer had left a situation in Korea that called for strong and determined leadership. Just eight days after Lou Spence’s death, Dick Cresswell was in Korea and in command of 77 Squadron for the third time.

True to form, Dick flew in combat just six days later.

During his 12 month command in Korea, Dick guided 77 Squadron through its transition to the jet age.

The selection of the Meteor aircraft, the combat roles flown by 77 Squadron, and the conduct of Australia’s air contribution to the Korean campaign remained contentious issues for Dick and his contemporaries.

One issue that particularly bothered Dick that was associated with the hasty introduction of jet aircraft was the lack of experience and the poor preparation of junior fighter pilots deployed to Korea for combat operations.

Dick introduced additional training in-theatre and lobbied successfully for the attachment of RAF pilots with Meteor experience to the squadron.

Dick Cresswell flew 144 missions in Korea: 110 in P-51 Mustangs, 14 in Meteors, and 10 in F-86 Sabres with the USAF. Dick was awarded both an Australian Distinguished Flying Cross and a United States of America Distinguished Flying Cross in recognition of his achievements.

After his Korean War experience, Dick’s most influential posting was to command No 2 OTU at RAAF Williamtown between 1953 and 1956. Dick must have found this command to be personally rewarding as he told me in later life that this was the Air Force posting that he had enjoyed the most. It was in this posting that Dick’s impact on the modern Air Force can be felt. Dick was of the opinion that the system for training fighter pilots had collapsed with the massive demobilisation of the Air Force at the close of World War Two – in Dick’s words, the Korean War “caught the Air Force with its pants down”.

Dick Cresswell was an instrumental player in the recovery of air-to-air training and of capturing the doctrine for squadron employment. As part of this effort, No 2 OTU introduced a formal course of training for Fighter Combat Instructors. The Fighter Combat Instructor course remains a vital part of our force preparation to this day and I believe that, more than any other factor, this course – a Dick Cresswell legacy – is the reason why Australian fighter pilots were capable of performing with such distinction in our recent combat operations over Iraq. o