As the leading exponent of tactical air warfare, Coningham was the obvious choice to command 2nd Tactical Air Force in the North-West European campaign under Air Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory, commanding the Allied Expeditionary Air Forces, and in January 1944 he was recalled to Britain where he helped plan air support for the Normandy landings. His relationship with Montgomery deteriorated markedly after the landings took place. The two often clashed when Montgomery regularly tried to bypass Coningham, who was the designated point of contact for air support requests, and deal directly with Leigh-Mallory. At the end of June, Montgomery lobbied Tedder, now deputy commander to U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower at Supreme Allied Headquarters, for Coningham's removal after he criticised the army for tardiness in capturing Caen in order to make available airfields for tactical aircraft. Tedder, however, advised Eisenhower that such removal would be "a disaster" and the criticism valid. In August 1944 Montgomery wrote to Alan Brooke that "Coningham is violently anti-army and despised by all soldiers; my army commanders mistrust him and never want to see him." However it was Montgomery who received a rebuke from Eisenhower, while Leigh-Mallory's headquarters was dissolved in October as an unnecessary command echelon.