He spent three months in the United States giving lectures on RAF operations before returning to active duty as commander of No.

After the war, he held a series of senior appointments in the RAF, including command of an airfield in Egypt during the Suez Crisis.

After stops in Tonga and Fiji, as they neared New Guinea, Land's End struck an uncharted reef.

[4] After a period of training, the squadron became operational on 12 April, flying Supermarine Spitfire fighters on patrols over the North Sea.

485 Squadron graduated to taking part in the RAF's Circus offensive, carrying out sweeps over the French coast and the following month was operating from Redhill.

[5] By this time Crawford-Compton had been commissioned in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) and was a probationary pilot officer.

The following month, while covering bombers attacking St. Omer on 13 October, he destroyed a Bf 109, stating that he had seen it break up in midair.

As winter set in, offensive operations were scaled back but on one of the final sweeps of year, carried out on 6 November, he claimed another Bf 109 as probably destroyed near Cap Gris-Nez.

[11][12] Now holding the rank of acting flight lieutenant, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) early the following month; the citation, published in The London Gazette, read: This officer has participated in a large number of operational sorties.

Crawford-Compton, leading the squadron on this operation, shot down one of the enemy fighters during the engagement, and with Pilot Officer Evan Mackie, shared in the destruction of another.

Two days later he shot down a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter, one of several put up by the Luftwaffe in response to a sweep mounted by the RAF that covered the French coast from Cap Gris-Nez to Dunkirk.

[2][16][17][18] He soon was back in action, and damaged a Fw 190 on 19 August while flying one of two covering patrols he carried out during the Dieppe Raid.

He claimed to have shot down two more on 28 August, when his squadron was escorting Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses of the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) on a bombing raid of an aircraft factory at Méaulte, near Amiens.

[2][11][24] By this time he had been awarded a Bar to his DFC; the published citation read: This officer has led his flight on many operational sorties with great skill and success.

[32] At the end of the year, Crawford-Compton was taken off active duties and selected to go to the United States to give talks regarding the operations of the RAF.

Along with another experienced pilot, Wing Commander Raymond Harries, he spent three months in the country lecturing before returning to England.

In the prelude to Operation Overlord, the landings at Normandy, Crawford-Compton led the wing in attacks on targets in France, including transportation infrastructure, flying-bomb sites and military installations in the Pas-de-Calais.

[33] Following the invasion, Crawford-Compton's wing conducted regular patrols over Normandy and covering the Allied forces maintaining their hold on the bridgehead.

As the Allied ground forces moved inland, the wing began operating from temporary airstrips established in the bridgehead at Normandy.

It sought out and attacked German transports on the roads between Paris and Caen, disrupting the flow of supplies to the front lines.

[2][11][34] At the end of the month, he destroyed a Bf 109 and Fw 190 that had just taken off from Evereux airfield, with other pilots in the wing accounting for four other German aircraft.

145 Wing continued to provide support, carrying out fighter-bomber operations on the Falaise pocket and on 9 July, Crawford-Compton destroyed a Bf 109.

He was granted a permanent commission as a squadron leader with effect from 1 September 1945 although remained in his acting wing commander rank.

[39] After a period of service at the headquarters of Middle East Command in Cairo, he served as a time as the Air attache in Oslo, Norway.