RAF Transport Command was a

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) and ...

command Command may refer to: Computing * Command (computing), a statement in a computer language * COMMAND.COM, the default operating system shell and command-line interpreter for DOS * Command key, a modifier key on Apple Macintosh computer keyboards * ...

that controlled all

transport aircraft Transport aircraft is a broad category of aircraft that includes: * Airliners, aircraft, usually large and most often operated by airlines, intended for carrying multiple passengers or cargo in commercial service * Cargo aircraft or freighters, fix ...

of the RAF. It was established on 25 March 1943 by the renaming of the

RAF Ferry Command RAF Ferry Command was the secretive Royal Air Force command formed on 20 July 1941 to ferry urgently needed aircraft from their place of manufacture in the United States and Canada, to the front line operational units in Britain, Europe, North Af ...

, and was subsequently renamed

RAF Air Support Command Air Support Command of the Royal Air Force was formed on 1 August 1967 by the redesignation of RAF Transport Command, Transport Command. Its change of name reflected the change of emphasis of the Command from solely transporting materials and ma ...

in 1967.

History

Second World War

During 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 opposin ...

, it at first ferried

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines ...

from

factories A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...

to operational units and performed air transport. Later it took over the job of dropping

paratroops A paratrooper is a military parachutist—someone trained to parachute into a military operation, and usually functioning as part of an airborne force. Military parachutists (troops) and parachutes were first used on a large scale during World ...

from

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, ...

as well. Transport Command was the only RAF command in to which aircrew originating in the Caribbean were not posted due to the fact that they might be required to fly to the United States where racial discrimination was legally entrenched at the time. In June 1944 the Command was made up of No. 38 Group RAF; No. 44 Group RAF; No. 45 Group RAF; No. 46 Group RAF; No. 216 Group RAF; No. 229 Group RAF; No. 114 Wing RAF, and No. 116 Wing RAF at

RAF Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the Borough of Barnet, North-West London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has been part of Great ...

. No. 44 Group - HQ at Gloucester * "In the early days of the North Atlantic route, there was ..at the eastern end ..the Overseas Air Movements Control Unit (OAMCU) which in August 1941 was up-rated to become No 44 Group, thus becoming the second piece of the Transport Command jigsaw. With its Headquarters at Barnwood (near

RAF Innsworth RAF Innsworth was a non flying Royal Air Force station, located on the north side of the city of Gloucester in England. The station closed in March 2008 and for the last 13 years of its life it was the headquarters of Personnel and Training Comma ...

) in Gloucester,

he group He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

organised the receipt of all aircraft arriving from across the Atlantic, as well as the despatch of those going out to the Mediterranean and the Far East; it also co-ordinated the massive influx of USAAF aircraft and crews under

Operation Bolero Operation Bolero was the commonly used reference for the code name of the United States military troop buildup in the United Kingdom during World War II in preparation for the initial cross-channel invasion plan known as Operation Roundup, to be ...

." * Controlled airfields such as Bramcote (where 105 Operational Training Unit was located), Filton, Hendon, Hurn, Kemble, Llandow, Lyneham, Melton Mowbray, Pershore, Portreath, Prestwick, St Mawgan and Talbenny No. 45 Group RAF - HQ at

Dorval Dorval () is an on-island suburban city on the island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, Canada. In 2016, the Canadian Census indicated that the population increased by 4.2% to 18,980. Although the city has the largest surface area in Montré ...

in Canada, (the former

Atlantic Ferry Organization RAF Ferry Command was the secretive Royal Air Force command formed on 20 July 1941 to ferry urgently needed aircraft from their place of manufacture in the United States and Canada, to the front line operational units in Britain, Europe, North Af ...

) * No. 112 Wing at Dorval * No. 113 Wing at Nassau No. 46 Group RAF - HQ at Harrow Weald * Controlled airfields such as Blakehill Farm * Units included Nos 233, 512 575 Squadrons No. 216 Group RAF HQ in Egypt No. 229 Group RAF HQ at Delhi, India (formed 1943–44); controlled No. 177 Wing No. 114 Wing RAF - HQ at

Accra Accra (; tw, Nkran; dag, Ankara; gaa, Ga or ''Gaga'') is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , ...

in the

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

, * Controlled airfields such as Heliopolis * Units included No. 284 Wing No. 116 Wing RAF at

, which supervised scheduled services to India. On 17 February 1945

No. 87 Group 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 ...

was formed in Paris to control units in Paris and southern France. It was disbanded by being reduced to

No. 87 Wing RAF The numero sign or numero symbol, №, (also represented as Nº, No, No. or no.), is a Typography, typographic abbreviation of the word ''number''(''s'') indicating ordinal number, ordinal numeration, especially in names and titles. For exampl ...

on 15 July 1946.

Accidents

Operating as it did under wartime conditions, Transport Command had a relatively high accident rate. Prominent accidents included a July 1943 crash at Gibraltar, killing the Polish leader

General Sikorski A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED O ...

and several other senior figures in the exile government; a February 1945 crash in the Mediterranean, killing eleven members of the British delegation to the

Yalta Conference The Yalta Conference (codenamed Argonaut), also known as the Crimea Conference, held 4–11 February 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union to discuss the post ...

; and a March 1945 disappearance over the North Atlantic involving the aircraft formerly used as a private transport by Winston Churchill. Following these and other losses, in April 1945, concerns were raised in Parliament about the experience of crews and the maintenance of aircraft within Transport Command. One frequent issue reported was that VIP passengers were said to put pressure on crews to fly in difficult conditions; the Air Ministry reported that it had tried to put in place orders to prevent this.

Post war

As the Second World War ended, on 7 May 1945,

No. 4 Group RAF No. 4 Group was a Royal Air Force group, originally formed in the First World War, and reformed in the wake of the Second World War, mostly part of RAF Bomber Command, but ending its days in RAF Transport Command. History Formation in the Firs ...

was transferred into the command, from

Bomber Command Bomber Command is an organisational military unit, generally subordinate to the air force of a country. The best known were in Britain and the United States. A Bomber Command is generally used for strategic bombing (although at times, e.g. during t ...

, but disbanded in early 1948; No. 44 Group disbanded by being amalgamated into No 46 Group on 14 August 1946; No. 48 Group RAF was established, but then disbanded on 15 May 1946; and No. 216 Group was transferred to

RAF Mediterranean and Middle East 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 ...

. On 1 November 1949, No. 47 Group RAF disbanded by being renumbered 46 Group. Overseas, two groups had been formed in India and Australia towards the end of the war. No. 232 Group RAF disbanded, now in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

on 15 August 1946, and 300 Group (24 April 1946 – 7 November 1946) in Sydney. The Command took part in several big operations, including the

Berlin Airlift The Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949) was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road ...

in 1948, which reinforced the need for a large RAF transport fleet. The

Handley Page Hastings The Handley Page HP.67 Hastings is a retired British troop-carrier and freight transport aircraft designed and manufactured by aviation company Handley Page for the Royal Air Force (RAF). Upon its introduction to service during September 1948, ...

, a four-engined transport, was introduced during the Berlin AirliftNo. 99 Squadron
/ref> and continued as a mainstay transport aircraft of the RAF for the next 15 years. In 1956, new aircraft designs became available, including the

de Havilland Comet The de Havilland DH.106 Comet was the world's first commercial jet airliner. Developed and manufactured by de Havilland in the United Kingdom, the Comet 1 prototype first flew in 1949. It featured an aerodynamically clean design with four d ...

(the first operational jet

transport Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, an ...

), and the

Blackburn Beverley The Blackburn B-101 Beverley was a heavy transport aircraft produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Blackburn Aircraft. It was notably the only land-based transport airplane built by Blackburn, a company that otherwise specialised in pr ...

. In 1959, the Bristol Britannia was introduced, with

No. 99 Squadron RAF Number 99 Squadron is a squadron (aviation), squadron of the Royal Air Force which operates the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III strategic/tactical transport aircraft from RAF Brize Norton. The squadron conducts global deployments on behalf of the B ...

. No. 511 Squadron RAF was re-formed again at

RAF Lyneham Royal Air Force Lyneham otherwise known as RAF Lyneham was a Royal Air Force station located northeast of Chippenham, Wiltshire, and southwest of Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The station was the home of all the Lockheed C-130 Hercules transpor ...

on 15 December 1959, as the second squadron to operate the Britannia on long-range trooping flights. During the 1960s the command was divided into three different forces: * Strategic Force which operated the Comets, Britannias, VC-10s and Belfasts. Deliveries of the

Vickers VC10 The Vickers VC10 is a mid-sized, narrow-body long-range British jet airliner designed and built by Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd and first flown at Brooklands, Surrey, in 1962. The airliner was designed to operate on long-distance route ...

to No. 10 Squadron RAF began in December 1966 and ended in August 1968. * Medium Range Force which operated Beverleys, Hastings and Argosys * Short Range Force which operated helicopters such as the

Bristol Belvedere The Bristol Type 192 Belvedere is a British twin-engine, tandem rotor military helicopter built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. It was designed by Raoul Hafner for a variety of transport roles including troop transport, supply dropping and ca ...

Westland Whirlwind Westland or Westlands may refer to: Places *Westlands, an affluent neighbourhood in the city of Nairobi, Kenya * Westlands, Staffordshire, a suburban area and ward in Newcastle-under-Lyme *Westland, a peninsula of the Shetland Mainland near Vaila, ...

and

Westland Wessex The Westland Wessex is a British-built turbine-powered development of the Sikorsky H-34 (in US service known as Choctaw). It was developed and produced under licence by Westland Aircraft (later Westland Helicopters). One of the main changes ...

and fixed wing aircraft such as

Scottish Aviation Pioneer The Scottish Aviation Pioneer was an STOL aircraft manufactured by Scottish Aviation in Scotland. It was used for casualty evacuation and communications and could accommodate a pilot and up to four passengers. Design and development The Pio ...

Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer The Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer was a British STOL transport aircraft built by Scottish Aviation Limited at Prestwick Airport, Scotland, during the 1950s. It was designed for both civil and military operators. It was conceived as a twin-eng ...

s and

Hawker Siddeley Andover The Hawker Siddeley HS 780 Andover is a twin-engined turboprop military transport aircraft produced by Hawker Siddeley for the Royal Air Force (RAF), developed from the Avro-designed HS 748 airliner. The Andover was named after the Avro Andove ...

s. During the 1950s and 1960s Transport Command evacuated military personnel from the Suez Canal Zone prior and after the

Suez Crisis The Suez Crisis, or the Second Arab–Israeli war, also called the Tripartite Aggression ( ar, العدوان الثلاثي, Al-ʿUdwān aṯ-Ṯulāṯiyy) in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel,Also known as the Suez War or 1956 Wa ...

of October–November 1956; evacuated casualties from

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

during the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

and from the Malaya during the

Malayan Emergency The Malayan Emergency, also known as the Anti–British National Liberation War was a guerrilla war fought in British Malaya between communist pro-independence fighters of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) and the military forces o ...

; moved essential supplies to

Woomera, South Australia Woomera, unofficially Woomera village, refers to the domestic area of RAAF Base Woomera. Woomera village has always been a Defence-owned and operated facility. The village is located on the traditional lands of the Kokatha people in the Far ...

, and ferried personnel and supplies out to

Christmas Island Christmas Island, officially the Territory of Christmas Island, is an Australian external territory comprising the island of the same name. It is located in the Indian Ocean, around south of Java and Sumatra and around north-west of the ...

for the UK's

atomic bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

tests. In addition, Transport Command ran scheduled routes to military staging posts and bases in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

region,

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

and the

Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The ter ...

, to maintain contact between the UK and military bases of strategic importance. It also carried out special flights worldwide covering all the continents bar Antarctica. Many varied tasks were undertaken during the 1950s. The 1960s saw a reduction of the RAF and a loss of independence of the former functional commands. Transport Command was renamed Air Support Command in 1967.

Other tasks in the 1950s

Operation Becher's Brook was a major operation of Transport Command – the ferrying of 400

Canadair Sabre The Canadair Sabre is a jet fighter aircraft built by Canadair under licence from North American Aviation. A variant of the North American F-86 Sabre, it was produced until 1958 and used primarily by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) unti ...

fighters from North America to the UK, circa 1952. This required pilots and ground crew to be transported to Canada. The Sabres were flown via Keflavik (

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

) on to

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

and from there to mainland Scotland. Transport Command also supported the British North Greenland expedition a research expedition from 1952–54 on the Greenland ice.

Structure

Wings

During its existence the command supervised a number of wings:

Units

Units included: * The Airborne Forces Tactical Development Unit was formed at

RAF Tarrant Rushton Royal Air Force Tarrant Rushton or more simply RAF Tarrant Rushton is a former Royal Air Force station near the village of Tarrant Rushton east of Blandford Forum in Dorset, England from 1943 to 1947. It was used for glider operations during Wo ...

on 1 December 1943 and was disbanded on 14 January 1944 to become the Air Transport Tactical Development Unit. This new unit was then disbanded on 31 August 1945 at

RAF Netheravon 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) ...

to become the Transport Command Development Unit. This unit was disbanded at RAF Abingdon on 28 February 1950 to become the Air Transport Development Flight, this new unit was disbanded on 14 October 1951 still at Abingdon to become the Transport Command Development Flight. This unit was disbanded on 8 February 1957 at RAF Benson. * The Transport Command Aircrew Examining Unit was previously the Aircrew Testing and Grading Unit and was formed on 1 November 1945 at

RAF Melbourne Royal Air Force Melbourne or more simply RAF Melbourne is a former Royal Air Force station used during the Second World War. Located to the south-west of Pocklington, Yorkshire, England. The nearest village is Seaton Ross. History East Com ...

. It used a variety of transport aircraft until it was disbanded on 7 August 1946 at

RAF Bramcote Royal Air Force Bramcote or more simply RAF Bramcote is a former Royal Air Force station located south-east of Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England used during the Second World War. It later became HMS Gamecock and then Gamecock Barracks. Royal A ...

to become the Transport Command Examining Unit. This unit continued the work of the previous unit until it was disbanded on 23 June 1964 at

RAF Benson Royal Air Force Benson or RAF Benson is a Royal Air Force (RAF) station located at Benson, near Wallingford, in South Oxfordshire, England. It is a front-line station and home to the RAF's fleet of Westland Puma HC2 support helicopters, us ...

, the unit then became the Transport Command Examining Staff until 1 August 1967 while still at RAF Benson became the Air Support Examining Unit * Transport Command Air Support Flight was formed on 1 February 1953 at

RAF Abingdon Royal Air Force Abingdon or more simply RAF Abingdon was a Royal Air Force station near Abingdon, Oxfordshire. It is now known as Dalton Barracks and is used by the Royal Logistic Corps. History The airfield was opened in 1932, initially as ...

but was shortly disbanded on 14 September 1954 to become No. 1312 (Transport Support) Flight * Transport Command Communication Flight was initially 'C' Flight of the Metropolitan Communication Squadron RAF and was separated doing May 1946 when it moved to

RAF Upavon Royal Air Force Upavon or RAF Upavon is a former RAF station in Wiltshire, England. It was a grass airfield, military flight training school, and administrative headquarters of the Royal Air Force. The station opened in 1912 and closed in 1993 ...

. At some point it became the Transport Command Communication Squadron and was disbanded on 1 April 1964 and was absorbed by the Western Communication Squadron RAF at

Aircraft operated

Commanders-in-Chief

Commanders-in-Chief included:Air of Authority – A History of RAF Organisation – RAF Home Commands formed between 1939 – 1957

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * Kenneth Cross, "Transport Command Today," RUSI Journal, 1965 - aircraft types included Hastings, Beverleys, Argosys,

, Andovers,

Hawker Hunter The Hawker Hunter is a transonic British jet-powered fighter aircraft that was developed by Hawker Aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was designed to take advantage of the newly developed Rolls-R ...

ground attack aircraft (under 38 Group), Britannias, Comets (under HQ Transport Command). * * M Milner, Review of Carl A. Christie, "Ocean Bridge: The History of RAF Ferry Command", The

Canadian Historical Review The ''Canadian Historical Review'' (''CHR'') is a scholarly journal in Canada, founded in 1920 and published by the University of Toronto Press.

, 1997
Royal Air Force Historical Society Journal No 22
* * Wilson, Keith. ''RAF Transport Command: A Pictorial History''. Amberley Publishing Limited, 15/06/2017

* Wynn, Humphrey. ''Forged in War: A History of Royal Air Force Transport Command, 1943–1967''. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1996. .

External links

* {{Royal Air Force Military units and formations established in 1943

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. ...

Transport units and formations of the Royal Air Force Military units and formations of the Royal Air Force in World War II Military units and formations disestablished in 1967 Air force transport commands