No. 46 Group RAF was a group of the Royal Air Force. It was established on 17 January 1944 as No. 46 (Transport) Group at Uxbridge Road,

Stanmore Stanmore is part of the London Borough of Harrow in London. It is centred northwest of Charing Cross, lies on the outskirts of the London urban area and includes Stanmore Hill, one of the highest points of London, at high. The district, which ...

, within

RAF Transport Command RAF Transport Command was a Royal Air Force command that controlled all transport aircraft of the RAF. It was established on 25 March 1943 by the renaming of the RAF Ferry Command, and was subsequently renamed RAF Air Support Command in 1967. ...

. The next month,

No. 512 Squadron RAF No. 512 Squadron was a Second World War Royal Air Force transport squadron. History No. 512 Squadron was formed on 18 June 1943 from the Dakota element of 24 Squadron at RAF Hendon. It operated on supply routes from the United Kingdom to Gibral ...

, flying the Douglas Dakota and located at RAF Broadwell was transferred to 46 Group. The squadron began training in glider towing and dropping parachute supplies. Elements of the group (512 and 575 Squadrons) used Bazenville Airfield in the initial Normandy landings bridgehead after the British Army was established ashore on 6 June 1944. Other squadrons in the group involved in the landings were at Down Ampney - two, Nos. 48 and 271 - and at

RAF Blakehill Farm Royal Air Force Blakehill Farm or more simply RAF Blakehill Farm is a former Royal Air Force station southwest of Cricklade in Wiltshire, England, operational between 1944 and 1952. History The station was originally allocated to the United S ...

No. 233 Squadron RAF No. 233 Squadron RAF was a Royal Air Force squadron that operated from 1918–1919, 1937–1945, 1952–1957 and 1960–1964. The squadron was formed from several Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) flights and took part in the tail end of the First ...

. Other units of the group at the time of the landings were

No. 107 (Transport) Operational Training Unit RAF The numero sign or numero symbol, №, (also represented as Nº, No, No. or no.), is a typographic abbreviation of the word ''number''(''s'') indicating ordinal numeration, especially in names and titles. For example, using the numero sign, t ...

RAF Leicester East Royal Air Force Leicester East, more commonly known as RAF Leicester East , is a former Royal Air Force station, near the village of Stoughton, east southeast of Leicester, Leicestershire, England. It was constructed in 1942 and formally ...

, and No. 1697 (Air Delivery Letter Service) Flight, equipped with modified Hawker Hurricanes to deliver secret mail and small equipment to the Normandy beachheads. On 5 April 1946 RAF Broadwell and

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 ...

plus the Squadron's Servicing Echelon was transferred into 46 Group from No. 47 (Transport) Group. No. 44 Group RAF disbanded by being amalgamated into 46 Group on 14 August 1946. After extensive involvement in the Berlin Airlift from June 1948 to September 1949, 46 Group disbanded on 15 October 1949 at

Lüneburg Airfield Special landing field Lüneburg (ICAO airport code EDHG) is an airfield near Lüneburg in Lower Saxony state, Germany. It is approved for motor planes, motor glider, microlights and gliders up to a maximum weight of 2000 kg. Helicopters are a ...

(B 156) in West Germany. It was reformed on 1 November 1949 by renaming 47 Group, but disbanded only five months afterwards on 31 March 1950.

King George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of Ind ...

authorised the Group's badge in February 1951 with the motto "Alios Alis Alo" ("With my wings I nourish others"). It was reformed on 1 September 1972 as No. 46 (Strategic Support) Group, RAF Strike Command, to take over half of the previous transport role that the disbanded RAF Air Support Command had carried out. "Early in 1972" RAF Brize Norton had come under the Group's control, at the time hosting Nos 10, 53, 99 and 511 Squadrons. RAF Lyneham was also under the Group's auspices after the war. Air Marshal

Denis Crowley-Milling Air Marshal Sir Denis Crowley-Milling, (22 March 1919 – 1 December 1996) was a Second World War fighter pilot and later an air officer in the Royal Air Force. Second World War Originally a Rolls-Royce apprentice, he joined the Royal Air Force ...

served as Air Officer Commanding from 3 January 1973 to 7 January 1974.M B Barrass
Air Marshal Sir Denis Crowley-Milling
rafweb.org, accessed January 2022. It was merged into No. 38 Group on 1 January 1976 and thus disbanded.

References

{{Reflist *http://www.waterbeachmilitarymuseum.org.uk/history_page.html - four squadrons of Dakotas took part in Berlin Airlift under 46 Group from RAF Waterbeach

046 46 may refer to: * 46 (number) * 46 (album), ''46'' (album), a 1983 album by Kino (band), Kino * "Forty Six", a song by Karma to Burn from the album ''Appalachian Incantation'', 2010 * One of the years 46 BC, AD 46, 1946, 2046 {{Number disambiguat ...

Transport units and formations of the Royal Air Force Military units and formations disestablished in 1976