Louis Crofton was wounded serving with the 8th Northumberland Fusiliers at the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and later joined the Royal Flying Corps as a bomber pilot. After the war he was a flying instructor in Egypt before being posted to command the Detached Flight at Khartoum where he saw action against rebels in the Nuba mountains.
On returning to England he was flight commander at RAF Upavon and served at RAF Cranwell before being posted to Coastal Command where he gave vital assistance in the search for the German battleship the Bismarck.
He was then appointed Commanding Officer of the RAF School of Navigation at Manston and subsequently at Port Albert in Canada. After advising the US Army Air Force about their patrols to give warning of any impending attack on the USA immediately after Pearl Harbour, he returned to England to become Commanding Officer of RAF Broadwell Grove. There he trained air crews for the airborne landings in operation ‘Overlord’, followed by his final posting to RAF Leicester East where he trained air crews for operation ‘Market Garden’ and airborne landings in Europe and the Far East.