page_title: Desert Air Force
section_title: Commanders
hierarchical_section_title: Desert Air Force / Commanders
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Portal, Chief of the Air Staff, in conversation with the Air Officer Commanding the Desert Air Force, Air Vice-Marshal Dickson, at the DAF Advanced Headquarters near Monteriggioni, Italy.
context_page_description: The Desert Air Force, also known chronologically as Air Headquarters Western Desert, Air Headquarters Libya, the Western Desert Air Force, and the First Tactical Air Force, was an Allied tactical air force created from No. 204 Group RAF under RAF Middle East Command in North Africa in 1941 to provide close air support to the British Eighth Army against Axis forces. Throughout World War II, the DAF was made up of squadrons from the Royal Air Force, the South African Air Force, the Royal Australian Air Force, the United States Army Air Forces and other Allied air forces.
  In October 1941, the Western Desert Air Forces had 16 squadrons of aircraft and fielded approximately 1,000 combat aircraft by late 1941. By the time of the Second Battle of El Alamein, the DAF fielded 29 squadrons flying Boston, Baltimore and Mitchell medium bombers; Hurricane, Kittyhawk, Tomahawk, Warhawk and Spitfire fighters and fighter-bombers. There were over 1,500 combat aircraft, more than double the number of aircraft the Axis could field.
context_section_description: The following were the air officers commanding either the Air Headquarters Western Desert or the Desert Air Force:
  AHQ Western Desert
  21 October 1941 Air Vice-Marshal Arthur Coningham (also AOC AHQ Libya)
  31 January 1943 Air Vice-Marshal Harry Broadhurst
  Desert Air Force
  10 July 1943 Air Vice-Marshal Broadhurst
  6 April 1944 Air Vice-Marshal William Dickson
  3 December 1944 Air Vice-Marshal Robert Foster
  30 August 1945 Air Commodore Colin Falconer
caption: Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Portal, Chief of the Air Staff, in conversation with Air Vice-Marshal William Dickson, AOC Desert Air Force, 28 August 1944
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