History of the Royal Air Force

The history of the Royal Air Force, the air force of the United Kingdom, spans nearly a century of British military aviation.

Formation and early history (1918–1939)

Whilst the British were not the first to make use of heavier-than-air military aircraft, the RAF is the world's oldest air force of any significant size to become independent of army or naval control. [The Finnish Air Force claims to be the first independent air force in the world. When it was founded on 6 March 1918, it consisted of one aircraft and was commanded by a junior officer.] The RAF was founded on 1 April 1918 by the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. The Royal Flying Corps had been born out of the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers and was under the control of the British Army. The Royal Naval Air Service was its naval equivalent and was controlled by the Admiralty. The decision to merge the two units and create an independent air force was a response to the events of World War I, the first war in which air power proved to be decisive. The creation of the new force was based on the Smuts Report prepared by Field Marshal Jan Smuts for the Imperial War Cabinet on which he served.

The newly created RAF was the most powerful air force in the world on its creation, with over 20,000 aircraft. The squadrons of the RFC kept their numerals while those of the RNAS were renumbered from 201 onwards. The RAF's last known surviving founder member is the World War I veteran Henry Allingham. A war memorial was commissioned after the war in central London.

Following the end of World War I and the accompanying British defence cuts, the newly-independent RAF took up the task of policing the British Empire from the air. It was argued that the use of air power would prove to be a more cost-effective way of controlling large areas than by using conventional land forces. Sir Hugh Trenchard, the Chief of the Air Staff, had formulated ideas about the use of aircraft in colonial policing and these were first put into practice in 1920 when the RAF and imperial ground units defeated rebel Somaliland dervishes. The following year, in 1921, the RAF was given responsibility for all British forces in Iraq with the task of 'policing' the tribal unrest. The RAF also saw service in Afghanistan where the first evacuation of civilians occurred in 1928.

It was during the inter-war years that the RAF had to fight for its survival - many questioned the need for a separate air force, especially in peacetime. To prevent itself being disbanded and its duties returned to the Army and the Navy, the RAF spent considerable energies keeping itself in the public eye by such things as aviation record attempts.

In 1936, a reorganisation of RAF command saw the creation of Fighter Command, Bomber Command and Coastal Command. The Naval Air Branch was also de-merged and renamed the Fleet Air Arm under the control of the Royal Navy.

World War II (1939–1945)

The RAF underwent rapid expansion following the outbreak of war against Germany in 1939. This included the training of British aircrews in British Commonwealth countries under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, and the secondment of many whole squadrons, and tens of thousands of individual personnel, from Commonwealth air forces. For example, by the end of the war, the Royal Canadian Air Force personnel had contributed more than 30 squadrons to service with RAF formations; almost a quarter of Bomber Command's personnel were Canadian. [ [http://www.rcaf.com/archives/archives_features/history/waryears.php] .] Similarly, about nine per cent of the personnel who served with the RAF in Europe and the Mediterranean were seconded from the Royal Australian Air Force. [ [http://www.ww2australia.gov.au/raaf/explore.html] ] To these and other British Commonwealth peronnel were later added thousands of men from other countries, including many who had fled from German-occupied European countries.

A defining period of the RAF's existence came during the Battle of Britain. Over the summer of 1940 the RAF held off the "Luftwaffe" in perhaps the most prolonged and complicated air campaign in history. This contributed immensely to the delay and cancellation of German plans for an invasion of the United Kingdom (Operation Sea Lion). Of these few hundred RAF fighter pilots, Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously said in the House of Commons on August 20, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few". [ [http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=420 The Churchill Centre - Speeches & Quotes] ]

The main RAF effort during the war was the strategic bombing campaign against Germany. From May 31 1942 RAF Bomber Command was able to mount large-scale night raids, sometimes involving up to 1,000 aircraft. From mid-1942 increasing numbers of these aircraft were heavy four-engined bombers such as the Handley-Page Halifax and the Avro Lancaster. Noteworthy raids include Operation Millennium against Cologne, the first 1000-bomber raid; Operation Chastise, the 'Dambusters' raids on targets in the Ruhr Valley; Operation Gomorrah, the destruction of Hamburg; and the 'Battle of Berlin'. The lighter, fast two-engine de Havilland Mosquito fighter-bomber was used for tactical raids like Operation Carthage, a raid on the Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, as well as a night-fighter.

There exists considerable historical controversy about the ethics of large-scale firebombing attacks against German cities during the last few months of the war, such as the bombing of Dresden , the bombing of Pforzheim, the bombing of Heilbronn and other German cities.

Cold War (1945–1990)

[
Avro Vulcan was a strategic bomber used during the Cold War to carry conventional and nuclear bombs.] After victory in World War II, the RAF was to be further re-organised, as technological advances in air warfare saw the arrival of jet fighters and bombers. After the British development of nuclear weapons, the RAF's V bomber squadrons took sole responsibility for carrying the UK's nuclear deterrent until the development of the Royal Navy's Polaris submarines. Following the introduction of Polaris in 1968 the RAF's strategic nuclear role was reduced to a tactical one, using the WE.177 gravity bombs. This tactical role was continued by the V bombers into the 1980s and until 1998 by Tornado GR1s.

The primary role of the RAF in the Cold War years was the defence of Europe against potential attack by the Soviet Union, with many squadrons based in Germany. With the decline of the British Empire, global operations were scaled back, and RAF Far East Air Force was disbanded on October 31, 1971. Despite this, the RAF fought in many battles in the Cold War period. The RAF played a minor role in the Korean War, with flying boats taking part. However, the Suez Crisis in 1956 saw a large RAF role, with aircraft mainly flying from Cyprus and Malta. The Konfrontasi against Indonesia in the early 1960s did see use of RAF aircraft, but due to a combination of deft diplomacy and selective ignoring of certain events by both sides, it never developed into a full scale war.

Falklands War

The Falklands War in 1982 was mainly fought by the Navy and Army due to the distance of the battlefield from friendly airfields. However RAF aircraft were deployed on Ascension Island and on board the Navy's aircraft carriers alongside aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm. The most high profile RAF missions in this conflict were the famous Black Buck raids using Avro Vulcans flying from Ascension Island. However, the Service did many other things during the conflict, with its helicopters in the Falklands themselves, its Harrier GR3s flying from HMS "Hermes", its fighter aircraft protecting Ascension, maritime patrol aircraft scanning the South Atlantic, and tanker and transport fleet helping in the enormous logistical effort required for the war.

1990–present

In 1991 over 100 RAF aircraft took part in the Gulf War, in virtually every conceivable role. It marked an important turning point in the RAF's history as it was the first time the service had used precision-guided munitions in significant amounts. Later the Kosovo War in 1999 saw the RAF fight over Europe for the first time since World War II. The 2001 invasion of Afghanistan saw the RAF provide support to the United States by the provision of tankers and reconnaissance aircraft and as bases.

[
Operation Telic.] The 2003 invasion of Iraq saw a large RAF deployment to the Gulf. The RAF also staged the base for the 4 US B-52 Bombers which attacked Iraq almost every night. The only RAF losses were a friendly fire incident when an RAF Tornado jet was shot down by a US Patriot missile killing both pilot and Weapons Systems Operator due to the Patriot missile mistakingly recognising the Tornado as a Mig, and a Hercules transport plane shot down by ground fire killing the ten personnel on board just after take off from the US controlled airfield

Currently, as part of Operation Herrick, RAF Harriers are based at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan, operating in the close air support role against the Taliban. As part of Operation TELIC, Merlin and Puma helicopters operate from Basrah, protected by the RAF Regiment, forming 903 Expeditionary Air Wing.

The RAF's 90th anniversary was commemorated on 1 April 2008 by a flypast of 9 Red Arrows and 4 Typhoons along the Thames, in a straight line from just south of London City Airport Tower Bridge, the London Eye, the RAF Memorial and (at 13.00) the Ministry of Defence building. [ [http://www.raf.mod.uk/news/archive.cfm?storyid=CCA67B98-1143-EC82-2E89A277AD340ED3] ] [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player/nol/newsid_7320000/newsid_7324500?redirect=7324577.stm&news=1&nbwm=1&bbwm=1&nbram=1&bbram=1&asb=1] ] [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7323865.stm] ]

ee also

*Future of the Royal Air Force

References

*Finn, C. J. et al (2004). "Air Publication 3003 - A Brief History of the Royal Air Force." HMSO
* Chant, Christopher (1993). "The History of the RAF." Regency House Publishing. ISBN 1-85361-126-3
*Bruce Barrymore Halpenny "To Shatter the Sky: Bomber Airfield at War" (ISBN 978-0850596786)
*Bruce Barrymore Halpenny "Fight for the Sky: Stories of Wartime Fighter Pilots" (ISBN 978-0850597493)

External links

* [http://www.remuseum.org.uk/specialism/rem_spec_aero.htm Royal Engineers Museum] Royal Engineers and Aeronautics
* [http://www.remuseum.org.uk/rem_his_special.htm#aero Royal Engineers Museum] Origins of the Royal Flying Corps/Royal Air Force
* [http://www.remuseum.org.uk/corpshistory/rem_corps_part8.htm#equip Royal Engineers Museum] Early British Military Ballooning (1863)