Raymond Collishaw - Second World War

Second World War

At the commencement of WWII in 1939, Collishaw was promoted to Air Commodore and took over as Air Officer Commanding, No. 204 Group ("Egypt Group") in North Africa. He concentrated on strategy and tactics to neutralize the Italian air force and to gain aerial superiority in North Africa. This was a tough challenge considering that his men were flying outdated Gloster Gladiator biplane fighters and Vickers Wellesley bombers. Soon after the war started Collishaw's men were off the mark quickly, striking at an Italian airbase destroying 18 aircraft within two days of the commencement of hostilities with only three aircraft losses. He then turned their efforts to bombing harbours, ships and troops to hold up the reinforcement of North Africa. They sunk the Italian cruiser 'San Giorgio' and blew up an ammo dump.

"His pilots were badly outnumbered and outgunned. But he countered these deficiencies with expert advice on aerial tactics, aggressive attacks and trickery. He had only a single modern Hawker Hurricane fighter to use at the front (three others were relegated to training) dubbed "Colly's Battleship". He made the best of it by constantly moving it from base to base and letting the Italians see it. He came up with the idea of making many, single plane attacks on Italian formations to fool the Italians into thinking he had many Hurricanes. The result was that the Italians spread their superior fighters thinly across North Africa, and seriously diluted their strength. ... Collishaw implemented a continual harassment procedure that forced the Italian's into having standing patrols over their forts. This was incredibly wasteful of men, fuel and machines. They should have been on the offensive, and yet were not."

In July, 1942 Collishaw was recalled from the desert and was replaced with Air Vice-Marshal Coningham. He was given the a posting in Fighter Command in Scapa Flow, Scotland, and remained there until 1943, when he was retired.

During the Second World War, Collishaw attained the rank of Air Vice Marshal; he was awarded a Companion of the Order of the Bath during his service. He retired, involuntarily, from the RAF in July 1943 and spent the rest of the war as a Civil Defence Regional Air Liaison Officer.