page_title: Dick Cresswell
section_title: Korean War
hierarchical_section_title: Dick Cresswell / Korean War
caption_attribution_description: Pilots of 77 Squadron RAAF, being briefed by their Commanding Officer, Squadron Leader Richard (Dick) Cresswell (centre, facing camera), on the Kimpo airfield tarmac in front Meteor aircraft A77-616, prior to a mission over North Korea. Around the semicircle, left to right: Flight Lieutenant (Flt Lt) Colin Ian 'Joe' Hill , RAF; Flt Lt Maxwell (Max) Scannell, RAF; Sergeant Ronald Daniel Mitchell; Sergeant (Sgt) Keith Raymond Meggs; Sgt Cecil (Cec) Sly; Warrant Officer (WO) William Stapylton (Bill) Michelson; Flying Officer Leslie (Les) Reading; Sgt Henry William 'Dick' Bessell; Flt Lt Ralph Leslie 'Smokey' Dawson; WO Wiliam (Bill) Middlemiss; Sgt Maxwell Edwin 'Blue' Colebrook; and Flt Lt Cornelious Desmond (Des) Murphy (last in semicircle on right). Sgt Mitchell was killed in action on 22 August 1951. Sgt Colebrook was later killed in action on 13 April 1952.
context_page_description: Richard Cresswell, DFC was an officer and pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force. He held command of No. 77 Squadron twice during World War II, and again during the Korean War. Cresswell was credited with being the first RAAF pilot to shoot down an enemy aircraft at night over Australian soil, the only man to serve as commanding officer of an RAAF squadron on three occasions during wartime, and the first officer to lead a jet-equipped Australian squadron in combat. His performance in Korea earned him both the Commonwealth and the US Distinguished Flying Crosses.
  Born in Tasmania, Cresswell worked as an apprentice electrician before joining the RAAF in July 1938. He initially commanded No. 77 Squadron from April 1942 to August 1943, flying P-40 Kittyhawks in defence of Australia's North-Western Area against Japanese raiders. Cresswell claimed the squadron's first aerial victory—the first by an Australian over the mainland—in November 1942. He was wing leader of No. 81 Wing in New Guinea from May 1944 to March 1945, simultaneously commanding No. 77 Squadron for a second time between September and December 1944. In September 1950, during the Korean War, Cresswell took command of No.
context_section_description: When the Korean War broke out on 25 June 1950, No. 77 Squadron was the only remaining RAAF unit of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF) in Japan. Led by Wing Commander Lou Spence, the squadron was preparing to return to Australia when it was placed on standby for action over Korea; it began operations as part of the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force a week later. Spence was killed in action on 9 September, and Cresswell was despatched to replace him as commanding officer. Cresswell thus became the only officer to lead the same RAAF squadron on three occasions during wartime. According to George Odgers, his prior command of the squadron in combat and long experience flying single-engined aircraft, including the Mustang, meant that "it would have been very difficult to find a RAAF fighter pilot who could equal Squadron Leader Cresswell's qualifications". Alan Stephens, in the official history of the post-war Air Force, noted that Cresswell was considered "a good organiser and a 'goer'". In an unusual move, the RAAF did not raise him to wing commander; he became No. 77 Squadron's longest-serving commanding officer of the Korean War, but also the only one ranked squadron leader. This had the effect of ranking him below the US squadron commanders with whom he had to cooperate and of leaving him without an operations officer of squadron leader rank to whom he could delegate some of the day-to-day tasks of running his unit.
  Spence's loss was a heavy blow to the squadron, and Cresswell's first task after arriving in Japan on 17 September 1950 was to restore morale. Pilot Jim Flemming recalled that Cresswell "led from the front", undertaking four sorties on 20 September, his first day of operations. No. 77 Squadron transferred from Iwakuni in Japan to Pohang, South Korea, on 12 October to support UN troops advancing northwards from the Pusan Perimeter following General Douglas MacArthur's amphibious landing behind North Korean lines at Inchon. On 20 October, the squadron became a component of the RAAF's newly established No. 91 (Composite) Wing, headquartered at Iwakuni, but was under the operational control of the US 35th Fighter-Interceptor Group. Cresswell believed that the Iwakuni-based wing headquarters was not always in tune with frontline requirements, and he often dealt directly with Lieutenant General Sir Horace Robertson, BCOF commander and the theatre's senior Australian officer, and the RAAF's Deputy Chief of the Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Scherger, former commander at Wagga Wagga.
  China entered the war in October 1950, and No. 77 Squadron undertook its first sorties against Chinese ground forces on 1 November. It flew its first missions supporting the Australian Army four days later, when Cresswell led attacks on Chinese armour opposing the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, at Pakchon. The 3rd Battalion's Major Bruce Ferguson described No. 77 Squadron's close support as "the closest I have ever seen". On 16 November, the Australians began moving forward with the 35th Group to Yonpo, near Hamhung. From Yonpo they flew missions against Chinese forces surrounding the US Marines at Chosin Reservoir; Cresswell personally commanded several night sorties, attacking Chinese positions with machine guns and rockets. The Communist advance resulted in the squadron being hurriedly withdrawn to Pusan in early December. Cresswell had made a point of briefing his squadron every night during the developing crisis to avoid any panic arising from unsubstantiated rumours; the commander of the US Fifth Air Force, Lieutenant General Earle E. Partridge, praised him for his leadership.
  Since November 1950, the Communists had been operating a Russian-designed swept-wing jet fighter, the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, that outclassed all other fighters in the theatre except the new F-86 Sabre. The MiGs were often flown by seasoned Soviet Air Force pilots, whose deployment was unofficial, and denied at the time by the Soviet Union. The RAAF tried to purchase Sabres to replace No. 77 Squadron's Mustangs but deliveries could 
caption: Squadron Leader Cresswell (centre), on his third tour as commanding officer of No. 77 Squadron, briefs Meteor pilots at Kimpo prior to a mission over North Korea, August 1951
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