No. 34 Wing RAF is a former

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is e ...

that was operational during the

First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

and the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

s. Today it is an

Expeditionary Air Wing On 1 April 2006 Expeditionary Air Wings (EAWs) were formed at nine of the RAF's Main Operating Bases. Each EAW has its own identity and is led by the Station Commander, supported by his Station management team. The deployable elements of the st ...

based at

RAF Waddington Royal Air Force Waddington otherwise known as RAF Waddington is a Royal Air Force (RAF) station located beside the village of Waddington, south of Lincoln, Lincolnshire in England. The station is the RAF's Intelligence Surveillance Target ...

First World War

34th (Training) Wing RFC was formed on 8 September 1917 at Stockbridge within the Southern Training Brigade. It controlled Chattis Hill Aerodrome and Lopcombe Corner Aerodrome until 12 October 1918 when it was disbanded.

Second World War

No. 34 (Army Co-operation) Wing RAF was formed on 22 August 1941 for Army Eastern Command attached to Eastern Command HQ at

Luton Hoo Luton Hoo is an English country house and estate near Luton in Bedfordshire and Harpenden in Hertfordshire. Most of the estate lies within the civil parish of Hyde, Bedfordshire. The Saxon word Hoo means the spur of a hill, and is more common ...

under

RAF Army Cooperation Command The RAF Army Co-operation Command was a short-lived command of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, comprising the army cooperation units of the RAF. The command was formed on 1 December 1940 when No. 22 (Army Co-Operation) Group, ...

controlling Army co-operations units based at

RAF Bottisham Royal Air Force Bottisham or more simply RAF Bottisham is a former Royal Air Force station located east of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England. History RAF Fighter Command use RAF Bottisham opened in March 1940 and was first used by bomb-ar ...

RAF Sawbridgeworth Royal Air Force Sawbridgeworth or RAF Sawbridgeworth is a former Royal Air Force station located north of Harlow, Essex and east of Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England. The airfield was used during the First World War as a night landing ground ...

RAF Snailwell Royal Air Force Snailwell or more simply RAF Snailwell is a former Royal Air Force station located near to the village of Snailwell, Cambridgeshire, located north of Newmarket, Suffolk, England. History * USAAF 347th Fighter Squadron Ope ...

, RAF Stapleford Tawney, RAF Twinwood Farm and

RAF Westley RAF Westley is a former Royal Air Force satellite airfield located to the west of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England, between 1938 and 1946. It was established by the Straight Corporation which set up the West Suffolk Aero Club in May 1938, before ...

. It was renamed to No. 34 Strategic Reconnaisance Wing RAF on 1 June 1943 with

No. 12 Group RAF No. 12 Group of the Royal Air Force was a group, a military formation, that existed over two separate periods, namely the end of the First World War when it had a training function and from just prior to the Second World War until the early 1960s ...

RAF Fighter Command RAF Fighter Command was one of the commands of the Royal Air Force. It was formed in 1936 to allow more specialised control of fighter aircraft. It served throughout the Second World War. It earned near-immortal fame during the Battle of Brita ...

attached to the

RAF Second Tactical Air Force The RAF Second Tactical Air Force (2TAF) was one of three tactical air forces within the Royal Air Force (RAF) during and after the Second World War. It was made up of squadrons and personnel from the RAF, other British Commonwealth air forces, ...

. On 30 June 1943 the wing moved to

RAF Blackbushe Royal Air Force Blackbushe or more simply RAF Blackbushe is a former Royal Air Force station in Hampshire, England, during the Second World War. It is now Blackbushe Airport. History The station was opened on 1 November 1942 as RAF Hartford Brid ...

, then to

RAF Northolt ("Ready to carry or to fight") , pushpin_map = Greater London , pushpin_label = RAF Northolt , pushpin_map_caption = Shown within Greater London , coordinates = , type = Royal Air Force station , code = , site_area = , height = , owner ...

on 8 April 1944, on 1 September 1944 the wing moved to mainland Europe and used A.12 Balleroy, B.47 Amiens and Eindhoven before being disbanded on 30 September 1945. It controlled various squadrons including: 2, 4, 16, 69, 140, 168, 170, 182, 231, 239, 241, 268, 309, 613, 652, 654, 656, 657.

D-Day

For Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944, No. 34 was a reconnaissance wing in

with Nos 16 ( Spitfire PRXI), 69 ( Wellington XIII) and 140 ( Mosquito PRIX/XVI) Squadrons;'Orders of Battle, June 1944', Ken Delve, ''D-Day: The Air Battle'', London: Arms & Armour Press, 1994, .Appendix VI: 'Allied Air Forces', Major L.F. Ellis, ''History of the Second World War, United Kingdom Military Series: Victory in the West'', Vol I: ''The Battle of Normandy'', London: HM Stationery Office, 1962/Uckfield: Naval & Military, 2004, .

Operation Bodenplatte

No. 34 Wing was based at B.56

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Melsbroek Melsbroek Air Base is a Belgian Air Component facility in Steenokkerzeel, northeast of Brussels, the capital of Belgium. It is located on the northern side of the same site as Brussels Airport, with which it shares runways and ground and air c ...

during

Operation Bodenplatte Operation Bodenplatte (; "Baseplate"), launched on 1 January 1945, was an attempt by the Luftwaffe to cripple Allied air forces in the Low Countries during the Second World War. The goal of ''Bodenplatte'' was to gain air superiority during th ...

, the German aerial attack of 1 January 1945. The Germans hit Melsbroek hard. According to

Emil Clade Emil Josef Clade (26 February 1916 – May 2010) was a Luftwaffe fighter ace in World War II, and figured in German civilian aviation after the war. Enlisting in the Luftwaffe in 1937, prior to World War II, Clade served throughout the war as a ...

(leading III./

JG 27 ''Jagdgeschwader'' 27 (JG 27) "''Afrika''" was a fighter wing of the Luftwaffe during World War II. The wing was given the name "Africa" for serving in the North African Campaign predominantly alone in the period from April 1941 to Septemb ...

), the anti-aircraft gun positions were not manned, and aircraft were bunched together or in lines, which made perfect targets. The attack caused considerable damage among the units based there and was a great success. The reconnaissance wings lost two entire squadrons worth of machines. No. 69 Squadron RAF lost 11

Vickers Wellington The Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engined, long-range medium bomber. It was designed during the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey. Led by Vickers-Armstrongs' chief designer Rex Pierson; a key feature of the aircraft is its ...

s and two damaged. Possibly all

No. 140 Squadron RAF No. 140 Squadron of the Royal Air Force was a Second World War photo-reconnaissance squadron that operated between 1941 and 1945. History Briefly formed during the First World War on 1 May 1918 at RAF Biggin Hill as a home defence squadron with ...

′s de Havilland Mosquitoes were lost. At least five Supermarine Spitfires from No. 16 Squadron RAF were destroyed.

No. 271 Squadron RAF No. 271 Squadron of the Royal Air Force was operational for two periods; a few brief months between 27 September 1918 and 9 December 1918 operating flying boats to protect shipping from German U-boats, and between 28 March 1940 and 1 December 19 ...

lost at least seven Handley Page Harrow transports "out of action". A further 15 other aircraft were destroyed. 139 Wing reported five

North American B-25 Mitchell The North American B-25 Mitchell is an American medium bomber that was introduced in 1941 and named in honor of Major General William "Billy" Mitchell, a pioneer of U.S. military aviation. Used by many Allied air forces, the B-25 served in ...

s destroyed and five damaged. Manrho & Pütz 2004, p. 217. Another source states that 13 Wellingtons were destroyed, as were five Mosquitoes, four

Auster Auster Aircraft Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer from 1938 to 1961.Willis, issue 122, p.55 History The company began in 1938 at the Britannia Works, Thurmaston near Leicester, England, as Taylorcraft Aeroplanes (England) Limited, ma ...

s and five

Avro Anson The Avro Anson is a British twin-engined, multi-role aircraft built by the aircraft manufacturer Avro. Large numbers of the type served in a variety of roles for the Royal Air Force (RAF), Fleet Air Arm (FAA), Royal Canadian Air Force (RCA ...

s from the Tactical Air Forces 2nd Communications Squadron. Three Spitfires were also lost and two damaged.Franks 2000, p. 134.

Cold War

After the Second World War 34 Wing was reformed as No. 34 Reconnaisance Wing RAF at

RAF Gutersloh The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

as part of

No. 2 Group RAF No. 2 Group is a group of the Royal Air Force which was first activated in 1918, served from 1918–20, from 1936 through the Second World War to 1947, from 1948 to 1958, from 1993 to 1996, was reactivated in 2000, and is today part of Air Comm ...

as part of

in West Germany. The unit moved to

RAF Laarbruch Royal Air Force , more commonly known as RAF ICAO EDUL (from 1 January 1995 ETUL) was a Royal Air Force station, a military airfield, located in Germany on its border with the Netherlands. The Station's motto was (). The site now operates ...

on 1 November 1954, it was disbanded on 1 January 1960. It controlled various squadrons such as: 79, 541, 69, 31, 314, 68, 16 and 5.

First World War

Second World War

D-Day

Operation Bodenplatte

Cold War

Current use

See also

References

Citations

Bibliography