The Pacific Wilson commanded RAAF stations and held staff positions in Australia for the first few years of the war. an ambitious, but short-lived and shambolic supreme command, encompassing Allied forces throughout South East Asia and the South West Pacific. As a result, Wilson nominally headed an ABDACOM subcommand, AUSGROUP (sometimes "Darwin Command"): in addition to NWA, AUSGROUP nominally controlled Allied military aviation in
Dutch New Guinea, the
Molucca Sea and the northern part of RAAF
Western Area. Wilson's immediate superior was the commander of Allied air forces (ABDAIR),
Air Marshal Sir
Richard Peirse (RAF), who reported directly to General Sir
Archibald Wavell (British Army), supreme commander of ABDACOM whose headquarters were at
Bandung (Bandoeng), in
Java. Observing that any concentration of military aviation facilities, aircraft and personnel, at a relatively small airfield, made it vulnerable and attractive to enemy attack, Wilson began to consider dispersal and decentralisation. Following reports, on 27 January, that the formidable
Japanese combined carrier fleet had entered the
Flores Sea, Wilson ordered the dispersal of assets at RAAF Darwin. Repair and maintenance equipment and staff were moved to
Daly Waters, almost further south. However, when Wilson also ordered the transfer of obsolete aircraft (five
CAC Wirraway armed trainers belonging to
No. 12 Squadron RAAF) to Daly Waters, he was overruled by the Deputy Chief of Air Staff,
Air Vice Marshal William Bostock. (Three of the Wirraways were damaged and written-off following the first air raid on Darwin – see below.) During early February, NWA was inspected by Air Commodore
George Jones (soon to be appointed
Chief of the Air Staff), who reported deficiencies in morale and aircraft serviceability amongst its combat units:
2, 12 and
13 squadrons. in January–February 1942, including
RAAF North-Western Area. On 19 February, while Wilson was attending to ABDACOM duties in Java,
Darwin suffered a massive air raid. The Allies suffered significant losses: at least 236 civilians and military personnel were killed, 11 vessels were sunk in Darwin Harbour and 31 aircraft were destroyed. The only fighter aircraft present, a squadron of
P-40E Warhawks of the
United States Army Air Force, were overwhelmed and/or destroyed on the ground. By the end of March
Allied resistance in the Dutch East Indies had collapsed by the end of March, and ABDA was dissolved, along with its sub-commands. Criticised regarding their preparations for and responses to the first air raids, Wilson, his deputy, Group Captain
Frederick Scherger, and the station commander of RAAF Darwin, Wing Commander
Sturt Griffith, were later posted out of NWA.
Europe Wilson was
attached on exchange to the RAF in January 1943 and posted as a
substantive Group Captain (Gp Capt.) to the UK, where he served as Officer Commanding at three
RAF Bomber Command stations in rapid succession:
RAF Wyton,
RAF Linton-on-Ouse, and
RAF Holme-on-Spalding Moor. Some senior aircrew suggested to Wilson that perhaps he should fly on an operation himself. According to Ron Read, they believed that Wilson might not be "so critical" or "we slyly thought ... might go for the chop himself" (i.e. be shot down). Wilson flew operationally, for the first and only time, on the night of 22/23 June 1943. On the return leg, at about 0158 hours, the bomber came under attack over the Netherlands, by a
Luftwaffe night-fighter, piloted by the
ace Oberleutnant Werner Baake (
1./NJG1). After the Halifax was severely damaged by Baake and the controls became unresponsive, Carrie ordered the crew to bale out. The flight engineer, Sgt Richard Huke (RAF), was killed by a parachute malfunction; the other members landed safely, close to
Zuylen Castle. While several crew members were captured soon afterwards, Wilson, Carrie and wireless operator Sgt Elliott McVitie (RAF) made contact with a
Dutch resistance "escape line" known as
Luctor et Emergo (later
Fiat Libertas), which had been organised to smuggle Allied aircrews out of
occupied Europe. They travelled undercover into Belgium, where they were handed over to the "
Comet Line", an escape network run by the French and Belgian resistance. However, during the first week of August, Wilson, Carrie and McVitie were apprehended in Paris, by either the
Gestapo or
GFP, and became prisoners of war (POW). It was later established that 50 Allied POWs were shot on the personal orders of Adolf Hitler. (Wilson would later give statements to war crimes prosecutors regarding these and other events.) After the camp was liberated, two former POWs who had been convicted of
collaborating with German authorities made similar accusations against Wilson. He was not charged after the British
Judge Advocate General found that no offence had been committed. ==Post-war==