go against me in this, because if so, if you feel that I have fallen down in my job, I will straight away ask to be recalled," to which they replied, "It has nothing to do with you." Cobby reported the incident to his immediate superior, Air Vice Marshal Bill Bostock, who informed the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Jones, and the Allied Air Forces Commander, Lieutenant General George Kenney. All made their way to Morotai and interviewed the pilots involved, and all concluded that Cobby should be relieved of his command. Bostock held Cobby responsible for the "dangerously low level" of morale in 1st TAF, but also noted "it is clear that he has been badly served by his senior staff". In the event, Jones transferred not only Cobby but also his staff officers, Group Captains Gibson and Simms, and Air Commodore Frederick Scherger took over command on 10 May. Cobby's departure was greeted with relief by Australian Army commanders, who were frustrated by the poor working relationship between 1st TAF and the Army units at Tarakan. Cobby defended his leadership of 1st TAF at the subsequent inquiry before Judge John Vincent Barry. During his testimony he declared that although his officers "wished to do more in the war than they were doing ... it was not within the power of 1st T.A.F. to give them that more important or more interesting work". He believed that his forces had played a significant part in making safe General MacArthur's flank during the Philippines Campaign. Barry nevertheless found that Cobby had "failed to maintain proper control over his command", and that his removal as 1st TAF commander was justified. Air Force historian Alan Stephens later described it as "a personal and institutional tragedy that a genuinely great figure in RAAF history had to end his career in such circumstances". The Oxford Companion to Australian Military History contends that Cobby's "gallant service flying career ... became another victim of the weaknesses and feuding within the RAAF's senior leadership during the Pacific War". Stephens summed up Cobby's military career by saying "No Australian airman's experience better illustrates the tensions between 'command', 'leadership' and 'heroism'", concluding that "the qualities that make a hero do not easily translate into those needed by a commander, although they are likely to engender leadership". Post-war career and legacy Cobby was officially discharged from the Air