the Navy had been allowed to begin training its own aircrew before the war began. The RAF also provided the aircraft and crews that worked in close support roles to the Army, notably the AOP pilots. These were pilots of light aircraft, such as the Auster, who acted as artillery spotters, directing the fire of the guns of the Royal Artillery from the air. Having had poor success at training RAF pilots to direct artillery fire, it was decided to train Army officers who were proficient at the task to pilot aeroplanes. This preceded the recreation of a new air wing within the British Army, the Army Air Corps (which initially included parachute and glider landed units, as well as the Glider Pilot Regiment, but would eventually take over the AOP and other air support roles from the RAF). Then Second Lieutenants Gorham and Hugh Gregg (who had been commissioned into the BMA from the ranks of the BVE on 28 May 1941) relinquished their BMA commissions on 27 June 1942, on departing Bermuda for England (via Canada), where they received Regular Army emergency commissions into the Royal Artillery on 8 July 1942. Trained by the RAF, they served in squadrons controlled by the RAF. Gorham served in North Africa and Italy. In Italy, while in command of B Flight of 655 Squadron, he played the decisive role in the Battle of Monte Cassino when he spotted a German division moving in half-tracked German Armoured Personnel Carriers to counter attack the British 5th Division and the Polish Corps, which were themselves attacking the German-occupied monastery. Contacting the senior Royal Artillery fire control officer on the ground. All two-thousand field guns within range were switched from their local targets and placed under his control. Gorham directed their fire down onto the German Division. The guns fired for hours, with Gorham taking turns with other AOP pilots. The German division was completely destroyed, and the Allied ground forces broke through four days later. For this action, Gorham received the Distinguished Flying Cross, a relative rarity for an Army officer. Post-war service Gorham relinquished his commission as a war substantive lieutenant on 13 June 1946, when he was appointed an honorary captain. Returning to Bermuda, he found the BMA and the BVRC had been reduced to skeleton commands and the BVE and BMI disbanded in 1946, along with the Home Guard. The BMA