The RAF Army Co-operation Command was a short-lived

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 * ...

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) an ...

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 opposi ...

, comprising the army cooperation units of the RAF. The command was formed on 1 December 1940 when No. 22 (Army Co-Operation) Group, previously a part of

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 World War II or the Second World War, oft ...

, was raised to command status. Initially it controlled two groups: No. 70 Group RAF for training and No. 71 Group RAF for operations. In August 1941, 71 Group re-organized its squadrons into a Wing basis. Each wing was directly attached to a UK based Army regional Command. Its function was to act as the focus for activities connected with the interaction of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

and the RAF, such as close air support, tactical reconnaissance, artillery spotting and training of anti-aircraft defences. It was also responsible for developing tactics for the invasion of Europe, where direct air support proved to be decisive.Delve 1994, p. 100. Army Co-Operation Command proved to be controversial, with the

Chief of the Imperial General Staff The Chief of the General Staff (CGS) has been the title of the professional head of the British Army since 1964. The CGS is a member of both the Chiefs of Staff Committee and the Army Board. Prior to 1964, the title was Chief of the Imperial G ...

General Sir

Alan Brooke Field Marshal Alan Francis Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, (23 July 1883 – 17 June 1963), was a senior officer of the British Army. He was Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), the professional head of the British Army, during the Sec ...

being an implacable foe of the command arrangement. It was disbanded on 31 March 1943, when most of its units were used to form the Second Tactical Air Force. The command had only had one commander during its short existence, Air Marshal Sir Arthur Barratt.

Army Co-operation Command (April 1942)

No. 70 (Army Co-operation Training) Group – 1 December 1940 – 1 June 1943 (transferred to ADGB) * No. 41 OTU – Lysander / Tomahawk –

RAF Old Sarum Old Sarum Airfield is a grass strip airfield north-north-east of Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. The adjacent areas are a mix of vacant land, residential and industrial sites. Residential areas are to the south and east, occupying the old air ...

* No. 42 OTU – Various Aircraft –

RAF Andover RAF Andover is a former Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force station in England, west of Andover, Hampshire. As well as RFC and RAF units, units of the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, Royal Canadian Air Force, United States Army Air ...

* No. 271 Squadron RAF – Albatross / Dominie – RAF Doncaster *

No. 651 Squadron 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 ...

– Taylorcraft I – RAF Old Sarum * Various other flights and minor training units. ;Wings * No. 32 Wing – Scottish Command – Edinburgh ** No. 309 (Polish) Squadron RAF – Lysander – RAF Dunino ** No. 614 Squadron RAF – Blenheim – RAF Macmerry * No. 33 Wing – Northern Command – York ** No. 613 Squadron RAF – Tomahawk I/II – RAF Doncaster **

No. 4 Squadron RAF No. 4 Squadron, normally written as IV Squadron, of the Royal Air Force operates the BAE Hawk T2 in the training role from RAF Valley. History Formation and First World War IV Squadron formed at Farnborough in 1912 as part of the Royal Fly ...

– Tomahawk I/II –

RAF York Royal Air Force Clifton or RAF Clifton is a former Royal Air Force station located north west of York city centre and south west of Haxby, North Yorkshire, England. The airfield was opened in 1936 as a civilian airport but by 1939 the statio ...

* No. 34 Wing – Eastern Command –

Luton Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable a ...

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 ...

– Spitfire PR.I –

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 ...

** No. 241 Squadron RAF – Tomahawk I/II –

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 ...

** No. 2 Squadron RAF – Tomahawk I/II

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 ...

** No. 268 Squadron RAF – Tomahawk I/II – RAF Snailwell * No. 35 Wing – South Eastern Command –

Reigate Reigate ( ) is a town in Surrey, England, around south of central London. The settlement is recorded in Domesday Book in 1086 as ''Cherchefelle'' and first appears with its modern name in the 1190s. The earliest archaeological evidence for huma ...

No. 26 Squadron RAF No. 26 Squadron of the Royal Air Force was formed in 1915 and was disbanded for the last time in 1976. The squadron's motto is ''N Wagter in die Lug'' (Afrikaans) (A guard in the sky), and the badge is a springbok's head couped. History 1915 ...

– Tomahawk I/II – RAF Gatwick ** No. 239 Squadron RAF – Tomahawk I/II – RAF Gatwick ** No. 400 Squadron RCAF – Tomahawk I/II –

RAF Odiham RAF Odiham is a Royal Air Force station situated a little to the south of the village of Odiham in Hampshire, England. It is the home of the Royal Air Force's heavy lift helicopter, the Chinook, and of the King’s Helicopter Flight (TKHF) . ...

** No. 414 Squadron RCAF – Tomahawk I/II –

RAF Croydon Croydon Airport (former ICAO code: EGCR) was the UK's only international airport during the interwar period. Located in Croydon, South London, England, it opened in 1920, built in a Neoclassical style, and was developed as Britain's main airpo ...

* No. 36 Wing – South Western Command –

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of ...

** No. 16 Squadron RAF – Tomahawk I/II –

RAF Weston Zoyland RAF Westonzoyland is one of the country's oldest airfields being established in the early 1920s. Somerset, England. The airfield is located approximately east-southeast of Bridgwater; about west-southwest of London. It was opened in 1925 ...

** 1492 TTF – Lysander – RAF Weston Zoyland **

No. 225 Squadron RAF No. 225 Squadron RAF is a former Royal Air Force squadron. History World War One No. 225 Squadron RAF was formed on 1 April 1918 at Otranto, Alimini, Italy from part of No. 6 Wing Royal Naval Air Service, RNAS, and was equipped with Sopwith Cam ...

– Lysander –

RAF Thruxton Royal Air Force Thruxton or more simply RAF Thruxton is a former Royal Air Force station located west of Andover, Hampshire and about southwest of London. Opened in 1942, it was used by both the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air F ...

** No. 13 Squadron RAF – Blenheim – RAF Odiham * No. 37 Wing – Western Command – Chester ** No active squadrons assigned. * No 38 Wing – Airborne Division –

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) ...

** No. 296 Squadron RAF – Hart/Hector – RAF Netheravon **

No. 297 Squadron RAF No 297 Squadron was a squadron of the Royal Air Force. It was notable for being the first airborne forces squadron formed. With sister No 296 Squadron it formed No 38 Wing RAF in January 1942, joined in August by No 295 Squadron; the Wing ex ...

– Whitley – RAF Netheravon * RAF Northern Ireland –

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

** No. 231 Squadron RAF – Tomahawk I/II –

RAF Maghaberry Royal Air Force Maghaberry or more simply RAF Maghaberry is a former Royal Air Force satellite airfield located north of Maghaberry, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The site of former RAF Maghaberry was transformed into HM Prison Maghaberry. His ...

** 1494 TTF – Lysander/Tomahawk –

RAF Long Kesh Royal Air Force Long Kesh or more simply RAF Long Kesh is a former Royal Air Force station at Maze, Lisburn, Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is ...

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * Delve, Ken. ''The Source Book of the RAF''. Shrewsbury, Shropshire, UK: Airlife Publishing Ltd., 1994. .

External links

"The Army's Wings are in the news"
contemporary reporting of Army Cooperation Command {{Royal Air Force

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, ...

Military units and formations established in 1940 Military units and formations of the Royal Air Force in World War II Military units and formations disestablished in 1943 1940 establishments in the United Kingdom 1943 disestablishments in the United Kingdom

Army Co-operation Command (April 1942)

See also

References

External links