page_title: Richard Williams (RAAF officer)
section_title: World War I
hierarchical_section_title: Richard Williams (RAAF officer) / World War I
caption_attribution_description: English: AWM Caption: Portrait of Major Richard Williams DSO, commanding the 1st Squadron of the Australian Flying Corps at his desk; Palestene: Mejdel Jaffa Area, Ramleh.
context_page_description: Air Marshal Sir Richard Williams, KBE, CB, DSO is widely regarded as the "father" of the Royal Australian Air Force. He was the first military pilot trained in Australia, and went on to command Australian and British fighter units in World War I. A proponent for air power independent of other branches of the armed services, Williams played a leading role in the establishment of the RAAF and became its first Chief of the Air Staff in 1922. He served as CAS for thirteen years over three terms, longer than any other officer.
  Williams came from a working-class background in South Australia. He was a lieutenant in the Army when he learned to fly at Point Cook, Victoria, in 1914. As a pilot with the Australian Flying Corps in World War I, Williams rose to command No. 1 Squadron AFC, and later 40th Wing RAF. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and finished the war a lieutenant colonel. Afterwards he campaigned for an Australian Air Force run separately to the Army and Navy, which came into being on 31 March 1921.
context_section_description: Williams was promoted captain on 5 January 1916. He was appointed a flight commander in No. 1 Squadron Australian Flying Corps (AFC), which was initially numbered 67 Squadron Royal Flying Corps by the British. The unit departed Australia in March 1916 without any aircraft; after arriving in Egypt it received B.E.2 fighters, a type deficient in speed and manoeuvrability, and which lacked forward-firing machine guns. Williams wrote that in combat with the German Fokkers, "our fighting in the air was of short duration but could mean a quick end", and that when it came to bombing, he and his fellow pilots "depended mainly on luck". He further quoted a truism in the Flying Corps that "if a new pilot got through his first three days without being shot down he was lucky; if he got through three weeks he was doing well and if he got through three months he was set". Williams and the other Australians were initially involved in isolated tasks around the Suez Canal, attached to various Royal Flying Corps (RFC) units. No. 1 Squadron began to operate concertedly in December 1916, supporting the Allied advance on Palestine. Williams completed his RFC attachment in February 1917.
  On 5 March 1917, shortly after commencing operations with No. 1 Squadron, Williams narrowly avoided crash-landing when his engine stopped while he was bombing the railway terminus at Tel el Sheria. At first believing that he had been struck by enemy fire, he found that the engine switch outside his cockpit had turned off. Within 500 feet of the ground he was able to switch the engine back on and return to base. On 21 April, Williams landed behind enemy lines to rescue downed comrade Lieutenant Adrian Cole, having the day before pressed home an attack on Turkish cavalry whilst under "intense anti-aircraft fire"; these two actions earned him the Distinguished Service Order for "conspicuous gallantry". He was promoted major in May and given command of No. 1 Squadron, which was re-equipped with Bristol Fighters later that year. "Now for the first time," wrote Williams, "after 17 months in the field we had aircraft with which we could deal with our enemy in the air." His men knew him as a teetotaller and non-smoker, whose idea of swearing was an occasional "Darn me!".
  In June 1918, Williams was made a brevet lieutenant colonel and commander of the RAF's 40th (Army) Wing, which was operating in Palestine. It comprised his former No. 1 Squadron and three British units. As a Dominion officer, Williams found that he was not permitted to "exercise powers of punishment over British personnel", leading to him being temporarily "granted a supplementary commission in the Royal Air Force". Augmented by a giant Handley Page bomber, his forces took part in the Battle of Armageddon, the final offensive in Palestine, where they inflicted "wholesale destruction" on Turkish columns. Of 40th Wing's actions at Wadi Fara on 21 September 1918, Williams wrote: "The Turkish Seventh Army ceased to exist and it must be noted that this was entirely the result of attack from the air." He also sent Captain Ross Smith in the Handley Page, accompanied by two Bristol Fighters, to aid Major T. E. Lawrence's Arab army north of Amman when it was harassed by German aircraft operating from Deraa. In November, Williams was appointed temporary commander of the Palestine Brigade, which comprised his previous command, the 40th (Army) Wing, and 5th (Corps) Wing. His service in the theatre later saw him awarded the Order of the Nahda by the King of the Hejaz. Twice mentioned in despatches, by the end of the war Williams had established himself, according to Air Force historian Alan Stephens, as "the AFC's rising star".
caption: Major Williams as Commanding Officer of No. 1 Squadron AFC, Palestine, 1917
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