Few people today are likely to recall the name of Air Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham. He is much less well-known than, for example, Hugh Dowding of Fighter Command, 'Bomber' Harris or his own immediate superior, Arthur Tedder. Yet, arguably, Coningham has an equal claim to be remembered alongside his more famous colleagues. As a pioneer of combined operations, he was undoubtedly one of the architects of victory over Hitler's Reich. As head of the Western Desert Air Force, he devised methods of army-air co-operation that helped to defeat Rommel's Afrika Korps. In North Africa he was instrumental in developing techniques of tactical air support which, later adapted to the conditions of north-west Europe, played a crucial role in taking Allied forces from the Normandy beaches to the heart of Germany.
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