Wikipedia article of the day for July 27, 2025

The Wikipedia article of the day for July 27, 2025 is Dick Cresswell.
Dick Cresswell (27 July 1920 – 12 December 2006) was an officer and pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Born in Tasmania, he joined the RAAF in July 1938. He commanded No. 77 (Fighter) Squadron from April 1942 to August 1943, in Australia's North Western Area Campaign, against Japanese raiders. He claimed the squadron's first victory—the first by an Australian over the mainland—in November 1942. He commanded No. 81 (Fighter) Wing from May 1944 to March 1945, and simultaneously No. 77 Squadron between September and December 1944. In September 1950, during the Korean War, he took command of No. 77 Squadron for the third time. He oversaw its conversion to Gloster Meteors, becoming the first RAAF commander of a jet squadron in war, and earned the Commonwealth and US Distinguished Flying Crosses. Cresswell resigned from the RAAF in 1957, and flew with Bobby Gibbes's Sepik Airways in New Guinea before joining de Havilland Australia in 1959. He retired in 1974.