No. 38 Group RAF was a group of the Royal Air Force which disbanded on 31 December 2020. It was formed on 6 November 1943 from the former 38 Wing with nine squadrons as part of
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.
...
. It was disbanded on 31 January 1951, but re-formed on 1 January 1960, became part of RAF Air Support Command in 1967 and then, in 1972, the air support group within RAF Strike Command. It was temporarily disbanded from 18 Nov 1983 to 31 Oct 1992 and from 1 April 2000 to 1 July 2014. It subsequently became part of RAF Air Command, bringing together the Royal Air Force’s Engineering, Logistics, Communications and Medical Operations units.RAF 38 Group Reforming Parade 2 July 14 /ref> Air Officer Commanding No. 38 Group was also responsible for UK-based United States Visiting Forces (USVF) units and for RAF personnel attached to other global armed forces.
History
The predecessor of 38 Group was No. 38 Wing RAF, initially formed on 15 January 1942 from
296
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Year 296 ( CCXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Diocletian and Constantius (or, less frequent ...
Nigel Norman
Air Commodore Sir Henry Nigel St Valery Norman, 2nd Baronet, (21 May 1897 – 19 May 1943) was a consulting civil engineer and Royal Air Force officer during the first half of the 20th century.295 Squadron was additionally formed at Netheravon on 3 August 1942. To these were added
570
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Year 570 ( DLXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 570 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar e ...
,
298
Year 298 (Roman numerals, CCXCVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Faustus and Gallus (or, less frequently, year 10 ...
,
299
__NOTOC__
Year 299 (Roman numerals, CCXCIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Diocletian and Maximian (or, l ...
,
190
Year 190 (CXC) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Aurelius and Sura (or, less frequently, year 943 ''Ab urbe condita'') ...
,
196
Year 196 ( CXCVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Dexter and Messalla (or, less frequently, year 949 ''Ab urbe condita ...
,
620
__NOTOC__
Year 620 ( DCXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 620 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era bec ...
Squadrons to form No. 38 Group on 11 October 1943. At that time four squadrons were equipped with
Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle
The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.41 Albemarle was a twin-engine military transport aircraft, transport aircraft developed by the United Kingdom, British aircraft manufacturer Armstrong Whitworth and primarily produced by A.W. Hawksley Ltd, a subsid ...
Short Stirling
The Short Stirling was a British four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It has the distinction of being the first four-engined bomber to be introduced into service with the Royal Air Force (RAF).
The Stirling was designed during t ...
s (299, 190, 196, 620). A further Halifax unit, 644 Squadron, was added in February 1944.
During 1943, changes of all aircraft types and operational bases were made. Nevertheless 295, 296 and 297 Squadrons were heavily involved that year in operations Beggar, Ladbroke and Fustian, during the invasion of Sicily. From February 1944 many sorties were made over mainland Europe in support of Special Operations Executive and detachments of the
Special Air Service
The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling and in 1950, it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terro ...
.
But by 5 June 1944 the group’s updated resources had been fully redeployed between RAF Brize Norton, RAF Fairford,
RAF Harwell
Royal Air Force Harwell or more simply RAF Harwell is a former Royal Air Force station, near the village of Harwell, located south east of Wantage, Oxfordshire and north west of Reading, Berkshire, England.
The site is now the Harwell Sc ...
,
RAF Keevil
Royal Air Force Station Keevil or more simply RAF Keevil is a former Royal Air Force station located between the villages of Keevil and Steeple Ashton, about east of the town of Trowbridge, in Wiltshire, England.
The airfield was built on a ...
Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allies of World War II, Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Front (World War II), Western Europe during World War II. The operat ...
, the invasion of Europe. From then to 16 June the Group was fully involved in operations Tonga (the delivery of paratroop-filled gliders at the onset of Overlord) and
Mallard
The mallard () or wild duck (''Anas platyrhynchos'') is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Arge ...
(the delivery of the main airborne forces and their equipment by glider).
In September 1944 the group was called upon to ferry airborne troops for
Operation Market Garden
Operation Market Garden was an Allies of World War II, Allied military operation during the World War II, Second World War fought in the Netherlands from 17 to 27 September 1944. Its objective was to create a Salient (military), salient into G ...
, the abortive attempt to capture the Rhine bridge at Arnhem. Following that operation there was further reorganisation; the Group Headquarters moved to
Marks Hall
Marks Hall was a Jacobean country house some north of Coggeshall in Essex, England. Previously a timber manor house, the 17th-century brick building was demolished in 1950. History
In 1163 the manor house and estate of Markshall were granted ...
, Essex in October 1944 and the squadrons were redeployed to
RAF Earls Colne
Earls Colne Airfield is a general aviation aerodrome located south-east of the village of Earls Colne, Essex, England.
The site was previously RAF Earls Colne, a Royal Air Force station which was primilarly used by the United States Army Air For ...
(296 and 297),
RAF Rivenhall
Royal Air Force Rivenhall or more simply RAF Rivenhall is a former Royal Air Force station located in Essex, England. The airfield is located approximately south-southeast of Braintree, Essex, England.
Opened in 1942, it was used by both ...
(295 and 570),
RAF Great Dunmow
Royal Air Force Great Dunmow or more simply RAF Great Dunmow is a former Royal Air Force station in the parish of Little Easton, Essex, England. The airfield is located approximately mi west of Great Dunmow, north of the A120; about nor ...
RAF Tempsford
RAF Tempsford is a former Royal Air Force station located north east of Sandy, Bedfordshire, Sandy, Bedfordshire, England and south of St. Neots, Cambridgeshire, England.
As part of the Royal Air Force Special Duty Service, the airfield wa ...
also came under 38 Group control.
On 24 March 1945 the squadrons were fully employed in delivering airborne troops to the far bank of the Rhine as part of Operation Varsity, an operation which proved costly in terms of aircrew lives lost.
After the war most 38 Group squadrons were either disbanded or relocated to the Far East and the HQ moved to RAF Upavon. 295 and 297 Squadrons merged and moved to Fairford. 38 Group became part of
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.
...
on 1 June 1945.
In 1972, Headquarters 38 Group moved from RAF Odiham, Hants, where it had been since 1960, to RAF Benson, Oxon. Also that year, on 1 July 1972, it became part of the new RAF Strike Command.
No. 46 Group RAF 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, within RAF Transport Command. The next month, No. 512 Squadron RAF, flying the Douglas Dakota and loc ...
was merged into 38 Group on 1 January 1976. On 17 November 1983, 38 Group was subsumed within Headquarters
No. 1 Group RAF
No. 1 Group of the Royal Air Force is one of the two operations groups in RAF Air Command. Today, the group is referred to as the Air Combat Group, as it controls the RAF's combat fast-jet aircraft and has airfields in the UK, as well as RAF Sup ...
at RAF Upavon in Wiltshire.
38 Group was again active during the 1990s from 1 November 1992 to 2000.
From 2014, the reformed group had units at RAF Wittering, RAF Brize Norton, RAF High Wycombe and RAF Leeming. The reformed group now includes RAF A4 Force Elements (deployable engineering and logistic units), Tactical Medical Wing at Brize Norton, and
Tactical Communications Wing RAF
90 Signals Unit (90 SU) is based at RAF Leeming, North Yorkshire and provides Military communications, information and communication services to deployed units of the Royal Air Force.
History
No. 90 (Signals) Group was formed on 26 April 1946 ...
at RAF Leeming. On 1 April 2015 38 Group assumed responsibility for the Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Service (MRS) with its three teams at RAF Lossiemouth, RAF Leeming and RAF Valley where it is co-located with the MRS Headquarters.
38 Group was disbanded on 31 December 2020, with the units under its command dispersed to other groups and areas of the RAF, including the newly formed integrated Support Force.
Orders of battle
1944
1945
1962
1982
2016
Order of Battle for No. 38 Group RAF, December 2016