The general lack of front line radios makes me think he wouldn't generally have been talking directly to the troops on the ground but the entire field of air co

The general lack of front line radios makes me think he wouldn't generally have been talking directly to the troops on the ground but the entire field of air combat much less close air support was in it's infancy so a lot of the doctrine was being made up on the fly. By the end of the war they had made a lot of improvements including bringing control of CAS closer to the frontline units that would be calling it in. More about the US side of the conflict: https://www.reddit.com/r/WarCollege/comments/jfrpiu/how_did_cas_work_in_ww2/ https://www.reddit.com/r/WarCollege/comments/jfrpiu/how_did_... Not Europe (assuming from your grandfather flying Typhoons) but here's a paper about how the Marines in the Pacific were developing the idea of close air support in the Pacific: https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA369287.pdf https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA369287.pdf A random book I found that might have more specifics about the RAF and British use of CAS: https://crecy.co.uk/product/close-call-raf-close-air-support-in-the-mediterranean-volume-i-defeat-in-france-to-el-hamma-1939-1945 https://crecy.co.uk/product/close-call-raf-close-air-support... Close air support is the phrase you're looking for for your own searches though if he was bombing tanks in the field.