After completing flight training he was sent to the United Kingdom to serve with the Royal Air Force (RAF).

He transferred to the RAF in 1947, holding a series of senior posts until his retirement in 1960 at which time he took up farming.

He was a noted marksman, winning the Auckland provincial championship in clay-bird shooting and earning the nickname 'Hawkeye'.

[1] In October 1938, Wells applied for a short service commission in the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF).

Along with 22 other RNZAF pilots, including Robert Spurdle who, like Wells, would go on to lead a fighter squadron in the war, he sailed from New Zealand aboard the RMS Rangitata in June 1940.

11 Group, this was a much more active posting and the squadron was repeatedly scrambled to meet incoming German raids.

[2][6] On 11 November, while on convoy patrol over the English Channel, Wells encountered aircraft of the Corpo Aereo Italiano, a formation of the Regia Aeronautica (the Italian Royal Air Force) that participated in the Battle of Britain.

Wells was one of its more experienced pilots, having by this time accounted for a confirmed three enemy aircraft destroyed.

After an initial training period, the squadron became operational from mid-April, flying convoy patrols and the occasional interception mission targeting nighttime raids carried out by German bombers.

[11][12] While escorting Short Stirling bombers on a raid targeting a steelworks facility in Lille on 5 July, Wells destroyed a Bf 109, the first enemy fighter shot down over France by a pilot of No.

485 Squadron was escorting Bristol Blenheim light bombers on a raid to Lille, it became involved in a wide-ranging melee from Dunkirk to Calais after being surprised by several Bf 109s.

[20] At the end of the month, Wells, the most successful fighter pilot in the squadron with six aerial victories at the time, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC).

[13][20] The citation, published in The London Gazette read:This officer has served with fighter squadrons since May, 1940, and has taken part in many engagements against the enemy.

During this engagement, he shot down one Bf 109 whose pilot had a made a mistake and exposed his aircraft to Well's guns.

[22] A Bf 109 was claimed as a probable on 2 October, when he attacked it during a squadron patrol covering Dunkirk to Ostend.

[6][24] The published citation read:This officer has completed 46 operational sorties over enemy territory He is a splendid leader and a most determined and skilful fighter pilot whose keenness in action sets a splendid example Flight Lieutenant Wells has definitely destroyed 13, probably destroyed 5 and damaged a further 8 hostile aircraft.Wells took command of No.

485 Squadron was now based at Kenley and on 12 February 1942, it flew a mission to target the fighter screen put up by the Luftwaffe to cover the Channel Dash by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.

His courage, skill and initiative have proved a source of inspiration to his colleagues and his fine leadership has contributed materially to the many successes achieved by the wing.By the time of his award of the DSO, Wells had been stood down from operational duty.

[30] Three years earlier, she and her sister and parents had escaped to England from the Nazi-occupied Netherlands in a fishing boat.

He remained in this role until March 1944, when he was assigned to the Tactical Air Force, flying in command of Tangmere Wing.

He then assumed command of the Detling Wing, composed of three Spitfire squadrons recently transferred from Sicily.

[32] However, more recent scholarship has revised Wells' tally; the aviation historians Christopher Shores and Clive Williams suggest Wells' score was 12 destroyed, four probables and six damaged with a half share in another damaged enemy aircraft, plus a Me 410 destroyed on the ground.

[34] Mike Spick credits Wells with a similar tally: 12 destroyed, four probables and seven damaged.

Then, in 1947, Wells resigned from the RNZAF in order to transfer to the RAF, having been granted a permanent commission.

He later served on the Joint Planning Staff at the Ministry of Defence before retiring with the rank of group captain in June 1960.

[36] In his retirement, Wells began farming near Woodbridge, in Suffolk but in his later years moved with his wife to Spain.

The couple had an orchard and subsequently Wells developed a keen interest in fruits and the diseases that affected them.