As well as Meteors, Cresswell flew F-80 Shooting Star and F-86 Sabre jets in combat while on attachment to the United States Air Force in Korea.

[3] Fired partly by his mother's stories of joy flights in pre-war Britain, and a desire to become a flying boat captain for Imperial Airways, Cresswell applied to join the Royal Air Force (RAF) in September 1937.

Over the next twelve months he learnt to fly in Avro Cadet, de Havilland Gipsy Moth and Westland Wapiti trainers, and graduated as a pilot officer.

[6] Cresswell recalled a mix of excitement and panic within the squadron when World War II broke out two months later: "The second night we all slept on the hangar floor next to our aircraft.

"[7] After a brief posting to Point Cook in early 1940, Cresswell undertook the instructors' course at Central Flying School in Camden, New South Wales.

[18][19] Cresswell led the squadron in the defence of Darwin against Japanese raiders and claimed its first aerial victory just after 5 a.m. on 23 November 1942, when he destroyed a Mitsubishi "Betty" bomber.

The charge arose from an incident in July 1942, when Cresswell had stayed overnight at Port Pirie's mess and had fired his revolver into the floor next to the feet of another officer who apparently had been annoying him.

[40] The wing flew 1,125 sorties against Japanese buildings, stores and transport in October and November, dropping over 400,000 pounds (180,000 kg) of bombs for the loss of fifteen aircraft and eleven pilots.

[43] The relegation of First Tactical Air Force to areas of operation bypassed by the main Allied thrust towards the Philippines and Japan led to poor morale.

81 Wing's combat results were not worth the cost in ordnance and casualties, setting in train events that would culminate in the so-called "Morotai Mutiny" the following April, when eight senior pilots, including Arthur and fellow aces Clive Caldwell and Bobby Gibbes, protested by attempting to resign their commissions.

Cresswell had by this time reverted to the rank of squadron leader, as the air force and its wartime officer corps shrank dramatically following demobilisation.

21 (City of Melbourne) Squadron, a Citizen Air Force unit based at Laverton and equipped with Mustangs crewed by reserve pilots.

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.

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.

[66] 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.

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.

77 Squadron's Mustangs but deliveries could not begin until 1954, so in December the Australian government agreed to buy British Gloster Meteor straight-wing jet fighters.

[78] In January and February 1951, while awaiting delivery of the Meteors, Cresswell gained jet experience by converting to F-80 Shooting Stars and flying ten combat missions on attachment to the USAF's 8th Fighter Group.

[90] Cresswell therefore arranged for the USAF to lend him a Sabre to simulate a MiG-15 in combat training with the Meteors at Iwakuni; he determined that the Meteor's manoeuvrability and rate of climb allowed it to match the swept-wing jet below 25,000 feet (7,600 m), so the best air-to-air tactic would be to work in concert with USAF Sabres operating at high level while the Australians flew at lower altitudes.

[94] After encountering ill-directed anti-aircraft fire over Pyongyang, the Australians saw MiG-15s parked in an airfield on the Chinese side of the border—where UN forces were forbidden to attack—but, somewhat to Cresswell's annoyance, the Communists refused to take off and fight.

[100][101] Cresswell left for Australia shortly afterwards, having flown a total of 144 sorties during the war: 110 in Mustangs, fourteen in Meteors, and ten each in Shooting Stars and Sabres.

[104] In late 1952 he was "dared" to fly from the Royal Australian Navy aircraft carrier HMAS Sydney, and did so in a Hawker Sea Fury after completing conversion.

[108] Post-war demobilisation had seen the disbandment of all the RAAF's operational training units, and conversion of new pilots to combat aircraft became the responsibility of front-line squadrons.

This practice disrupted the squadrons' normal duties, and the advent of the Korean War and the introduction of jets exacerbated shortfalls in operational training.

[118][119] On 13 June 1957, Cresswell became regional manager of a Melbourne firm salvaging metal from the battlefields of New Guinea, but the company wound up its operations in Australasia barely a month later.

The task was cut short on 3 February, when the RAAF Antarctic Flight pressed his Beaver into service after three of its aircraft were lost in a blizzard at Mawson.

[124] De Havilland subsequently appointed Cresswell its sales representative in Canberra; in this capacity he travelled abroad and on one occasion flew the DHC-4 Caribou, shortly to be purchased by the RAAF for tactical transport in the Vietnam War.

[125] After a series of minor heart attacks and two bypass operations, Cresswell resigned from de Havilland late in 1974 to live in South-East Queensland; his family elected to remain in Canberra.

77 Squadron in a march through the streets of Perth, which had granted the unit freedom of entry in recognition of its role in the city's defence fifty years earlier.

"[133] The following April, he was among thirty-two Korean War veterans selected to represent Australia at fiftieth anniversary commemorations of the conflict being held in South Korea.