Douglas Wilson (RAAF Officer)
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Group Captain Group captain (Gp Capt or G/C) is a senior officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many Commonwealth of Nations, countries that have historical British influence. Group cap ...
Douglas Ernest Lancelot "Del" Wilson (1 December 1898 – 2 August 1950) was a senior officer of the
Royal Australian Air Force The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is the principal Air force, aerial warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Australian Army. Constitutionally the Governor-Gener ...
(RAAF) during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. During early 1942, as an
acting Acting is an activity in which a story is told by means of its enactment by an actor who adopts a character—in theatre, television, film, radio, or any other medium that makes use of the mimetic mode. Acting involves a broad range of sk ...
Air Commodore Air commodore (Air Cdre or Air Cmde) is an air officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is also used by the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence and it is sometimes ...
, Wilson was part of the short-lived Allied supreme command for
South East Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...
and the
South West Pacific Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...
, the
American-British-Dutch-Australian Command The American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Command, or ABDACOM, was the short-lived supreme command for all Allied forces in South East Asia in early 1942, during the Pacific War in World War II. The command consisted of the forces of Austra ...
(ABDACOM). Afterwards, he was attached to the
Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
(RAF) in
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, and spent more than a year as a
prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...
(POW) in
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.


Early life and career

Wilson was the son of Ellen and Henry E. Wilson.FamilySearch, 2014, ""Australia, Sydney Branch Genealogical Library, Cemetery Inscriptions, 1800–1960"
(18 May 2017).
Wilson was born on 1 December 1898 at
Lithgow, New South Wales Lithgow is a city in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia and is the administrative centre of the City of Lithgow local government area. It is located in a mountain valley named Lithgow's Valley by John Oxley in honour of W ...
. RAAF service record, 1923–46 Wilson grew up at Lithgow. Shortly after graduating from
Sydney Boys High School Sydney Boys High School ('SBHS'), otherwise known as Sydney High School ('SHS') or simply High, is an Australian government-funded single-sex academically selective secondary day school for boys, located at Moore Park, New South Wales, a s ...
in 1916, Wilson passed the examination for entrance to the Australian Army college, Duntroon. He entered the college the following year and remained there until 1920, when he was seconded to the British Army. In the UK, Wilson underwent training with the
Royal Garrison Artillery The Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) was formed in 1899 as a distinct arm of the British Army's Royal Artillery, Royal Regiment of Artillery serving alongside the other two arms of the Regiment, the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) and the Royal Horse ...
. Transferring to the RAAF when it was established in 1923, Wilson was a member of the first group to graduate from No. 1 Flying Training School. Others who graduated at the same time and later became prominent in military or civil aviation, included Joe Hewitt, Frank Bladin, and Lester Brain. As a member of this pioneering class, Wilson carried the distinctive two-digit
service number A service number or roll number is an identification code used to identify a person within a large group. Service numbers are most often associated with the military; however, they also may be used in civilian organizations. National identificati ...
''16'' (sometimes ''A16''), throughout his career. He later attended
RAF Staff College The RAF Staff College may refer to: *RAF Staff College, Andover (active: 1922 to 1940 and 1948 to 1970) *RAF Staff College, Bulstrode Park (active: 1941 to 1948) *RAF Staff College, Bracknell The RAF Staff College at Bracknell was a Royal Air ...
, in England. By early 1939, Wilson had been appointed commanding officer (CO) of No. 6 Squadron RAAF which was using
Avro Anson The Avro Anson is a British twin-engine, multi-role aircraft built by the aircraft manufacturer Avro. Large numbers of the type served in a variety of roles for the Royal Air Force (RAF), Fleet Air Arm (FAA), Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), R ...
s for maritime patrols and joint exercises with the
Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the navy, naval branch of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (Australia), Chief of Navy (CN) Vice admiral (Australia), Vice Admiral Mark Hammond (admiral), Ma ...
.


World War II


The Pacific

Wilson commanded RAAF stations and held staff positions in Australia for the first few years of the war. After the crash at Canberra in 1940 of an RAAF Lockheed Hudson, which killed 10 people, including three members of
Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filin ...
and the army's Chief of General Staff (General Sir
Brudenell White General Sir Cyril Brudenell Bingham White, (23 September 1876 – 13 August 1940), more commonly known as Sir Brudenell White or C. B. B. White, was a senior officer in the Australian Army who served as Chief of the General Staff from 19 ...
), Wilson was appointed technical assistant to Arthur Dean, counsel assisting the Air Court of Inquiry that followed. In late 1941, Wilson – with the rank of acting
Air Commodore Air commodore (Air Cdre or Air Cmde) is an air officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is also used by the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence and it is sometimes ...
– was appointed commander of North-West Area (NWA), a newly formed RAAF command, headquartered at RAAF Darwin. On 20 January 1942, the Australian government temporarily ceded operational control of military forces in northern Australia to
ABDACOM The American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Command, or ABDACOM, was the short-lived supreme command for all Allied forces in South East Asia in early 1942, during the Pacific War in World War II. The command consisted of the forces of Austra ...
:Douglas Gillison, 1962, ''Second World War Official Histories Volume I – Royal Australian Air Force, 1939–1942''. Canberra: Australian War Memorial, pp. 301–3. an ambitious, but short-lived and shambolic supreme command, encompassing Allied forces throughout South East Asia and the South West Pacific. As a result, Wilson nominally headed an ABDACOM subcommand, AUSGROUP (sometimes "Darwin Command"): in addition to NWA, AUSGROUP nominally controlled Allied military aviation in
Dutch New Guinea Dutch New Guinea or Netherlands New Guinea (, ) was the western half of the island of New Guinea that was a part of the Dutch East Indies until 1949, later an overseas territory of the Kingdom of the Netherlands from 1949 to 1962. It contained ...
, the
Molucca Sea The Molucca Sea (Indonesian language, Indonesian: ''Laut Maluku'') is located in the western Pacific Ocean, around the vicinity of Indonesia, specifically bordered by the Indonesian Islands of Sulawesi, Celebes (Sulawesi) to the west, Halmahera t ...
and the northern part of RAAF
Western Area The Western Area or Freetown Peninsula (formerly the Colony of Sierra Leone) is one of five principal divisions of Sierra Leone. It comprises the oldest city and national capital Freetown and its surrounding towns and countryside. It covers an ...
. Wilson's immediate superior was the commander of Allied air forces (ABDAIR), Air Marshal Sir
Richard Peirse Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Edmund Charles Peirse, (30 September 1892 – 5 August 1970), served as a senior Royal Air Force commander. RAF career The son of Admiral Sir Richard Peirse and his wife Blanche Melville Wemyss-Whittaker, Richard ...
(RAF), who reported directly to General Sir
Archibald Wavell Field Marshal Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell, (5 May 1883 – 24 May 1950) was a senior officer of the British Army. He served in the Second Boer War, the Bazar Valley Campaign and the First World War, during which he was wounded ...
(British Army), supreme commander of ABDACOM whose headquarters were at
Bandung Bandung is the capital city of the West Java province of Indonesia. Located on the island of Java, the city is the List of Indonesian cities by population, fourth-most populous city and fourth largest city in Indonesia after Jakarta, Surabay ...
(Bandoeng), in
Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...
. Observing that any concentration of military aviation facilities, aircraft and personnel, at a relatively small airfield, made it vulnerable and attractive to enemy attack, Wilson began to consider dispersal and decentralisation. Following reports, on 27 January, that the formidable Japanese combined carrier fleet had entered the
Flores Sea The Flores Sea covers of water in Indonesia. The sea is bounded on the north by the island of Celebes and on the south by Sunda Islands, the Sunda Islands of Flores and Sumbawa. Geography The seas that border the Flores Sea are the Bali Sea ...
, Wilson ordered the dispersal of assets at RAAF Darwin. Repair and maintenance equipment and staff were moved to Daly Waters, almost further south.Timothy Hall, 2015, ''Darwin 1942, Australia Darkest Hour'', Abingdon, UK/New York, Routledge, p. 108. However, when Wilson also ordered the transfer of obsolete aircraft (five
CAC Wirraway The CAC Wirraway is a Trainer aircraft, training and general purpose military aircraft manufactured in Australia by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC) between 1939 and 1946. It was an Australian development of the North American NA-16 ...
armed trainers belonging to No. 12 Squadron RAAF) to Daly Waters, he was overruled by the Deputy Chief of Air Staff,
Air Vice Marshal Air vice-marshal (Air Vce Mshl or AVM) is an air officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is also used by the air forces of many Commonwealth of Nations, countries which have historical British infl ...
William Bostock Air Vice Marshal William Dowling Bostock, (5 February 1892 – 28 April 1968) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). During Military history of Australia during World War II, World War II he led RAAF Command, th ...
. (Three of the Wirraways were damaged and written-off following the first air raid on Darwin – see below.) At around the same time, Wilson ordered the arrest of a civilian suspected of signalling enemy vessels using an improvised
signal lamp Signal lamp training during World War II A signal lamp (sometimes called an Aldis lamp or a Morse lamp) is a visual signaling device for optical communication by flashes of a lamp, typically using Morse code. The idea of flashing dots and dashes ...
, from a location near RAAF Darwin. During early February, NWA was inspected by Air Commodore
George Jones George Glenn Jones (September 12, 1931 – April 26, 2013) was an American Country music, country musician, singer, and songwriter. He achieved international fame for a long list of hit records, and is well known for his distinctive voice an ...
(soon to be appointed Chief of the Air Staff), who reported deficiencies in morale and aircraft serviceability amongst its combat units: 2, 12 and 13 squadrons. On 19 February, while Wilson was attending to ABDACOM duties in Java, Darwin suffered a massive air raid. The Allies suffered significant losses: at least 236 civilians and military personnel were killed, 11 vessels were sunk in Darwin Harbour and 31 aircraft were destroyed. The only fighter aircraft present, a squadron of P-40E Warhawks of the
United States Army Air Force The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
, were overwhelmed and/or destroyed on the ground. By the end of March Allied resistance in the Dutch East Indies had collapsed by the end of March, and ABDA was dissolved, along with its sub-commands. Criticised regarding their preparations for and responses to the first air raids, Wilson, his deputy, Group Captain
Frederick Scherger Air Chief Marshal (Australia), Air Chief Marshal Sir Frederick Rudolph William Scherger, (18 May 190416 January 1984) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He served as Chief of Air Force (Australia), Chi ...
, and the station commander of RAAF Darwin, Wing Commander Sturt Griffith, were posted out of NWA.


Europe

Wilson was attached on exchange to the RAF in January 1943 and posted as a
Group Captain Group captain (Gp Capt or G/C) is a senior officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many Commonwealth of Nations, countries that have historical British influence. Group cap ...
to the UK, where he served as Officer Commanding at three
RAF Bomber Command RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the Strategic bombing during World War II#Europe, strategic bombing of Germany in W ...
stations in rapid succession:
RAF Wyton Royal Air Force Wyton or more simply RAF Wyton is a Royal Air Force List of Royal Air Force stations, station near St Ives, Cambridgeshire, St Ives, Cambridgeshire, England. The airfield is decommissioned and the station is now under the comm ...
,
RAF Linton-on-Ouse Royal Air Force Linton-on-Ouse or more simply RAF Linton-on-Ouse is a former Royal Air Force station at Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire, England, north-west of York. It had satellite stations at RAF Topcliffe and Dishforth Airfield (Brit ...
, and
RAF Holme-on-Spalding Moor RAF Holme-on-Spalding Moor, or more simply RAF Holme is a former Royal Air Force List of former Royal Air Force stations, station located in Holme-on-Spalding-Moor, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The site was built during the World War II, ...
. During this period, Bomber Command was involved in a pivotal strategic bombing campaign against the Ruhr, where German war industries were concentrated. These targets were heavily defended and Allied losses were considerable. The casualty rate, combined apparently with the blunt tone of Wilson's instructions to aircrews under his command, attracted the antipathy of some of them. For example, one pilot, Flight Lieutenant Ron Read (RAF), commented that :Wilson was a dry humourless Australian, who had ... had no irectexperience ... in operations. What made him very unpopular was his attitude in his first couple of briefings, telling us, most ... veterans of many ops, how we should press on ... to attack the heavy Ruhr targets, which we were doing two or three times a week in some cases. According to Read, senior aircrew suggested to Wilson that perhaps he should fly on an operation himself, believing that afterwards he might not be "so critical" or, "we slyly thought ... might go for the chop himself" (i.e. be shot down). Wilson flew operationally, for the first and only time, on the night of 22/23 June 1943. He was officially, second pilot of a
Handley Page Halifax The Handley Page Halifax is a British Royal Air Force (RAF) four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It was developed by Handley Page to the same specification as the contemporary twin-engine Avro Manchester. The Halifax has its or ...
Mk V, ''DK224'' (squadron code "MP-Q"), from 76 Sqn RAF, captained by Pilot Officer James Carrie (RAF). ''DK224'' was the last bomber to reach and bomb a target at
Mülheim Mülheim, officially Mülheim an der Ruhr (, ; ; ) and also described as ''"City on the River"'', is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany. It is located in the Ruhr Area between Duisburg, Essen, Oberhausen and Ratingen. It is ho ...
, Germany that night. On the return leg, at about 0158 hours, the bomber came under attack over the Netherlands, by ''
Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...
'' night-fighter
ace An ace is a playing card, die or domino with a single pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or a club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the ...
, ''Oberleutnant'' Werner Baake of '' 1./NJG1''. After the Halifax was severely damaged by Baake and the controls became unresponsive, Carrie ordered the crew to bale out. The flight engineer, Sgt Richard Huke (RAF), was killed by a parachute malfunction; the other members landed safely, close to Zuylen Castle. While several crew members were captured soon afterwards, Wilson, Carrie and wireless operator Sgt Elliott McVitie (RAF) made contact with a
Dutch resistance The Dutch resistance () to the History of the Netherlands (1939–1945), German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II can be mainly characterized as non-violent. The primary organizers were the Communist Party of the Netherlands, C ...
"escape line" known as ''Luctor et Emergo'' (later ''Fiat Libertas''), which had been organised to smuggle Allied aircrews out of
occupied Europe German-occupied Europe, or Nazi-occupied Europe, refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly militarily occupied and civil-occupied, including puppet states, by the (armed forces) and the government of Nazi Germany at ...
. They travelled undercover into Belgium, where they were handed over to the better-known "
Comet line The Comet Line (; 1941–1944) was a Resistance organization in occupied Belgium and France in the Second World War. The Comet Line helped Allied soldiers and airmen shot down over occupied Belgium evade capture by Germans and return to Great ...
". However, during the first week of August, Wilson, Carrie and McVitie were apprehended in Paris, by either the ''
Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
'' or '' GFP'', and became prisoners of war (POW). At ''
Stalag Luft III Stalag Luft III (; literally "Main Camp, Air, III"; SL III) was a ''Luftwaffe''-run prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during the Second World War, which held captured Western Allied air force personnel. The camp was established in March 1942 near th ...
'' (SLIII), near Sagan, Silesia (now Żagań, Poland), Wilson reportedly assisted in a successful escape, which one of the escapees, Flight Lieutenant
Eric Williams Eric Eustace Williams (25 September 1911 – 29 March 1981) was a Trinidad and Tobago politician. He has been dubbed as the " Father of the Nation", having led the then-British Colony of Trinidad and Tobago to majority rule on 28 October 1956, ...
(RAF), later recounted in a book that became a popular film adaptation:''
The Wooden Horse ''The Wooden Horse'' is a 1950 British World War II war film directed by Jack Lee and starring Leo Genn, David Tomlinson and Anthony Steel. It is based on the book of the same name by Eric Williams, who also wrote the screenplay. The film ...
'' (1950). The even more famous " Great Escape" of March 1944, which took place in another compound at SLIII, did not involve Wilson. However, he succeeded Gp Capt.
Herbert Massey Air Commodore Herbert Martin Massey, (19 January 189829 February 1976) was a senior officer in the Royal Air Force. He was the Senior British Officer at Stalag Luft III who authorised the "Great Escape". Flying career Massey entered the Royal ...
as the Senior British Officer (SBO) at SLIII soon afterwards. On 17 April 1944, Wilson surreptitiously passed to an official visitor from the
Swiss Red Cross The Swiss Red Cross ( German: ', French: ', Italian: ', Romansh: '), or SRC (''SRK'' in German, ''CRS'' in French and Italian), is the national Red Cross society for Switzerland. The SRC was founded in 1866 in Bern, Switzerland. In accord ...
a list, compiled by other POWs, giving the names of 47 Allied personnel whom POWs believed had been murdered following the Great Escape by the ''Gestapo''. It was later established that 50 Allied POWs were shot on the personal orders of Adolf Hitler. (Wilson would later gave statements to war crimes prosecutors regarding these and other events.) After the camp was liberated, two former POWs who had been convicted of collaborating with German authorities made similar accusations against Wilson. He was not charged after the British Judge Advocate General found that no offence had been committed.


Post-war

In October 1945, after returning to Australia, Wilson was appointed commander of
Western Area The Western Area or Freetown Peninsula (formerly the Colony of Sierra Leone) is one of five principal divisions of Sierra Leone. It comprises the oldest city and national capital Freetown and its surrounding towns and countryside. It covers an ...
RAAF in
Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...
. He tendered his resignation from the RAAF on 1 February 1946 and was placed on the Retired List on 20 March. In 1949, Wilson was awarded the Czechoslovakian ''Válečný kříž 1939–1945'' ("War Cross 1939–1945"; sometimes referred to as the "Czechoslovakian Military Cross"),''Supplement to the London Gazette of Friday, 7th October, 1949''
(19 May 2017).
for interceding on behalf of Free Czechoslovakian POWs at ''Stalag Luft III''. He retired to a property at Glen Alvie, near Ebor in northern New South Wales. Wilson died, following an illness, at Concord Hospital, Sydney on 2 August 1950. Wilson was buried near his parents, in the
Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
section of Lithgow cemetery.


Footnotes


References


''Wilson Douglas Ernest Lancelot''
(RAAF service record, 1923–46), series no. A9300, control symbol WILSON D E L, barcode 5256735
''Armidale Express & New England General Advertiser'', "Death of Air Commodore D. E. L. WILSON", 1 September 1950, p. 8.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Douglas 1898 births 1950 deaths Royal Military College, Duntroon graduates Australian World War II pilots Royal Australian Air Force officers Royal Australian Air Force personnel of World War II People from Lithgow, New South Wales Military personnel from New South Wales Recipients of the Czechoslovak War Cross World War II prisoners of war held by Germany Australian Army officers Royal Garrison Artillery officers Australian prisoners of war 20th-century British Army personnel People educated at Sydney Boys High School