Henry Wrigley - World War II

World War II

As part of the RAAF's reorganisation following the outbreak of World War II, No. 1 Group was formed under Wrigley's command in Melbourne on 20 November 1939, to oversee the operations of air bases and units in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. Promoted air commodore, in 1940 Wrigley served as Air Officer Commanding (AOC) Southern Area, the successor organisation to No. 1 Group, before taking up the position of Air Member for Personnel (AMP) in November that year. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1941 New Year Honours. As AMP, Wrigley's responsibilities included organising the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF), established on 25 March 1941 as the first uniformed women's branch of an armed service in the country. He believed that recruiting servicewomen was essential to augment the large number of ground staff required to support the war effort, and considered that while such an organisation should be constitutionally separate from the RAAF, its members should be closely integrated within the current force structure. The Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) was at this time an RAF officer, Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Burnett, who hoped to see his daughter Sybil-Jean, a veteran of Britain's Women's Auxiliary Air Force, take charge of the WAAAF. Wrigley successfully argued against this, telling Burnett that there had already been "enough public outcry" over a non-Australian being named CAS, and there would be "a further public outcry" if anyone other than an Australian was appointed WAAAF Director. On 21 May, he selected Berlei executive Clare Stevenson as WAAAF Director, passing over temporary appointee Mary Bell, wife of a serving RAAF group captain. Wrigley chose Stevenson on the basis of her management background and because she was not a "socialite". Bell, who was offered the position of Deputy Director, chose to resign from the WAAAF on learning of Stevenson's appointment, but Wrigley later convinced her to rejoin. Meanwhile, Wrigley played a leading part in the development of the Air Training Corps, formed in April 1941 to facilitate basic training for youths aged sixteen to eighteen who hoped to become RAAF aircrew.

Wrigley's promotion to acting air vice marshal was announced in May 1941, making him only the third member of the RAAF—after Richard Williams and Stanley Goble—to attain this rank. In September 1942, he was posted to London to take over from Frank McNamara as AOC RAAF Overseas Headquarters. For a time, however, he was involved in a tug-of-war with Air Marshal Williams over just who was in charge. Williams, who commanded Overseas Headquarters at its inception in December 1941, with McNamara as his deputy, had subsequently been appointed as the RAAF's representative to Washington, DC, leaving McNamara in charge of the London office until Wrigley arrived. The Minister for Air, Arthur Drakeford, was in favour of Williams commanding the RAAF offices in both the US and UK while Wrigley acted for him in London, despite Wrigley having been appointed AOC. Wrigley's diary recorded that when Williams returned to London in October 1942 to attend a conference, he began "throwing his weight around" and "intriguing to have himself made AOC, and possibly AOC in C of all RAAF units and personnel outside Australia and the SW Pacific". Although Williams departed England in January 1943, the matter was only fully laid to rest in mid-1943, when the CAS, Air Vice Marshal George Jones, advised Williams that it was impractical for him to command offices in both Washington and London.

As AOC RAAF Overseas Headquarters, Wrigley was responsible for looking after the interests of RAAF aircrew stationed in the European and the Middle Eastern theatres, liaising between the British Air Ministry and the Australian government regarding technical developments and information on the war in the Pacific, and negotiating revisions to the terms of the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS). The role had little influence on the deployment of Australian personnel for the air offensive in Europe, who were subject to RAF policy and strategy even when they belonged to RAAF squadrons. According to the official history of Australia in the war, Wrigley and his predecessors could hardly do more than "retard the centrifugal forces affecting Australian disposition, and repair the worst administrative difficulties arising from wide dispersion". Nevertheless, Wrigley became a familiar and popular figure for the thousands of Australian airmen who passed through London during the war, and was known to take off his jacket and tend bar at Codgers, the headquarters' watering hole. An EATS graduate later remarked that "under Air Vice-Marshal Wrigley we got tremendous service ... I was in North Africa, Italy, Sardinia, Corsica and then back in the United Kingdom. We got our mail, we got our comforts ... Not only that, when some cow went and pinched 100 quid from me when I was on leave in London, the next day, with a shaking hand, I was able to sign for another 100 quid and have a good time."

In March 1943, following negotiations that had begun the previous year, Wrigley signed a revision of EATS that finally recognised Australia's "national aspirations" regarding concentration of her airmen in RAAF squadrons as opposed to them being scattered throughout RAF units, reasonable prospects of promotion and rotation for staff, and pay and other conditions of service confirmed as being per RAAF stipulations. The official history contended, however, "for the most part Australia was still left chasing a dream rather than a reality", as many clauses in the agreement were "subject to operational exigencies" and to be adhered to only "as far as possible". Wrigley toured the Mediterranean in September, visiting No. 459 Squadron in the Middle East, and travelling to Sicily to interview ground staff of No. 450 Squadron over their grievances concerning lack of promotion and leave; his presence was considered to have defused this situation. The end of hostilities in Europe on 7 May 1945 raised a major logistical challenge for Wrigley as the senior officer responsible for some 13,500 RAAF personnel spread across Britain, the Mediterranean, and the continent, only a minority of whom were in nominally Australian squadrons, the bulk serving with RAF establishments. "The task was energetically met", however, according to the official history; fewer than 1,000 RAAF personnel remained in RAF units by 1 September, although repatriation continued through into the new year.