of the RAAF Staff School (later RAAF Staff College), remaining in the post until he was fully recovered from his injuries. On 16 June 1944, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his conduct of air operations over New Guinea as AOC North-Eastern Area, the citation noting his "good leadership, personal example, keen understanding and continued encouragement". In August 1944, Cobby became AOC of No. 10 Operational Group (No. 10 OG), soon to be renamed the Australian First Tactical Air Force (1st TAF). In this role he commanded 20,000 personnel in the RAAF's major mobile strike force in the South West Pacific, consisting of fighter, close support, and airfield construction units. Cobby expressed misgivings concerning the command arrangements that saw RAAF Headquarters in Melbourne responsible for No. 10 OG's administration, while its operational tasking was to be passed down through RAAF Command, the United States Thirteenth Air Force and Headquarters South West Pacific Area. He believed this required him to "try and serve two masters", a situation he found "unworkable". In the period 22–25 December 1944, 1st TAF flew 513 Kittyhawk and Beaufighter sorties against targets in Halmahera. The following month, it undertook a further 661 sorties against targets in Halmahera, Celebes, Morotai and the Vogelkop. By early 1945, Japanese air power in the South West Pacific had been virtually destroyed, and 1st TAF was increasingly assigned to garrison duties and harassing enemy bases on islands bypassed by US forces in their advance on the Philippines. During March and April, 1st TAF prepared for the invasion of Tarakan, an operation based around a mistaken judgement made by officers at Cobby's headquarters that the island's airstrip could be rapidly repaired and used to support the Borneo Campaign. The relegation of fighter units to what appeared to be strategically unimportant ground attack missions led to a crisis in morale that precipitated the so-called "Morotai Mutiny" in April 1945, when eight of Cobby's senior pilots, including Australia's leading ace in the war, Group Captain Clive Caldwell, tendered their resignations in protest. Although one of the "mutineers", Group Captain Wilf Arthur, had earlier voiced his concerns to Cobby and his headquarters staff regarding the efficacy of 1st TAF's tasking, the AOC was taken aback by the resignations. He spoke to the officers individually and as a group, asking them, "Is this something against me, or having a