But still, was the solution to risk a senior officer on a swan-song combat flight?

Those forces are now flying 55 to 60 combat flights over Iraq each day, more than double the number earlier this year.

The last combat flights took place on 16 September.

During this phase of battle Poles made 330 combat flights.

Imolesi made his first combat flight on 21 January 1917.

It first flew in 1948, and the last combat flight was in 1959.

The air campaign, now entering its fifth week, has seen a role reversal in combat flights.

The last combat flight of an R-100 was on 26 April 1945.

In total, he completed 86 combat flights and shot down 11 German warplanes.

But military experts expect they will include 300 combat flights a day and hundreds of cruise missiles.