RAF Regiment

The genesis of the RAF Regiment was the creation of No. 1 Armoured Car Company RAF, formed in Egypt in 1921 for operations in Iraq,[6] followed shortly afterwards by No. 2 Armoured Car Company RAF and No. 3 Armoured Car Company RAF. These were equipped with Rolls-Royce armoured cars and carried out policing operations throughout the Middle East in the 1920s.[7]

An RAF Humber LRC in Middelburg, Netherlands, during Operation Infatuate, November 1944

In 1941 during the Second World War German airborne forces invaded Crete, then held by Greek, British and Commonwealth forces. The German invasion succeeded in major part because of the failure of the Allied land forces to recognise the strategic importance of the airfields, and hence to defend them adequately. In consequence the RAF base at Maleme was taken largely intact by German paratroop and glider forces, albeit with heavy casualties. The Germans were then reinforced by air behind allied lines. This led eventually to the loss of the whole island and substantial Allied losses in what became known as the Battle of Crete.[8]

Disappointed with the failure of the British Army to recognise the importance of airfields in modern warfare, Prime Minister Churchill made the RAF responsible for the defence of its own bases and the RAF Regiment was formed on 1 February 1942, with its first headquarters established at RAF Belton Park, Grantham, Lincolnshire.[9] From the start it had 66,000 personnel drawn from the former Defence Squadrons Nos. 701–850.[10][11] The new regiment was made up of field squadrons equipped with Morris Light Reconnaissance Cars, Humber Light Reconnaissance Cars and Otter Light Reconnaissance Cars. The light anti-aircraft squadrons were originally armed with Hispano 20 mm cannon and then the Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft gun. Its role was to seize, secure and defend airfields to enable air operations to take place. Several parachute squadrons were formed to assist in the capture of airfields, a capability retained by No. II Squadron.[12] It mounted the King's Guard at Buckingham Palace for the first time on 1 April 1943.[13] During the War the RAF Regiment grew to a force of over 80,000 men.[14]

In late June 1944, with the British Army fighting in Normandy where it was sustaining heavy losses and at the same time suffering from a severe shortage of manpower, it was decided to transfer 25,000 officers and men of the RAF Regiment to the army, mostly to the infantry and the Foot Guards, to be retrained.[15]

The Second World War campaign in north-eastern India and northern Burma was fought in jungle and mountains with few or non-existent roads and which facilitated the infiltration of enemy patrols behind front lines. This was overcome by holding defensive "boxes" mainly or entirely supplied by air. The defence of forward airfields close to the main army concentrations was vital to this tactic. A training school and depot for the RAF Regiment was established at Secunderabad in October 1942, to retrain former ground defence airmen. It had an assault course considered tougher than anything the army had in India. Six field squadrons and seventy AA flights were initially formed, containing 160 officers and 4,000 other ranks.[16] Until mid-1944 the AA flights were equipped only with light machine guns, then with Hispano 20 mm cannon for the rest of the war. Regiment units defended airfields and forward mobile radar units in Arakan in the Arakan Campaign in late 1942 and early 1943.[17]

During the Battle of Imphal all supplies and reinforcements had to be flown in between 29 March and 22 June 1944 with RAF Regiment units providing vital airfield defence.[18] Following the failure of the Japanese Operation U-Go it was decided to pursue the shattered remnants of the Japanese 15th Army into Burma during the monsoon, in average rainfall of 10 in (254 mm) per day and rifle flights were sometimes attached to advancing Indian Army and British East African units, to gain experience in the jungle.[19] Units of 1307 Wing were flown into the newly captured and tactically vital Meiktila airfield on 1 March 1945. Only a roughly 1,076 sq yd (900 m²) box, shared with the army and some United States anti-aircraft artillery, could be held at night and the airfield had to be cleared of enemy each morning before flying could start. As one of the RAF Regiment's proudest battle honours, this three-week battle destroyed the Japanese hold on northern Burma.[20]

The RAF Regiment fought as field, armoured car and light anti-aircraft (LAA) squadrons and flights in North Africa, the Middle East, Italy, the Balkans and North Western Europe, as well as 68 LAA squadrons defending the UK against V1 attacks as part of Operation Diver, alongside the Royal Artillery's heavy anti-aircraft and LAA batteries. Amongst other things, RAF Regiment units were the first British forces to reach Paris, amongst the first to enter Brussels, and Squadron Leader Mark Hobden and his force arrested Hitler's successor as Fuhrer, Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, at his HQ in Flensburg.[21]

On 26 November 1944, a Me 262A-2a Sturmvogel of III/KG51 based at Hopsten/Rheine near Osnabruck was the first confirmed ground-to-air kill of a jet combat aircraft. The 262 was shot down by a 40/L60 40mm Bofors gun of B.11 Detachment of 2875 Squadron RAF Regiment, at the RAF forward airfield of Helmond, near Eindhoven. Others were lost to ground fire on 17 and 18 December when the same airfield was attacked at intervals by a total of eighteen Me 262s and the guns of Nos. 2873 and 2875 squadrons RAF Regiment damaged several, causing at least two of them to crash within a few miles of the airfield. In February 1945, Sergeant Pollards's B.6 gun detachment of 2809 Squadron RAF Regiment shot down another Me 262 over the airfield of Vokel. The final appearance of Me 262s over Vokel was in 1945, when yet another fell to 2809's guns.[22]

RAF Regiment Otter at Prkos Airfield in Yugoslavia 1945

On 5 December 1944, twelve RAF Regiment squadrons deployed onto various airfields in southern Greece. They became engaged in fighting with Greek Communist Forces (ELAS) which wished to depose the Greek government at that time.[23] No. 2848 Field Squadron was the first RAF unit to arrive in West Berlin in 1945 to secure Luftwaffe Flugplatz Gatow.[24]

A recruiting poster from the 1950s

King George VI became Air Commodore-in-Chief of the regiment in 1947. He later decided to present his king's colour in 1952, on the 10th anniversary of the RAF Regiment's founding. The king, however, died around this time and Queen Elizabeth II instead presented the Queen's Colour a year later.[25]

RAF Regiment in 1988 on tour in Belize with Rapier missile system

The unilateral declaration of independence by Rhodesia in November 1965 necessitated support to Zambia, which desperately needed air defence. In a rapid response, Javelin fighters were deployed and an RAF Regiment squadron was also deployed from the United Kingdom to provide ground defence. The agility of the Regiment was demonstrated in its ability to embark 51 Squadron RAF Regiment in six hours from the call to deploy.[26] At the eastern end of the Empire, flights from RAF Regiment squadrons based in Singapore deployed to Hong Kong in 1968 to help maintain security and confidence. The RAF Regiment continued to be involved in Hong Kong into the mid-1970s providing protection at both RAF Kai Tak and at the radar station at Tai Mo Shan.[27]

RAF Regiment Forward Air Controllers (FACs) guide a Typhoon from 6 Squadron onto their target at the Cape Wrath practice range in Scotland

In 1974, the Rapier surface-to-air missile system entered service with the RAF Regiment, and equipped four squadrons protecting four RAF airfields in Germany. Detachments from the German Rapier Squadrons, particularly from RAF Gutersloh, deployed to San Carlos beach-head during the Falklands conflict to provide anti-aircraft cover.[28]

Light armoured squadrons, equipped with FV101 Scorpion and FV107 Scimitar light tracked vehicles continued to be operated into the 1980s.[29] Also from the 1980s units such as 19 Squadron were equipped with Rapier and tasked with defending USAF airbases such as RAF Upper Heyford.[30]

In July 2004 it was announced that the role of providing ground-based air defence was to be transferred to the British Army's Royal Artillery and the four Royal Air Force Regiment air defence squadrons were to be disbanded.[31]

In 2011, as part of the Strategic Defence and Security Review, it was announced that from December 2011, the CBRN role undertaken by the Joint CBRN Regiment, a combined Army/RAF unit, would be transferred to the RAF Regiment (as lead service) under the new Defence CBRN Wing, formed from 26 Squadron, 27 Squadron and 2623 (Auxiliary) Squadron. The army retained involvement through the continued use of the Royal Yeomanry to provide trained battlefield casualty replacements.[32]

In 2016, this decision was reversed with the announcement the CBRN role would be handed back to the British Army in 2020.[33]

In November 2013, The Queen's Colour (63), 1 and 27 Squadron had their new colours presented. However 16, 37 and 48 squadrons were disbanded.[34]

In July 2017, Prince Harry visited RAF Honington on behalf of The Queen to present a new Colour to the RAF Regiment. The new colour was to celebrate the 75th birthday of the formation of the Regiment in 1942.[35]

• Churchill, Winston (2015). The Hinge of Fate: The Second World War. Vol. 4. W&N. ISBN 978-0141441757.
• Deeley, Graeme (2012). Never Not Ready: The History of RAF Regiment Parachute Units 1942 – 2012. Barney Books. ISBN 978-1-906542-49-8.
• Dent, Stephen (2006). The Royal Air Force Handbook. London, UK: Anova Books. ISBN 9780851779522.
• Oliver, Kingsley (1997). Through Adversity – The History of the Royal Air Force Regiment 1941–1992 (PDF). Rushden, UK: Forces & Corporate Publishing. ISBN 0-9529597-0-4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 July 2016. Retrieved 3 July 2017.
• Pitchfork, Graham (2008). The Royal Air Force Day by Day. Stroud, UK: History Press. ISBN 978-0-7509-4309-3.
• Ripley, Tim (16 April 2008). "RAF Regiment to boost equipment and recruitment". Jane's Defence Weekly. p. 10.
• Robertson, Bruce (1978). The RAF; a pictorial history. London, UK: Robert Hale. ISBN 0-7091-6607-9.
• Warwick, Nigel W M (2007). CONSTANT VIGILANCE The RAF Regiment in the Burma Campaign. Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Aviation. ISBN 978-1-84415-500-2. Retrieved 8 February 2014.