eight resign en masse, and the others agreed. Arthur later stated that, "I meant to make as big a fuss as I possibly could with the object of getting the position corrected ... All the same, we realised that, to lay ourselves open to any charge of mutiny, we might lessen the force of what we were doing, which was the reason we put the things in as resignations and not as any attempt to unseat people higher up." Arthur also attempted to secure Cobby's support for the protest. The commander of No. 1 TAF had been the Australian Flying Corps' leading ace in World War I, as Caldwell was the RAAF's in World War II. Arthur reasoned that, although Cobby was partly to blame for the morale issue, "we felt that his value to our move, because of his name with the Public, together with Group Captain Caldwell, would give us a very considerable amount of public support ... he was the prima donna of one war, and ... arm-in-arm with the prima donna of the next war, we would put up a reasonable front and attract a lot of attention in the headlines of the newspapers." Cobby refused to join in and later claimed to be unaware of the depth of feeling among the pilots. "Mutiny" On 20 April 1945, the eight pilots presented Cobby with identically worded letters under the heading, "APPLICATION FOR RESIGNATION OF COMMISSION." The letters read, "I hereby respectfully make application that I be permitted to resign my Commission as an officer in the Royal Australian Air Force, forthwith." Cobby appeared taken aback and would not accept the resignations. He spoke to seven of the pilots individually, but not Caldwell, as he was already under charge. When the men refused to withdraw the letters or elaborate on the reason for their actions, Cobby contacted his immediate superior, Air Vice Marshal Bill Bostock, head of RAAF Command, the Air Force's main operational command. Bostock arrived on Morotai the next day and interviewed the pilots, asking them to tear up the letters, without success. His methods were later construed as an attempt to "make the situation go away or to at least cover it up". The pilots' only concession to Bostock's entreaty was to resubmit their resignations with the word "forthwith" replaced by "at the end of current operations". Following these interviews, Bostock advised Jones that