Richard Cresswell, DFC, was an officer and pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force. He held command of No.77 Squadron twice during World War II, and again during the Korean War. He is credited with being the first RAAF pilot to shoot down an enemy aircraft at night over Australian soil. His performance in Korea earned him both the Commonwealth and the US Distinguished Flying Crosses.
About Dick Cresswell in brief
Richard Cresswell, DFC, was an officer and pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force. He held command of No. 77 Squadron twice during World War II, and again during the Korean War. He is credited with being the first RAAF pilot to shoot down an enemy aircraft at night over Australian soil. He was the only man to serve as commanding officer of an RAAF squadron on three occasions during wartime, and the first officer to lead a jet-equipped Australian squadron in combat. His performance in Korea earned him both the Commonwealth and the US Distinguished Flying Crosses. He worked as an apprentice electrician before joining the RAAF in July 1938, and was promoted to flight lieutenant in January 1941. He died in December 2006, aged eighty-six, and is survived by his wife Constance and their two children, David and Kathleen Cresswell and their two sons, David and David Jr. Cress well was also the first Australian to fly F-80 Shooting Star and F-86 Sabre jets in combat while on attachment to the U.S. Air Force in Korea. He flew with Bobby Gibbes’ Sepik Airways in New Guinea before joining de Havilland Australia in 1959. He resigned from de-Haviland in 1974, but maintained his connection with military aviation, including No. 77 Squadron and No. 2 Operational Training Unit in Australia from 1953 until 1956. His last posting was to No 3 Squadron at Richmond, New South Wales, where he began flying Hawker Demon fighters in July 1939.
He later became a salesman, and lived with his mother in Balgowlah and Potts Point between 1931 and 1938, continuing his education at Double Bay and Randwick. His father died when Dick was three-and-a-half, and he later moved to Sydney with his mum. He left school in 1935, and began technical studies at Ultimo as part of an electrical apprenticeship with Westinghouse. In July 1938 he entered No. 1 Flying Training School at Point Cook, Victoria, as an air cadet, and graduated as a pilot officer. In early 1940, he undertook the instructors’ course at Central Flying School in Camden, South Wales. In January 1941 he was posted to the 9th Service Flying School, which was formed at Wagga Wagga in July and operated Avro Ansons and CAC Wirways. In November 1942, he claimed the squadron’s first aerial victory—the first by an Australian over the mainland—in November 1942. In September 1950, he oversaw its conversion from P-51 Mustangs to Gloster Meteors, and flew six more missions as a Meteor pilot in 1953. After a brief posting to Point Cook in early 1940 he became an instructor at No. 2 Service Flying training School in Wagga. In February 1942 he was a liaison officer with the Japanese forces at Darwin.
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