Contacting the senior Royal Artillery fire control officer on the ground. 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 Germandivision moving in half-trackedGermanArmoured Personnel Carriers to counter attack the British 5th Division and the Polish Corps, which were themselves attacking the German-occupied monastery. Trained by the RAF, they served in squadrons controlled by 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. 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). 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. 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. The RAF also provided the aircraft and crews that worked in close support roles to the Army, notably the AOP pilots. They provided the Royal Navy with RAF aircrew and support personnel to operate the aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm, although the Navy had been allowed to begin training its own aircrew before the war began. Since then, the RAF had jealously guarded its monopoly on British military and naval aviation. In 1918, the British Army lost its air wing when the Royal Flying Corps was merged with the Royal Naval Air Service to create the independent Royal Air Force (RAF). At the time, the Royal Air Force was having great difficulty in providing effective Air Observation Post pilots to the British Army.