Danny:-
I too, wondered about John, he now seems to be a man of considerable authority
Perhaps this is the crux of the issue. I wonder just how much authority he did have. Was he formally "in command"? All this started in an Air Commodore's office in Adastral House. John has just been expelled from Canada in disgrace (having burned down his Stn Cdr's bungalow!) but he is at the top of his professional cadre. He gets the job of recruiting 30 pilots, getting them out to India, and getting the L5's out there assembled and up to Imphal. No promotion, no formal unit designation, just do it! Sounds to me like one of those Hollywood movies whereby condemned men are given the chance of reprieve and wiping the slate clean if they go on some suicidal mission to capture/kill a senior Nazi General or whatever...
One wonders if the whole unit consisted of such square pegs. The RAF wasn't going to be too bothered how they got on out there, it was an operation not only for the Army but embedded with it. Danny has already shown us that India was a far off land of which the Air Ministry knew little and perhaps cared even less (if that doesn't get a bite, what will? ;-) but at least he was flying in formal RAF units. So was this a punishment tour in which they would either sink or swim? Just speculating of course...