[2] On 30 January 1948, he disappeared along with all the other passengers and crew of the airliner G-AHNP Star Tiger when it vanished without a trace somewhere off the eastern coast of the United States.

He then served in Egypt and Somaliland as a trooper in the Canterbury Mounted Rifle Regiment, but developed typhoid fever and was invalided out of service in March 1916.

[7] Posted to 32 Squadron on 19 December 1916 after completing his flying instruction, Coningham flew numerous patrols between 5 January and 30 July 1917, when he was wounded during an aerial combat and invalided back to Britain.

During the Battle of Arras, 32 Squadron undertook systematic strafing of German infantry and lines of communication, particularly suited for the Airco DH.2 machines they operated.

Through to the end of the war, Coningham's Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5s conducted bombing and strafing attacks against German aerodromes, troops, gun positions and transport.

[7] While posted at Egypt Group, Coningham was assigned to lead a detachment of three DH.9As of 47 Squadron on a flight of 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometres) cross country to introduce the first aircraft to Nigeria while undertaking "a training exercise on an extended scale... using ordinary service equipment."

[7] His group was small, seldom numbering more than 60 air crews total in the first part of the war, and unlike the rest of Bomber Command conducted its operations at night.

Two months later, to match its growing size and its status with the newly formed Eighth Army, the group was transformed into the Western Desert Air Force.

He promptly delegated out technical duties to those he trusted and did not micromanage them; however, he held his subordinates strictly responsible for achieving the results he wanted.

In particular, Coningham developed the use of fighter-bombers, able to fight as fighter planes in the air or in bombing and strafing attacks of enemy ground targets.

[citation needed] Coningham was knighted after El Alamein and continued to provide tactical air support for the Eighth Army until they occupied Tripoli in January 1943.

The two often clashed when Montgomery regularly tried to bypass Coningham, who was the designated point of contact for air support requests, and deal directly with Leigh-Mallory.

At the end of June, Montgomery lobbied Tedder, now deputy commander to U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower at Supreme Allied Headquarters, for Coningham's removal after he criticised the army for tardiness in capturing Caen in order to make available airfields for tactical aircraft.

In August 1944 Montgomery wrote to Alan Brooke that "Coningham is violently anti-army and despised by all soldiers; my army commanders mistrust him and never want to see him.

[7] A keen yachtsman, in 1947 he was appointed Commodore of the RAF Yacht Club then based at Calshot; however he later oversaw the move to the current location at Hamble.

[13] Viewing his appointment to Air Training Command as a demotion, Coningham chose to retire on 1 August 1947 after 30 years of commissioned service.

[7] He disappeared on 30 January 1948 when the airliner G-AHNP Star Tiger in which he was travelling to Bermuda was lost off the east coast of the United States.

[7] In 1930 he met at Cowes and soon began a relationship with Nancy Muriel (née Brooks) known as "Nan", the wife of wealthy businessman Sir Howard Frank, who was 31 years her senior.

Although a similar scene happened in real life; in actuality Coningham was not present; Patton was talking to General Carl Spaatz and Air Chief Marshal Arthur Tedder at the time of the strafing.