Arthur Coningham (RAF officer)
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Air Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham,, nicknamed "Maori", was a senior officer in the Royal Air Force. During the First World War, he was at Gallipoli with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, was discharged in New Zealand as medically unfit for active service, and journeyed to Britain at his own expense to join the Royal Flying Corps, where he became a flying ace. Coningham was later a senior Royal Air Force commander during the Second World War, as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief 2nd Tactical Air Force and subsequently the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Flying Training Command.
Coningham in 1944
Coningham (centre) with Montgomery (left) and Dempsey (right) prior to the British crossing of the Rhine
In a ceremony at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, President Harry S. Truman (third from left) presents the Army Distinguished Service Medal to (opposite the President, L to R:) General H. D. G. Crerar, Canadian Army, Air Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham, Air Marshal Sir James Robb, and Major General Sir F. W. Guingand. President Truman is in Frankfort to inspect U. S. troops during a break in the Potsdam Conference.
RAF Second Tactical Air Force
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The RAF Second Tactical Air Force (2TAF) was one of three tactical air forces within the Royal Air Force (RAF) during and after the Second World War. It was made up of squadrons and personnel from the RAF, other British Commonwealth air forces, and exiles from German-occupied Europe. Renamed as British Air Forces of Occupation in 1945, 2TAF was recreated in 1951 and became Royal Air Force Germany in 1959.
Badge of the Second Tactical Air Force
Geoffrey Page, commander of 125 Wing of the Second TAF, about to take off on a sortie from Longues-sur-Mer, Normandy, in a Spitfire IX, (June 1944).
Official badge of Second Tactical Air Force