John Francis Jackson, DFC (23 February 1908 – 28 April 1942) was an Australian fighter ace and squadron commander of World War II.

Born in Brisbane, he was a grazier and businessman, who also operated his own private plane, when he joined the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Reserve in 1936.

Educated at Brisbane Grammar School and The Scots College, Warwick, Jackson joined the Young Australia League, with which he visited Europe.

[1] Following the outbreak of World War II, Jackson was called up for active duty and commissioned as a pilot officer in the RAAF on 2 October 1939.

He shot down three Junkers Ju 87s in a single sortie near Mersa Matruh on 18 February 1941, the same action in which Gordon Steege claimed three.

[4][15] On 5 April 1941, Jackson fired several bursts at a Ju 87 before his guns jammed; he then made two dummy attacks and forced the German plane to crash land in a wadi, thus claiming his fourth victory.

Jackson became an ace on 25 June, when he destroyed a Potez 630 light bomber (possibly a misidentified LeO 451) of the Vichy French air force.

[18][19] With the campaign in Syria concluding in mid-July, the unit undertook no operations in August and personnel went on leave before returning to action in Egypt the next month.

[20] The rural-bred Jackson took to the night life in Alexandria, but his stay at a first-class hotel left him bewildered as to the purpose of the room's bidet, which he eventually determined was "some feminine arrangement".

[3] Peter Ewer, in Storm Over Kokoda, observed: "There was something of the patrician about John Jackson, but his well-to-do background had a distinctly Australian tinge to it.

"[3] In Whispering Death, Mark Johnston noted that although "tall and blue-eyed", he "did not have the air of a 'boy's own' or movie star pilot", but rather was "balding, ambling and no extrovert".

This training is a tough job and I take my hat off to the boys who have been doing it since war broke out ... every one of these instructors is longing to be sent overseas, but I doubt if they have any chance of ever getting there—they are so valuable here.

[12][26] As the Japanese advanced towards New Guinea in early 1942, the RAAF urgently established three new fighter units for Australia's northern defence, Nos.

"[30] On 21 March, Jackson led the squadron's main force to Seven Mile Aerodrome to take part in the defence of Port Moresby, a crucial early battle in the New Guinea campaign,[27] and what military aviation historian Andrew Thomas called "one of the most gallant episodes in the history of the RAAF".

[29] Jackson's age of thirty-four was considered advanced for a fighter pilot, and he was affectionately known as "Old John" to his men, one of whom was his younger brother Les, now a flight lieutenant.

Two days later, Les Jackson was forced to ditch his aircraft on a coral reef, but made it to shore with the aid of a life jacket that John dropped to him, not realising at the time that the downed pilot was his younger brother.

[1][28] After playing dead beside his crashed plane to discourage the Japanese fighters from machine-gunning him, he swam to shore and made his way through jungle for over a week to Wau, with the help of two New Guinea natives.

When he arrived back at Port Moresby in a US Douglas Dauntless on 23 April, a Japanese air raid was in progress and a bullet cut off the tip of his right index finger.

[36][37] According to journalist Osmar White, who saw him on the night of the 27th, Jackson's "hands and eyes were still and rock steady" but he appeared "weary in soul" and "too long in the shadows".

[27][28][39][Note 2] His aircraft hit the side of a mountain and embedded itself six feet; Jackson was identified only by his size-ten boots and the revolver he habitually wore.

[42] Although the squadron was no longer an effective fighting unit, it had checked Japan's attempts to overpower Port Moresby by air attack, and the town continued to function as an important Allied base.

[47] Jackson was a keen amateur film maker, and a four-minute reel of 16 mm footage that he shot in Port Moresby is held by the AWM.

"[50] In March 2003, the St George township erected a monument to Jackson and another local RAAF identity, Aboriginal fighter pilot Len Waters.