Question: Cedric Ernest "Spike" Howell, 17 June 1896 – 10 December 1919, was an Australian fighter pilot and flying ace of the First World War, graduating as a pilot, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and posted to No. 45 Squadron RFC in France during October 1917, 45(R) Squadron is a flying squadron of the Royal Air Force, established on 1 March 1916 as part of which organization?

Context articles: RCAF Western Air Command
Cedric Howell
No. 45 Squadron RAF
Nigel Cullen
Les Clisby
Edgar McCloughry
Andrew Cowper
Richard Minifie
Ernest Russell Lyon
Raymond Brownell

Western Air Command was the part of the Royal Canadian Air Force's Home War Establishment responsible for air operations on the Pacific coast of Canada during the Second World War.
 When Canada declared war against Germany in September 1939 the command consisted of only five squadrons.
 Four of them equipped with obsolete aircraft including a bomber squadron with aircraft from the Great War and there were no fighter aircraft at all for its only fighter squadron (113 Fighter Squadron was thus disbanded).
 With the Japanese threat after Pearl Harbor it grew rapidly and played a critical role in fighter and anti-submarine operations in Canadian and American waters during the Aleutian Islands Campaign.
 It was there that Squadron Leader K.A. Boomer of No. 111 Squadron shot down a Rufe fighter, the RCAF's only kill in the Pacific Theatre.
 On 7 July 1942 a Bristol Bolingbroke pressed home an attack on the Japanese Submarine Ro 32 the pilot F/Sgt.
 P.M.G. Thomas of No. 115 Squadron RCAF then led American Destroyers to sink the damaged submarine.
 By January 1943 Western Air Command had expanded to include many bomber, fighter and operational units under its control.
 By the end of the war the command would involve some twenty squadrons when the last units to join were added in 1943.
 These were the 163 Army Cooperation Squadron in March flying Bristol Bolingbrokes and Hawker Hurricanes, in May the 160 Bomber-Reconnaissance Squadron was added flying Cansos from Sea Island BC (before moving to Yarmouth NS in July) and the 166 Communication Squadron formed in September flying various types.
 In addition to the new squadrons, new aircraft types came on line replacing the command's remaining Supermarine Stranraers and Blackburn Sharks with Canso's and the Bolingbrokes and Beauforts with the Lockheed Ventura.
 Countless training missions and operational patrols bolstered the air activity over the coastal areas but there was not much action until RCAF Western Command was on the look out for General Kusaba's Fire Balloons that the Japanese called the Fūsen Bakudan Campaign.
 In February and March 1945, P-40 fighter pilots from 133 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force operating out of RCAF Patricia Bay (Victoria, British Columbia), intercepted and destroyed two fire balloons, On 21 February, Pilot Officer E. E. Maxwell While shot down a balloon, which landed on Sumas Mountain, in Washington State.
 On 10 March, Pilot Officer J. O. Patten destroyed a balloon near Saltspring Island, British Columbia.
 During another interception a Canso forced down a fire balloon which was examined at the army headquarters.
 Patrol activity was joined by the Operational Training Schools (OTS) operated by Number 4 Training Command of the BCATP.
 They were the No. 3 OTS flying the Canso and Catalina and No. 32 OTS with Ansons, Beauforts and Swordfish at Patricia Bay.
 In April, 1944 the No. 5 OTS Heavy Conversion unit stood up at Boundary Bay when 16 B-24 Liberators arrived fresh from American factories.
 By the end of September 1944 RCAF 5 O.T.U. had grown to sizeable force of some 87 aircraft including 38 B-24 Liberators, 35 B-25 Mitchells, 5 Bolingbrokes, 8 P-40 Kittyhawks and a single Norseman.
 With the end of the war in Europe these aircraft were joined by a number of Victory Aircraft Lancaster X bombers which were to be used to train the British Commonwealth's Very Long Range Bomber Tiger Force that would soon be sent to bomb the Japanese mainland from Okinawa.
 With the unconditional surrender of Japan the RCAF's Tiger Force bomber squadrons were disbanded before they flew overseas and the total draw down of the Western Air Command was suddenly undertaken.
 Within several months almost all the flying squadrons would be completely stood down.
Cedric Ernest "Spike" Howell, (17 June 1896 – 10 December 1919) was an Australian fighter pilot and flying ace of the First World War.
 Born in Adelaide, South Australia, he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in 1916 for service in the First World War and was posted to the 46th Battalion on the Western Front.
 In November 1916, he was accepted for a transfer to the Royal Flying Corps and was shipped to the United Kingdom for flight training.
 Graduating as a pilot, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and posted to No. 45 Squadron RFC in France during October 1917; two months later the unit sailed to the Italian theatre.
45(R) Squadron is a flying squadron of the Royal Air Force.
 It was established on 1 March 1916 as part of the Royal Flying Corps.
Richard Nigel Cullen, (5 June 1917 – 4 March 1941) was an Australian fighter ace of World War II.
 Serving with the Royal Air Force (RAF), he was credited with as many as sixteen aerial victories before being killed in action during the Battle of Greece.
 Born in Newcastle, New South Wales, Cullen was living in London and had already seen action in the Spanish Civil War when he joined the RAF in 1937.
 Following the outbreak of World War II, he served initially as a transport pilot with No. 267 Squadron in the Middle East before seeking reassignment to fighters.
 He was then posted to No. 80 Squadron, flying Gloster Gladiator biplanes, and claimed six Axis aircraft before the unit converted to Hawker Hurricanes. Nicknamed "Ape" due to his physical bulk, Cullen was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for destroying five enemy aircraft in a single sortie on 28 February 1941.
 He was credited with another four victories in the one engagement on 3 March; the next day, he was shot down and killed while on escort duty over Albania, by a "Regia Aeronautica" Fiat G.50bis, at age twenty-three.
Leslie Redford (Les) Clisby, (29 June 1914 – 15 May 1940) was an Australian fighter ace of World War II.
 Serving with the Royal Air Force (RAF), he was credited with sixteen aerial victories before being killed in action during the Battle of France.
 In a combat career lasting a matter of months, he was Australia's first ace of the war.
 Born in South Australia, Clisby joined the Royal Australian Air Force as a mechanic in 1935, but was later accepted for flying training.
 He graduated as a pilot in 1937, and chose to take a commission with the RAF.
 After arriving in Britain, he was assigned to No. 1 Squadron, flying the recently introduced Hawker Hurricane.
 Posted to France following the outbreak of World War II, he achieved his first aerial victory on 1 April 1940.
 Clisby became known as a highly aggressive fighter pilot, who threw himself into combat irrespective of the odds.
 In a five-day period, commencing on 10 May 1940, he was credited with destroying at least eight German aircraft.
 Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for these and earlier victories, he was himself shot down in flames on 15 May.
 He was buried in France.
Air Vice Marshal Edgar James Kingston-McCloughry, {'1': ", '2': ", '3': ", '4': "} (10 September 1896 – 15 November 1972), born Edgar James McCloughry, was an Australian fighter pilot and flying ace of the First World War, and a senior commander in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.
 He shot down 21 aircraft and military balloons during the former war, making him the 6th highest-scoring Australian ace.
 He was also awarded the Distinguished Service Order and the Distinguished Flying Cross and Bar as well as being Mentioned in Despatches.
Andrew King Cowper, (16 November 1898 – 25 June 1980) was an Australian fighter pilot and flying ace of the First World War.
 Born in Bingara, New South Wales, he was educated in the United Kingdom at Eastbourne College.
 Joining the Royal Flying Corps in May 1917, he was posted to No. 24 Squadron RFC in France and was credited with shooting down nineteen German aircraft between November 1917 and March 1918.
 Cowper was awarded the Military Cross and two Bars during the war for his efforts in destroying German aircraft, in addition to carrying out ground-attacks.
 He was posted to the Home Establishment in April 1918, serving out the remainder of the war in the United Kingdom; he was discharged in 1920.
 Returning to Australia, he established his own horticultural business.
 He served in the Royal Australian Air Force in the Second World War, and died on 25 June 1980 aged eighty-one.
Richard Pearman Minifie, (2 February 1898 – 31 March 1969) was an Australian fighter pilot and flying ace of the First World War.
 Born in Victoria, he attended Melbourne Church of England Grammar School.
 Travelling to the United Kingdom, he enlisted in the Royal Naval Air Service in June 1916.
 Accepted for flight training, he completed his instruction in December and joined No. 1 (Naval) Squadron RNAS on the Western Front in January 1917, flying Sopwith Triplanes.
 He went on to score seventeen aerial victories on this type of machine throughout the year, becoming both the youngest Australian flying ace of the First World War and No. 1 (Naval) Squadron's highest-scoring ace on the Triplane.
 The unit re-equipped with the Sopwith Camel late in 1917, with Minifie going on to achieve a further four victories on the aircraft, raising his final tally to a score of twenty-one aircraft shot down.
Ernest Russell Lyon (19 December 1922 – 27 July 1944) was a Flying Officer in 234 Squadron of the Royal Air Force during part of World War II.
 He was known as Russell.
 Volunteering to join the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve shortly after his 18th birthday he undertook pilot training in the USA, after which he became a pilot instructor in the USA and Canada.
 He later asked to be posted to an operational squadron and was posted to RAF 234 Squadron, joining them in autumn 1943, where he acquired the nickname "Ben" after the American TV and radio personality Ben Lyon.
 Russell undertook a variety of missions with the Squadron, flying from various airfields in the UK.
 At the time of D-Day the Squadron was based at RAF Deanland.
 Soon afterwards 234 Squadron was moved to RAF Predannack, on the Lizard Peninsula, where they flew further missions over northern and western France.
 At 19.00hrs on the evening of Thursday 27 July 1944 Russell piloted Supermarine Spitfire MkVb AR343, flying with seven other Spitfires, on a mission over Lorient in southern Brittany.
 At about 19.54 hrs.
 his Spitfire was hit by flak at 6000 ft. over the Lorient area and was seen to crash in flames near Ploemeur.
Air Commodore Raymond James Brownell, {'1': ", '2': ", '3': ", '4': "} (17 May 1894 – 12 April 1974) was a senior officer in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and a First World War flying ace.
 Born in Hobart, Tasmania, Brownell was working as a clerk with a firm of accountants when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on the outbreak of the First World War.
 He served during the Gallipoli Campaign before transferring to the Western Front.
 Awarded the Military Medal for his actions during the Battle of Pozières, he was accepted for a transfer to the Royal Flying Corps in 1917.
 Brownell undertook flight training in the United Kingdom.
 Commissioned as a second lieutenant, he was posted for operational service over the Western Front in September 1917.
 Moving with his squadron to Italy, he was awarded the Military Cross and credited with shooting down 12 aircraft by war's end.
 Taking his discharge in 1919, Brownell returned to Australia.