No. 80 Wing RAF
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No. 80 Wing RAF was a unit of the
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 ...
(RAF) during both World Wars and briefly in the 1950s. In the last months of
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
it controlled RAF and Australian Flying Corps (AFC) fighter squadrons. It was reformed in 1940 to operate
electronic countermeasures An electronic countermeasure (ECM) is an electrical or electronic device designed to trick or deceive radar, sonar, or other detection systems, like infrared (IR) or lasers. It may be used both offensively and defensively to deny targeting info ...
in the Battle of the Beams.


First World War

No. 80 Wing was formed at
Serny Enquin-les-Mines (; vls, Enken; pcd, Inquin-les-Mines) is a town and former commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. Since January 2017, it is a delegated commune of Enquin-lez-Guinegatte. The inhabi ...
,
Pas-de-Calais Pas-de-Calais (, " strait of Calais"; pcd, Pas-Calés; also nl, Nauw van Kales) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments ...
, on 1 July 1918, as an Army Wing of squadrons equipped with
scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement **Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom **Scouts BSA, sectio ...
(fighter) aircraft.Air Ministry, 1938, "80 Wing R.A.F.", ''Air Historical Branch: Papers (Series I)''
AIR 1/1938/204/245/8.

/ref> From 26 June, it was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel
Louis Strange Louis Arbon Strange, (27 July 1891 – 15 November 1966) was an English aviator, who served in both World War I and World War II. Early life Louis Strange was born in Tarrant Keyneston, Dorset, and was educated at St Edward's School, Oxford, jo ...
. The wing specialised in large-scale raids against German '' Luftstreitkräfte '' airfields. Its subordinate squadrons were: * 2 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps (AFC) * 4 Squadron AFC, * 46 Squadron RAF, * 54 Squadron RAF, * 88 Squadron RAF, * 92 Squadron RAF and * 103 Squadron RAF. 80 Wing was disbanded on 1 March 1919.


Second World War

In June 1940, a RAF Radio Counter-Measures (RCM) unit was formed at a requisitioned country hotel, Aldenham Lodge, in
Radlett Radlett is a village in Hertfordshire, England, between Elstree and St Albans on Watling Street, with a population of 8,042. It is in the council district of Hertsmere in the south of the county, and is covered by two wards; Aldenham East and ...
,
Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...
, to provide
electronic countermeasures An electronic countermeasure (ECM) is an electrical or electronic device designed to trick or deceive radar, sonar, or other detection systems, like infrared (IR) or lasers. It may be used both offensively and defensively to deny targeting info ...
(ECM) and intelligence on enemy radio/radar systems.BBC, 2005, ''The War in 80 (Signals) Wing RAF''
(22 June 2016).
On 7 October, it was renamed 80 (Signals) Wing, with the motto "Confusion to Our Enemies". 80 Wing worked under the immediate control of the
Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of State ...
, but kept in close touch with
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 Britai ...
's operations room at RAF Bentley Priory. The main role of RCM/80 Wing initially was jamming the German radio navigation system ''
Knickebein The Battle of the Beams was a period early in the Second World War when bombers of the German Air Force (''Luftwaffe'') used a number of increasingly accurate systems of radio navigation for night bombing in the United Kingdom. British scientific ...
'', which assisted ''
Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...
'' bombers raiding targets in the UK. Its founding commander was Wing Commander Edward Addison, a signals specialist who had recently returned from the Middle East. The technical design of countermeasures was handled by a section under Dr Robert Cockburn at the Telecommunications Research Establishment at
Swanage Swanage () is a coastal town and civil parish in the south east of Dorset, England. It is at the eastern end of the Isle of Purbeck and one of its two towns, approximately south of Poole and east of Dorchester. In the 2011 census the civil ...
,
Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...
. Both organisations were given the highest priority.Jones, p. 176. The first jammers developed at Swanage were simple
diathermy Diathermy is electrically induced heat or the use of high-frequency electromagnetic currents as a form of physical therapy and in surgical procedures. The earliest observations on the reactions of high-frequency electromagnetic currents upon the ...
sets to transmit a 'mush' of noise on the ''Knickebein'' frequency. These were quickly superseded by higher powered equipment called '
Aspirin Aspirin, also known as acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) used to reduce pain, fever, and/or inflammation, and as an antithrombotic. Specific inflammatory conditions which aspirin is used to treat inc ...
s' (to deal with the ''Knickebein'' beams, which were codenamed 'Headaches'). ''Knickebein'' was soon superseded by ''X-Gerät'' and ''Y-Gerät'' directional beams, which in turn were eventually jammed by 80 Wing in the ongoing Battle of the Beams. On 23/24 April 1942, the ''Luftwaffe'' began a new campaign against the UK (the '' Baedeker Blitz'' ) with a sharp raid on
Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...
, followed by a series of raids on other provincial cities. Scientific intelligence gave about six weeks' warning that these raids would employ ''X-Gerät'' with a new supersonic
modulation In electronics and telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a periodic waveform, called the ''carrier signal'', with a separate signal called the ''modulation signal'' that typically contains informatio ...
frequency. 80 Wing was able to add supersonic modulation to its jammers, but was briefed not to employ this countermeasure until listening stations had confirmed that the ''Luftwaffe'' was indeed using the new technique. Unfortunately, the designers of the listening receivers had overlooked the fact that supersonic reception involves a wider bandwidth than normal in the high frequency circuits of the receivers. Once this was corrected, 80 Wing was able to jam the beam so successfully that the 50 per cent success rate (bombs on target) of the early ''Baedeker'' raids dropped to 13 per cent and the campaign petered out. The Air Staff's scientific intelligence adviser, Dr
R.V. Jones Reginald Victor Jones , FRSE, LLD (29 September 1911 – 17 December 1997) was a British physicist and scientific military intelligence expert who played an important role in the defence of Britain in by solving scientific and technical pr ...
, estimated that the delay in allowing 80 Wing to begin jamming cost about 400 lives and another 600 serious injuries, while Anti-Aircraft Command was forced to redeploy hundreds of guns to cover potential ''Baedeker'' targets. By the end of 1942, 80 Wing included a flying unit, known as the Wireless Intelligence and Development Unit (WIDU) at RAF Boscombe Down in Wiltshire, which was later renamed
No. 109 Squadron RAF No. 109 Squadron RAF was an aircraft squadron of the Royal Air Force. History The squadron first formed on 1 November 1917 as 109 Squadron Royal Flying Corps at South Carlton and began training on the de Havilland DH.9 bomber but was disbanded o ...
. Among other roles, 109 Sqn simulated enemy air raids, to test ECM equipment. The headquarters of 80 Wing later moved to the
Handley-Page Handley Page Limited was a British aerospace manufacturer. Founded by Frederick Handley Page (later Sir Frederick) in 1909, it was the United Kingdom's first publicly traded aircraft manufacturing company. It went into voluntary liquidation a ...
factory aerodrome at Radlett, also known as
RAF Radlett 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 ...
. From November 1943, it became part of
No. 100 Group RAF No. 100 (Bomber Support) Group was a special duties group within RAF Bomber Command. The group was formed on 11 November 1943 to consolidate the increasingly complex business of electronic warfare and countermeasures in one organisation. The g ...
– a larger formation based at Radlett devoted to ECM and commanded by Addison (by now promoted to Air commodore and later to Air vice-marshal). The wing controlled
Meacon Meaconing is the interception and rebroadcast of navigation signals. These signals are rebroadcast on the received frequency, typically, with power higher than the original signal, to confuse enemy navigation. Consequently, aircraft or ground stat ...
beacons, as well as other countermeasures and radio/radar intelligence work. The Wing's Meconing capability was developed for overseas operation and two units were active in North Africa in 1943.Towards the end of'43 they transferred to Italy following the allied invasion, the main body of the unit flew to Taranto, while 4 x 60 ft articulated lorries full of operational gear crossed by sea to Naples, then was set up briefly in the Apennines before the unit was called home. Later, in 1944 an 80 Wing unit landed in Normandy a week or more after D-Day and followed the successful invasion force through Northern France into Belgium. Their mission then was to establish radio frequencies it was thought being used to guide German V Flying Bombs and to destroy the signals -- one of various efforts made at the time to counter the V missiles used against Britain and later against targets in France and Belgium.(WW2 People’s War, BBC Archive,"80Wing and a Radio Ham's Adventures in the Secret War" https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/50/a8415650.shtml ) At it peak, the wing included 2,000 personnel. It was disbanded on 24 September 1945.


Postwar

No. 80 Wing RAF was reformed on 1 August 1953 and disbanded on 15 March 1957.


See also

*
No. 80 Wing RAAF No. 80 Wing was a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Wing (military aviation unit), wing of World War II. The unit was formed on 15 May 1944 and eventually comprised three Squadron (aviation), squadrons equipped with Supermarine Spitfi ...
– a joint RAAF-RAF fighter wing that saw action in the South West Pacific Area during 1943–45. * List of Wings of the Royal Air Force


Notes


References


Basil Collier, ''History of the Second World War, United Kingdom Military Series: The Defence of the United Kingdom'', London: HM Stationery Office, 1957.
* Jonathan Falconer, ''Bomber Command Handbook 1939–1945'', Stroud: Sutton, 1998, . *
R.V. Jones Reginald Victor Jones , FRSE, LLD (29 September 1911 – 17 December 1997) was a British physicist and scientific military intelligence expert who played an important role in the defence of Britain in by solving scientific and technical pr ...
, ''Most Secret War: British Scientific Intelligence 1939–1945'', London: Hamish Hamilton 1978/Coronet 1979, . * Brig N.W. Routledge, ''History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery: Anti-Aircraft Artillery 1914–55'', London: Royal Artillery Institution/Brassey's, 1994, ,


External links


BBC WW2 People's War


{{DEFAULTSORT:80 Wing RAF No. 80 1918 establishments in the United Kingdom Military units and formations established in 1918 Wings of the Royal Air Force in the Second World War Military units and formations disestablished in 1957