A Charismatic Air Power Pioneer

The Canadian-born flying ace Raymond ‘Collie’ Collishaw (1893-1976) served in the British Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS), and subsequently, the Royal Air Force (RAF) for 28 years. During the First World War, Collishaw racked up a total of 61 confirmed air-to-air victories, which brought him into a second-place tie with the great Irish ace, Edward ‘Mick’ Mannock, VC, on the overall British Empire scoring list, behind only Canada’s William Avery ‘Billy’ Bishop, VC, although two of these victories were earned during the Russian Intervention by Allied forces against the Bolsheviks in 1919. During his wartime service, he was awarded many honours, including two Distinguished Service Orders, appointment as an Officer in the Order of the British Empire, a Distinguished Service Cross, a Distinguished Flying Cross, and two Mentions in Dispatches, as well as French and Imperial Russian decorations. A superb fighter pilot and tactical commander during the war years, he was a charismatic leader and an inspiration to others. For example, Collishaw made a point of flying with new pilots, letting them “spray bullets at relatively-innocuous enemy two-seaters,” and then, with little effort on his behalf, slipping into firing position and downing the enemy aircraft. He would then selflessly slap the newcomer on the back and congratulate him on his first victory.

All this being said, this excellent book by Canadian historian and educator, Dr. Mike Bechthold, is not primarily about Collishaw’s highly-distinguished First World War career, but rather, it is about his exceptional leadership, greatly unacknowledged, or at the very least minimalized until now, during the opening innings of the Second World War in North Africa’s Western Desert, 1940-1941.

After the First World War, ‘Collie’ elected to remain in the RAF, serving with distinction in many British Imperial adventures between the world wars as he steadily climbed the RAF ladder of rank and responsibility. During 1919, he fought bravely in south Russia, assisting the White Russians (monarchists) in countering the Bolshevik revolution, bombing Bolshevik targets, and gunning down two Albatross scouts of the Red Air Force. Further adventures awaited him in Mesopotamia, and by 1939, Raymond was an air commodore (brigadier-general equivalent) serving as the Air Officer Commanding Egypt Group (No. 202 Group), in charge of RAF flying units in North Africa. In his ensuing narrative, author Bechthold skillfully weaves a fascinating tale of innovation and dogged determination against the far numerically-superior Italian enemy forces. In his words,

“[Collishaw] was the first RAF commander to successfully conduct a campaign using air power to gain air superiority, interdict the enemy’s lines of communication, and support the Army on the battlefield. These same ideas would later be endorsed by Churchill and enshrined as the pillars of Allied air support doctrine. Collishaw should be recognized for his role in their development and operational proofing. He was proud of his achievements in the desert, but the memory of his accomplishments has been tarnished by the view that it was a victory over a lesser enemy [Italian forces], and by the ruminations of a commander [Air Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder], who considered him the wrong person to fight the Germans. These views should not be allowed to detract from an appreciation of Collishaw’s successful and important career in the Western Desert.”

From the outset of hostilities, Collishaw made the best of his limited resources by virtue of innovative tactics and the frequent movement of his aviation resources to neutralize the Italian Air Force (Regia Aeronautica) and to gain air superiority in North Africa. Further, through attacks upon enemy harbours, troop concentrations and ships, designed to hold up Axis reinforcement of North Africa, and through innovative harassment attacks and close cooperation with the ground forces, the British were eventually able to capture Benghazi. After Collishaw’s air campaign established a complete moral ascendancy over the Italian Air Force, allowing Allied ground forces to lay waste to ten Italian divisions, effect the capture of 130,000 enemy soldiers, and the destruction or capture of more than 1200 enemy aircraft. However, once German reinforcements arrived in theatre in force under a young ‘up and coming’ general named Rommel, who led a protracted series of successful advances, Collishaw tried valiantly and innovatively to stymie and delay German advances with his very limited resources. He led his command with great skill, enthusiasm and courage, but his under-resourced units suffered disappointments, as well as criticisms.

“Although Tedder, as Commander-in-Chief, Desert Air Force, was a great admirer of Collishaw, he felt [with perhaps some anti-colonial bias] that the Canadian was ‘a bull in a china shop,’ too eager to attempt every task required in daily operations himself (a practice which left his staff officers ‘frustrated and miserable’), and too often foolishly optimistic about what could be done with available resources in men and aircraft.”

After some rather heated disagreements with ground force commanders with respect to the most effective utilization of air support to the operational army’s way of thinking, and although the army commanders eventually came around to Collishaw’s way of thinking, he was recalled to Great Britain in July 1942, promoted to air vice-marshal (major-general equivalent), and given command of 14 Group, Fighter Command, responsible for the defense of Scotland and Scapa Flow. In spite of being made a Companion of the Order of the Bath for his distinguished services, within a year, he was unceremoniously retired from the RAF and disappeared into relative obscurity for the duration of the war, after which he returned to Canada.

In Collishaw’s own words: “I felt that my days of command in North Africa, when we had to depend upon superior strategy, deception, and fighting spirit, against a numerically-superior enemy, represented by far my best effort. Yet if I am known at all to my fellow Canadians, it is through more carefree days, when, as a fighter pilot, with the limited responsibilities of a flight commander of a squadron in France, I had the good fortune to shoot down a number of the enemy without in turn being killed.” Given his own laconic assessment of his Great War aerial combat contributions, no one will ever accuse Collishaw of being a master of the overstatement ….

In summation, Mike Bechthold has written an outstanding tribute, thoroughly and meticulously sourced, to a truly formidable Canadian warrior hero. Highly recommended reading.

Note: Lt. Col Bashow’s review was originally published by the Canadian Military Journal, Vol. 20, No. 3 (http://www.journal.forces.gc.ca/Vol20/No3/page67-eng.asp), and is used with permission.

Our Reviewer: Lieutenant-Colonel (ret’d) David L. Bashow, OMM, CD, is a very old fighter pilot, although now only in his dreams. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Royal Military College of Canada, and the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Military Journal.

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Note: Flying to Victory, a volume in the Oklahoma series “Campaigns and Commanders, is also available in several e-editions.

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