Coningham served with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in Samoa and Egypt at the beginning of the war. After contracting typhoid fever, he was discharged from the army in 1916. Later that year, he joined the Royal Flying Corps in England and was assigned to 32 Squadron at the beginning of 1917. Flying the D.H.2, Coningham scored his first victory on 23 January 1917. In July 1917, he scored nine more victories flying the D.H.5. In June 1918, he assumed command of 92 Squadron and was credited with four more victories while flying the S.E.5a. Coningham was wounded in action twice and remained in the Royal Air Force at the end of the war. During World War II, Coningham distinguished himself as Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery's air boss in the Desert War campaign, advocating an airpower doctrine that was later adopted by General Dwight D. Eisenhower and became the tactical air doctrine of the United States Air Force. The basic principles of this doctrine were:  | The strength of airpower lies in its flexibility and capacity for rapid concentration. |  | It follows that control must be concentrated under command of an airman. |  | Air forces must be concentrated in use and not dispersed in penny packets. |
Assuming command of the British Second Tactical Air Force in January 1944, Coningham played a key role in the Normandy invasion. By the end of the war, he attained the rank of Air Marshal and was later knighted by the King of England. In 1948, Coningham was a passenger aboard a British South American Airways flight that disappeared enroute to Bermuda. The passengers and crew of the ill-fated Avro Tudor were never found. |