Aircraft of the British Air Force. British Royal Air Force

Flight test Hurricane IIC No. KX-402 with Merlin XX engine. NII VVS KA 1943

A raid of a thousand planes. Ralph Barker.

Royal Air Force and Army. FlightDecember 1940.

After the Royal Air Force (Royal Air Force - abbreviated as RAF) won the “Battle for England” by the beginning of 1942, it became clear that in the absence of contact with the enemy on land, bomber aircraft remained the only means for Britain to suppress the industrial potential and morale of the German population. . By this time, it was armed mainly with twin-engine vehicles - Whitley, Hamden and Wellington. The command no longer had any illusions about the combat capabilities of these mostly obsolete vehicles: only four-engine aircraft capable of transporting a solid bomb load over a long range and having powerful defensive weapons could inflict any significant damage to the enemy. Fortunately for the British, they attended to the creation of heavy bombers long before the war, as a result, during 1940-1941. Three types of aircraft were put into service, which formed the basis of the power of Bomber Aviation during the last three years of the war. The new machines were the aviation industry's response to the tactical and technical requirements presented in 1936.

By the beginning of 1944, the Halifaxes, along with the Lancasters, made up the vast majority in Bomber Aviation. The story of the Lancaster, which became the crown of British heavy bombers, must begin with another machine - the twin-engine Manchester.

The Manchester, the brainchild of A.V. Rose and chief designer Roy Chadwick, occupies a unique place among the machines of the Second World War. No other twin-engine aircraft could compete with it in terms of the weight of the combat load (4700 kg of bombs): it certainly belonged to the heavy bombers. In order to lift such a weight, the Manchester used Rolls-Royce "Walcher" engines (1760 hp), which, unfortunately, could not be completed. It was the engines that turned out to be the Achilles' heel of the otherwise successful aircraft - their reliability was low, and in the event of a failure of one of them, Manchester had little chance of reaching its base.

And so, on the basis of this “biggest disappointment of the Royal Air Force” (in the words of one of the senior officers), the same designer managed to create a new car, the Lancaster, which earned the exact opposite reputation and ardent love of the crews.

When (in the autumn of 1940) the futility of Manchester became obvious, Chadwick proposed, while retaining the old fuselage, to increase the wingspan and equip the car with four reliable Rolls-Royce Merlin engines. Soon the prototype of the new modification was ready, and on January 9, 1941, test pilot X. Brown took to the air a prototype Avro 68.

Lancasters of modifications Mk.I and Mk.III are recognized by experts as the best night heavy bombers of World War II.

Organizational structure of the RAF

In the mid-30s, in the course of preparing military operations against Germany in Great Britain, they began to strengthen the air defense system, and the production of aircraft began to grow. In the five pre-war years, the number of winged aircraft in the mother country increased by September 1939 from 564 to 1476 aircraft, and the number of the British Overseas Air Force - from 168 to 435 aircraft.

Organizationally, British military aviation was divided into two main services - the Royal Air Force (Royal Air Forse - RAF) and the naval air force (Fleet Air Arm - FAA). The RAF included air power in the home and overseas colonies, while the FAA owned aircraft and maintenance personnel based mainly on warships. Naturally, the main burden of hostilities during the Second World War fell on the RAF as the most numerous and important part of British aviation. The structure of the RAF was based on the principle of separation and purpose of the various branches of aviation. Initially, three main RAF commands were created: Bomber Command, Fighter Command and Coastal Command. Then came the Training Command, the Technical Services Command, and the Barrage Balloons Command.

The main tactical unit of the British Air Force was the squadron, which in the pre-war period consisted of 12 single-engine aircraft or 10 twin-engine aircraft. By the beginning of the Battle of Britain, all RAF Fighter Command squadrons in the home country were part of three air groups: the 11th air group covered London and southeast England, the 12th air group protected the eastern and central parts of England, and the 13th air group was responsible for Northern England and Scotland. A little later, in July 1940, the 10th Air Group was created to cover South West England. The main task of each air group was the defense of its territorial zone.

When British fighters began raiding the coasts of the European continent in 1941, there was a need for larger tactical fighter formations. Thus, air wings (Wing) were created, consisting mainly of three squadrons based on one airfield.

Abbreviations used

AF - Air Force - Air Force in the US Air Force;
AASF - Advanced Air Striking Force - forward-based aviation strike forces;
AM - Air Ministry - Ministry of Aviation;
A and AEE - Aircraft and Armament Experimental Establishment - Aircraft and Armament Research Center;
B and GS - Bombing and Gunnery School - a school of bombing and aerial shooting;
CFS - Central Flying School - Central Flying School;
E and RFTS - Elementary and Reserve Flying Training School - aviation school for initial training and retraining of the reserve;
FAA - Fleet Air Arms - Navy aviation;
FG - Fighter Group - fighter group;
FS - Fighter Squadron - fighter squadron;
FW - Fighter Wing - fighter wing;
FC RAF - Fighter Command RAF - RAF Fighter Command;
FTS - Flying Training School - an aviation school for basic flight training;
JSSF - Japanese Single Seat Fighter - Japanese single seat fighter;
IAF - Indian Air Force - Indian Air Force;
MU - Maintenance Unit - maintenance unit;
RAE - Royal Aircraft Establishment - Royal Aviation Institute;
RAAF - Royal Australien Air Force - Royal Australian Air Force;
RAF - Royal Air Force - Royal Air Force of Great Britain;
RAuxAF - Royal Auxiliary Air Force - Royal Auxiliary Air Force;
RCAF - Royal Canadian Air Force - Royal Canadian Air Force;
RFTS - Reserve Flying Training School - reserve flight training school;
RN - Royal Navy - Royal Navy of Great Britain;
RHAF - Royal Hellenic Air Force - Royal Hellenic Air Force;
RSAF - Royal Siamese Air Force - Royal Siam Air Force;
Sqn- Squadron - squadron;
StFl - Station Flight - station flight;
SBAC - Society of British Aircraft Constructors - Society of British Aircraft Designers.
TDU - Torpedo Development Unit - experimental air unit for the use of torpedoes.
OTU - Operational Training Unit - combat training air unit;
SAAF - South African Air Force - South African Air Force.
UAS - University Air Squadron - university division.
USAAF - United States Army Air Force - US Army Air Force.

Of the 125,000 crews that served in the strategic bomber air force between 1939 and 1945, 55,000 were killed and 18 more were wounded or taken prisoner. Losses are about 60%.

According to statistics, the most dangerous thing during the Second World War was to serve only British sailors on submarines. The chance of being killed in a normal land operation was 20%, while for a standard sortie it was 30%.

(Total 21 photos)

1 Binbrook, 1943 Members of 460 Squadron in front of a four-engine heavy bomber Avro Lancaster. (Picture: RAF Museum)

2. Avro Lancaster in flight. (Picture: RAF Museum) The Lancaster made its first sortie in March 1942. It became the most famous and most productive night bomber of World War II, flying over 156,000 sorties and dropping over 600,000 tons of bombs.

3. In the cockpit of the "Lancaster" during a flight over the village of Holme-on-Spalding Moor, in Yorkshire. (Picture: RAF Museum)

4. Base Mildenhall, 1942. A member of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force carries shells on a Fordson tractor. (Picture: RAF Museum)

5. 1944 King George VI visits the Witchford military base built in 1942 with the Queen. (Picture: RAF Museum)

6. Base Mildenhall, May 1942. Members of 419 Squadron deliver a two-ton projectile to a Vickers Wellington III twin-engine bomber, which was used extensively in the first two years of the war. (Picture: RAF Museum)

7. Base Binbrook, 1943 Mechanics work on one of the engines of the Avro Lancaster Mk I bomber. (Picture: RAF Museum)

8. Base Bottesford. Mechanics work on Avro Lancaster Mk I engines. (Picture: RAF Museum)

9. Navigation system. (Picture: RAF Museum)

10. In the cockpit of an Avro Lancaster Mk I. (Picture: RAF Museum)

11. Honington base. Members of No. 9 Squadron pose on the crashed Vickers Wellington. (Picture: RAF Museum)

12. Base Waterbeach, 1944-1945. Seven crew members in a small craft. (Picture: RAF Museum)

13. Approximately 1942. The Short Stirling, the first British four-engine bomber to be commissioned by the RAF during the war, is loaded with bombs. (Picture: RAF Museum)

14. Approximately 1942. Short Stirling is loaded with bombs. (Picture: RAF Museum)

15. Aircraft maintenance. (Picture: RAF Museum)

16. Approximately 1942. Members of No. 35 Squadron inspect the engines of the four-engine heavy bomber Handley Page Halifax. (Picture: RAF Museum) The Halifax is a famous contemporary of the Lancaster. The Halifaxes made their first raid on the night of March 11-12, 1941, on the French port of Le Havre captured by the Germans. During their service with the Royal Air Force, Halifaxes flew 82,773 sorties and dropped 224,000 tons of bombs.

17. Base Holme-on-Spalding Moor. Lieutenant John Tuckwell and two other crew members pose with a two-ton bomb for a Vickers Wellington III aircraft. (Picture: RAF Museum)20. 1939 Four Handley Page Hampden 144 Squadrons over Hemswell Base. (Picture: RAF Museum) The Hampden carried the burden of the early stages of the war over Europe, participated in the first raid on Berlin and the first "thousandth" (which involved more than 1000 aircraft) raid on Cologne.

21. Opening of a memorial to 55,573 dead British Air Force pilots during World War II (Picture: PAUL GROVER)

April 25, 1932- British and Iraqi planes and troops are called to action to crush the uprising led by Sheikh Ahmad. Oral warnings in the Kurdish dialect that the villages will be bombed are issued through a loudspeaker installed at the Victorian military transport service. The operation ends successfully in June with the surrender of Sheikh Ahmad.

July 1934- Announced a major expansion of the RAF, the number of home defense squadrons increased from 52 to 75 and bring the total first line strength to 128 squadrons within five years.

July 10, 1940- The first phase of the Battle of Britain begins.

December 9-15, 1940— The British counteroffensive began in the Western Desert. Combined air, land and sea attacks against troops and supply columns force the Italians to retreat along the Egyptian frontier. During the offensive, British forces overrun 30,000 Italian troops.

January 26 - March 30, 1942- Japanese advance in the Far East. By the end of January, the RAF and other allied forces had moved out of Malaya and Singapore towards Sumatra. Two weeks later, the enemy captured the Palembang airfield in Sumatra, destroying 39 Hurricanes. By 18 February, the Allies were evacuating to Java. RAF aircraft in the area were reduced. On March 3, Allied forces began to evacuate Java; the next day they capitulated. In Burma, Japanese forces entered Yangon on 8 March, forcing the remaining RAF to move north. Finally, on March 27, the Japanese launched a three-day attack that forced the Allies to evacuate to India.

October 23 - November 4, 1942— The Second Battle of El Alamein begins in northwestern Africa. Air Force fighters maintain constant air patrols over enemy airfields after a four-day bombing campaign has wiped out most of the opposing forces. With overwhelming air power, the Allies steadily pushed west across North Africa. During the Allied landings on November 8 (Moroccan-Algerian operation), additional fighters arrived in support and maintained air superiority. However, in North West Africa, the Allies suffered heavy losses, having difficulty with the lack of suitable airfields to operate.

September 9, 1943— Anglo-American troops land in continental Europe at Salerno, Italy.

January 21, 1944— The German Luftwaffe begins a series of heavy attacks on British targets, including London.

June 1, 1944- The Balkan Air Force is formed to support the Yugoslav partisans.

October 31, 1956- Operation Musketeer begins, Suez Crisis.

May 15, 1957- The first British hydrogen bomb (Yellow Sun) fell near Christmas Island in the Southwest Pacific Ocean.

June 30, 1969- Responsibility for Britain's strategic nuclear weapons is shifting to the Royal Navy's submarines and Polaris missiles.

September 1, 1969— Withdrawal from Libya.

January 9, 1996- the last scheduled flight to Sarajevo under Operation Cheshire, carried out by the RAF.

April 1, 1996— the last RAF headquarters on continental Europe, at Reindahlen, is disbanded.

August 21, 2001- Noticed the closing of the last RAF base in Germany. The decision to remove all RAF assets from Germany was made in 1996 as a result of the Strategic Defense Review. The ceremony on 15 June officially ended the RAF's continuous presence in Germany since World War II.

October 2001- Operations Veritas and Fingal were launched against the Taliban in Afghanistan. This theater remains a core element of the RAF's commitment, now under the banner of Operation Herrick and through the 904 Expeditionary Air Wing. in Westminster Abbey was damaged by bombing, and the stained-glass windows were knocked out by explosions, it was proposed to organize a memorial to the dead pilots in it Royal Air Force and allies from New Zealand, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Belgium and the United States. On July 10, 1947, the memorial was opened by King George VI. New stained glass windows depicted the emblems of the fighter formations that took part in the Battle of Britain, the Air Force motto "Per ardua ad astra" ( lat.“Through troubles to the stars”), as well as pilots kneeling in front of the manger with the baby Jesus and the crucifix, and testifying to the resurrection of Christ. Baron Hugh Caswell Trimenhir Dowding and "Father of the RAF" Hugh Montagu Trenchard were subsequently buried with honors in the east wing of the chapel. Since 1944, services have been held in Westminster Abbey in gratitude for the victory in the 1940 air battle.

By November 1918, the end of the First World War, the British Air Force (RAF - Royal Air Force, an independent air force as a branch of service was created on April 1, 1918) consisted of 27 thousand officers and about 300 thousand flight and ground personnel (of which - about 32 thousand women). These people served 188 squadrons of the first echelon, 187 training squadrons and some other units - a total of 3300 aircraft and 103 balloons. The air defense of London was provided by 11 squadrons, 286 anti-aircraft guns and 387 searchlights, air command posts with radiotelephones, some of the fighters had night sights. About 347 thousand people worked in the aviation industry. However, "the war that was supposed to end all wars" was over.

The conclusion of peace led to a rapid reduction in the Air Force: by January 1920, over 26,000 officers and 227,000 personnel were fired. Of the 99 squadrons on the Western Front, by the end of October 1919, only one remained. The air defense system disappeared completely, including communications systems.

The Air Force as an independent branch of the military had to literally fight for survival. Hugh Trenchard, Chief of Staff and from 1927 Marshal of the Royal Air Force, actually recreated them "from the ashes", in the words of Chaz Boyer. Trenchard had to fight with competitors - the army, navy, as well as civilian politicians - for the right of the Air Force to be independent: after the end of the war, there was absolutely not enough money for everyone.

An essential trump card of the Air Force was the ability to use them in a variety of colonial conflicts waged by Great Britain in the 20-30s of the last century. A relatively small number of aircraft and their crews made it possible to quickly and cheaply take control of huge hard-to-reach territories.

So, on May 25, 1919, the heavy bomber Handley Page V / 1500 "Old Carthusian" dropped four 51-kilogram (112-pound) and sixteen 10-kilogram bombs on Kabul (the only combat operation of aircraft of this type), which contributed to the completion of the third English- Afghan war: immediately after the introduction of the air fleet, the situation changed dramatically in favor of the British. In 1920, aircraft bombed the positions of supporters of the "mad mullah" Mohammed Hassan in Somalia and rebels in Iraq. Only from June to December 1920, 97.5 tons of bombs were dropped in Iraq in 4000 flight hours, with the loss of 11 aircraft and 9 pilots. By 1922, 8 squadrons were stationed in Iraq, which kept in obedience a huge country, extremely hostile to the British, although the number of rebels at times exceeded 130 thousand people.

Trenchard wrote that aviation should be a preventive force. The demonstration of its capabilities should be concentrated and long, and the “punishment” should be strong and long. Trenchard ordered leaflets with warnings to be dropped at least a day before the bombardment of villages. In the same 1922, aviation suppressed performances in South Africa. In addition to strike operations, aviation provided reconnaissance, communications, and sometimes supplies.

1923 gave an example of the transfer of troops by air: about 300 soldiers with machine guns were transported 100 km, the sick and wounded were also evacuated. In 1929, aircraft evacuated 586 European refugees from Kabul to India. The Air Force significantly outperformed its competitors in terms of price-effectiveness: in Somalia, the pilots broke the resistance in two weeks, spending 40-77 thousand pounds sterling against 6.5 million pounds for an alternative ground operation. Curiously, the commander of the 45th Squadron in Iraq was the future head of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command in World War II, Arthur Harris.

The "workhorse" of the first years of post-war British aviation was the heavy twin-engine bomber Vickers Vimy. Like the four-engined Handley Page V/1500, it was designed for the First World War, but did not make it in time. In peacetime, the Vickers Vimy set a number of world records and made the first successful flight across the Atlantic Ocean, piloted by pilots John Alcock and Arthur Brown in May 1919. Other participants in the flights were Fairey IIID reconnaissance aircraft and Southampton flying boats.

Restrictions in financing the Air Force led to the fact that even in 1930, the aircraft of the end of the First World War - De Havilland 9A and Bristol F2B, which had fought a lot in India, continued to be used "in the first line". The Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.8s, considered completely obsolete in 1918, continued to be used in Iraq in the 1920s.

When John Salmond became Marshal of the Air Force in January 1930, the RAF had 57 squadrons, 22 of which were based outside Britain, plus 9 Special Reserve squadrons. Four years later, on January 1, 1934, the Air Force grew to 90 squadrons - 1794 aircraft.

The growth of aviation capabilities, especially military aviation, caused fears for the fate of London, whose vulnerability from the air was proven back in the First World War. The Air Force Headquarters argued that the loss of the population of London on the first day of the war would amount to 20 thousand people, and in a week - 150 thousand. Against the background of the centuries-old invulnerability of England, such calculations, coupled with many books about the air invasion, led almost to hysteria. The development of chemical weapons, the active use of aviation in China, Ethiopia and Spain only exacerbated fears. In September-October 1935, several squadrons of Hawker and Fairey light biplane bombers were secretly deployed from England closer to the battlefields in Ethiopia.

At the air parade on July 6, 1935, 356 aircraft from 37 squadrons flew - and all were biplanes, with models aged from 5 to 15 years. The need to update the aircraft fleet became obvious. On November 6 of the same year, the prototype of the Hurricane monoplane fighter made its first flight, and on March 5, 1936, the prototype of the Spitfire, which later became famous. If in 1936 the “air budget” amounted to 39 million pounds, then in 1938 it was already 111.5 million. At the same time, the need to protect the mother country led to the supply of colonial units on a residual basis. Thus, the WestlandWapity multi-purpose biplane, being a development of the DH 9A, served in India from 1928 to 1940. Only in the summer of 1938 did pilots begin to master the BlenheimI all-metal bomber. By the time of the Munich Agreement, the RAF had 149 squadrons in the first line.

But in addition to completely new aircraft, trained pilots, infrastructure and much more were also required. The policy of the "skinny years" of the 20s and the fluctuations of the early 30s had an effect. And on the threshold was already a new war - World War II.

The author of the text is Evgeny Belash.

Sources:

Bowyer, Chaz. RAF Operations 1918-1938. William Kimber & Co. Limited, 1988.
Buckley John. Air Power in the Age of Total War. 1999.
Omissi David E. Air Power and Colonial Control: The Royal Air Force, 1919-1939. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1990.
Ashmore. Air defense of England in the World War and at the present time. - M .: Military Publishing House of the NKO USSR, 1936. S. 128.