He was appointed to the RAF Coastal Command and took command of a Sunderland flying boat during the Battle of the Atlantic. His role was to find submarines. Later, he became a flying officer in the British Indian Air Force based in Singapore, taking responsibility for a Catalina flying boat in operations in Indonesia and the Philippines. After withdrawing from Singapore due to the extent of their losses in the Japanese invasion, his squadron moved to Java and then to Broome, Western Australia, where he contributed to the rescue of Dutch civilians.