William Dickson (RAF Officer) - World War II

World War II

At the start of World War II, Dickson was on the staff of the Directorate of Plans. He was appointed to the Joint Planning Staff, which was a subcommittee of the Chiefs of Staff Committee and involved supporting the planning carried out by Winston Churchill and the senior British military commanders. Dickson continued in this work for the first two years of the War, receiving a temporary promotion to group captain on 2 January 1940, (made permanent in April 1942) being appointed Director of Plans in March 1941 and gaining an acting promotion to air commodore in April 1941.

In May 1942 Dickson took up post as the Senior Air Staff Officer at the Headquarters of No. 9 (Fighter) Group. However, Dickson did not remain as a staff officer for long. The following month he was appointed Air Officer Commanding No. 9 (Fighter) Group and in November 1942 he took up command of No. 10 Group. While serving as AOC No. 10 Group, Dickson accompanied C-in-C Fighter Command Air Marshal Leigh-Mallory on a visit to the Air Headquarters in the Western Desert. He was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1942 Birthday Honours and promoted to the rank of acting air vice marshal on 26 June 1942. In March 1943, Dickson was given the task of setting up No. 83 Group, which as the first composite group would provide the model for the future groups of the soon to be established Second Tactical Air Force which was formed for the planned invasion of Europe.

Although Dickson had spent considerable time in planning and preparation for the invasion of Nazi occupied Europe, he did not take part in the operations: on 1 December 1943 he was granted a temporary promotion to air vice-marshal and in April 1944 he was given command of the Desert Air Force (formerly the Air Headquarters in the Western Desert) which was operating in Italy after the Allied victory in North Africa in 1943. He was awarded the Soviet Order of Suvorov (3rd Class) on 11 April 1944. In December 1944, Dickson was recalled to London, taking up the post of Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Policy), a post which he held throughout the rest of the War and into mid-1946. He was advanced to Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his services during operations in Italy on 5 July 1945 and was appointed a Commander of the American Legion of Merit on 13 November 1945.