Douglas Wilson (RAAF officer)
Group Captain Douglas Ernest Lancelot "Del" Wilson (1 December 1898 – 2 August 1950) was a senior officer of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) during World War II.
Afterwards, he was attached to the Royal Air Force (RAF) in North West Europe, and spent more than a year as a prisoner of war (POW) in Nazi Germany.
[2][5] Shortly after graduating from Sydney Boys High School in 1916, Wilson passed the examination for entrance to the Australian Army college, Duntroon.
Others who graduated at the same time and later became prominent in military or civil aviation, included Joe Hewitt, Frank Bladin, and Lester Brain.
[According to the wartime head of public relations for the RAAF] John Harrison ... when Wilson became a POW and senior British officer in Stalag Luft III, someone who had either 'served or suffered' under him remarked: 'God help the Germans.'
Observing that any concentration of military aviation facilities, aircraft and personnel, at a relatively small airfield, made it vulnerable and attractive to enemy attack, Wilson began to consider dispersal and decentralisation.
Following reports, on 27 January, that the formidable Japanese combined carrier fleet had entered the Flores Sea, Wilson ordered the dispersal of assets at RAAF Darwin.
The Allies suffered significant losses: at least 236 civilians and military personnel were killed, 11 vessels were sunk in Darwin Harbour and 31 aircraft were destroyed.
[11][12] The only fighter aircraft present, a squadron of P-40E Warhawks of the United States Army Air Force, were overwhelmed and/or destroyed on the ground.
[3] During this period, Bomber Command was involved in a pivotal strategic bombing campaign against the Ruhr, where German war industries were concentrated.
[14] On the return leg, at about 0158 hours, the bomber came under attack over the Netherlands, by Luftwaffe night-fighter ace, Oberleutnant Werner Baake of 1./NJG1.
The flight engineer, Sgt Richard Huke (RAF), was killed by a parachute malfunction; the other members landed safely, close to Zuylen Castle.
While several crew members were captured soon afterwards, Wilson, Carrie and wireless operator Sgt Elliott McVitie (RAF) made contact with a Dutch resistance "escape line" known as Luctor et Emergo (later Fiat Libertas), which had been organised to smuggle Allied aircrews out of occupied Europe.
[3] At Stalag Luft III (SLIII), near Sagan, Silesia (now Żagań, Poland), Wilson reportedly assisted in a successful escape, which one of the escapees, Flight Lieutenant Eric Williams (RAF), later recounted in a book that became a popular film adaptation:The Wooden Horse (1950).
