Harry Cobby
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Air Commodore Arthur Henry Cobby, was an Australian military aviator. He was the leading fighter ace of the Australian Flying Corps (AFC) during World War I, despite seeing active service for less than a year.
Captain Cobby (centre) with officers of A Flight, No. 4 Squadron AFC, and their Sopwith Camels on the Western Front, June 1918
Cobby in his Sopwith Camel while instructing in England, c.1918–19. He organised the high-visibility check paint pattern himself, "not for conceit, but for safety".
Group Captain Cobby (right) takes over North-Eastern Area from Air Commodore Frank Lukis (centre) in Townsville, Queensland, August 1942
Morotai Mutiny
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The "Morotai Mutiny" was an incident in April 1945 involving members of the Australian First Tactical Air Force based on the island of Morotai, in the Dutch East Indies. Eight senior pilots, including Australia's leading flying ace, Group Captain Clive Caldwell, tendered their resignations to protest what they perceived as the relegation of Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) fighter squadrons to strategically unimportant ground attack missions against Japanese positions that had been bypassed in the Allies' "island-hopping" campaign. A government investigation vindicated the "mutineers", and three high-ranking officers at First Tactical Air Force Headquarters, including the commander, Air Commodore Harry Cobby, the Australian Flying Corps' top-scoring ace in World War I, were relieved of their posts.
Air Commodore Cobby (left) and Group Captain Caldwell at Morotai in January 1945
Group Captain Wilf Arthur (pictured in North Africa in 1941) commissioned a "balance sheet" of No. 1 TAF losses vs. results in December 1944.
Caldwell (fourth from left) talking to No. 452 Squadron Spitfire pilots at Morotai in January 1945
Air Vice Marshal Jones (left) and Lieutenant General Kenney (right), in July 1945