X-Nico

26 unusual facts about Royal Air Force


Augusto Severo International Airport

Particularly between 1943 and 1945, this facility was used jointly by the Brazilian Air Force, United States Army, United States Navy, the Royal Air Force, and commercial airlines.

Cecil Lambert

In 1919 Lambert was seconded to the recently established Royal Air Force where he served as Director of Personnel.

Crécy-en-Ponthieu

During the Battle of France, the plan seems to have been to deploy RAF squadrons of Bristol Blenheim light bombers there, but it is not clear how intensively the airfield was used.

Dawee Chullasapya

The young officer was soon enrolled in bombing and training courses with the RAF and USAAF, and returned two years later to become Commanding Officer of the 3rd Fighter Squadron, whose base was at Don Muang.

De Havilland Spectre

It was one element of the intended mixed powerplant for combination rocket-jet interceptor aircraft for the Royal Air Force, such as the Saunders-Roe SR.53.

Edward Michael S.

After serving in the Royal Air Force during World War II, he began musical studies at the Guildhall School of Music where he learned composition.

Geoffrey Tindal-Carill-Worsley

Air Cdre Geoffrey Nicolas Ernest Tindal-Carill-Worsley CB CBE RAF (8 June 1908 - 28 April 1996) was a Royal Air Force officer.

Imperial Gift

While 22,812 Canadian military personnel had served in the British air forces (RFC, RNAS and RAF), the Canadian air services did not operate as an independent military force until nearly the end of the war.

Leonard Osborn

He joined the Royal Air Force in July 1940, where he sang in many military concerts.

Luqa

The Royal Air Force established a base with runways which later on evolved as a civilian airport.

Machrihanish

Although still available to the Royal Air Force, the former airbase has been taken over by the especially-formed Machrihanish Airbase Community Company.

Marcols-les-Eaux

On November 4, 1943, an airplane of the British Royal Air Force, dropping guns and munitions to the local Resistance during the night, crashes against the Bourboulas pike, in Marcols-les-Eaux.

Norman Tunna

Ignoring the bombing Tunna continued his work, marshalling a goods train where the main freight being carried was high explosive bombs for use by the Royal Air Force.

Operation Battleaxe

The Allied response was restricted primarily to harassment by the Royal Air Force.

R. J. Hollingdale

He was called up to the Royal Air Force at a young age in the late 1940s, as part of his National Service, for two years before returning to journalism.

RAF Boddington

RAF Boddington was a non-flying Royal Air Force station in Boddington, Gloucestershire, and was the former home of 9 Signals Unit.

RAF Nordhorn

The range is used by the British Royal Air Force (RAF), the German Luftwaffe, and other NATO air forces and aviation arms of their other branches (such as the Army Air Corps, and the Fleet Air Arm).

Rattan, Oklahoma

British pilots operating from a Royal Air Force base in Texas crashed into White Rock Mountain and Big Mountain, killing four crew men.

Ray Ellington

Ellington was called up in May 1940 when he joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a physical training instructor where he served throughout the war.

Second Gulf of Sidra offensive

RAF Tornado aircraft attacked a military bunker in Sirte with precision guided missiles, in an attempt to destroy the government's remaining command and control capabilities, ahead of the rebels planned offensive on the city.

Sorpe Dam

In these attacks, the Royal Air Force attempted to destroy the dams using bouncing bombs, achieving at least one direct hit on the Sorpe Dam.

The Great Escape II: The Untold Story

The second half of the film is a highly fictionalized account of the post-war investigation into the murders of fifty of the escapees by the Gestapo, conducted by three Americans (whereas in fact it was conducted by the Royal Air Force Special Investigation Branch).

Torness Nuclear Power Station

In November 1999 a RAF Panavia Tornado crashed into the North Sea less than 1 km from the power station following an engine failure.

Whaleback

The term "whaleback" has also been applied to a type of high speed launch first designed for the Royal Air Force during World War II, and to certain smaller rescue and research vessels especially in Europe that, like the Great Lakes vessels, have hulls that curve over to meet the deck.

William Carlton Woods

During World War I, he served in the Canadian Signal Corps and as a pilot in the Royal Air Force.

Worm's Eye View

Their bitter landlady is not pleased by five fighters from the Royal Air Force who are staying there and she re-directs unjustly, her frustrations against the family.


AH574

AH574 was initially ordered in 1940 for the Royal Air Force (RAF) as part of the Airacobra I serial number block AH570–AH739 (No. 601 Squadron RAF).

Alastair Ogilvy

Squadron Leader Charles Alexander "Alistair" Ogilvy (30 November 1915 – 23 February 1995) was a British Royal Air Force officer who flew with Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain but due to records being lost during World War II was not recognised as one of The Few until after his death.

Albert Hugh Smith

During World War II, he enlisted in the RAF as an intelligence officer and in 1941 joined the Scientific Intelligence Unit of the Air Ministry under R V Jones, ending with the rank of Wing Commander.

Annandale Way

He was the commander of RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain, and is generally credited with playing a crucial role in Britain's defence, and hence, the defeat of Hitler's plan to invade Britain.

Anne Baker

Anne Salmond was born just before the outbreak of World War I, the daughter of Geoffrey Salmond who later became the professional head of the Royal Air Force.

Arcadia, Florida

Carlstrom Field, one of several satellite fields in the Fort Myers Area, also trained pilots for the Royal Air Force until its closing in 1945.

Bangladesh Air Force rank insignia

Bangladesh Air Force rank titles and badges for ORs were adopted from the Royal Air Force officer ranks and enlisted ranks, specifically the Royal Flying Corps (RFC).

Barry Cole

Apart from two years (1970–1972) as Northern Arts Fellow in Literature at the universities of Durham and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and two years (1955–1957) in the RAF as a National Serviceman, he worked until 1995 as an editor at the Central Office of Information, and is now a freelance editor and writer.

Battle of Britain House

After the war, the house was dedicated as a memorial to the Royal Air Force squadrons involved in the Battle of Britain, and became a residential college and headquarters to the Ruislip & District Natural History Society.

Bell P-59 Airacomet

Royal Air Force received one aircraft, becoming RG362/G, in exchange for a Gloster Meteor I EE210/G.

Bodø Airport

On May 26, 1940 three Royal Air Force Gloster Gladiators, led by Rhodesian-born Flight Lieutenant Caesar Hull, landed and made the first airborne defence for the city.

Conolly Abel Smith

On 16 June 1924 Abel Smith was attached to the Royal Air Force, who were in control of all naval aviation at that time, with the rank of flying officer, to attend No. 1 Flying Training School at Netheravon, Wiltshire.

Coole Pilate

The parish had a platoon in the Home Guard during the Second World War, which guarded the canal bridges and reinforced the RAF at the nearby Hack Green Radar Station.

De Winton, Alberta

During the Second World War, a Royal Air Force pilot training school was located at the Royal Canadian Air Force air station at De Winton (today's De Winton/South Calgary Airport).

Defence College of Communications and Information Systems

The College consists of a headquarters based at Blandford Camp in Dorset, the Royal Navy CIS Training Unit at HMS Collingwood, Fareham, Hampshire, The Royal School of Signals at Blandford Camp and the Royal Air Force Number 1 Radio School, collocated with the headquarters of the Defence College of Aeronautical Engineering at Cosford, of which the Aerial Erector School at RAF Digby is a part.

Dommartin-Lettrée

The church is to be found in a central position in the village and the Commonwealth war graves of five airmen of the Royal Air Force and two of the Royal Canadian Air Force lie in the churchyard immediately behind the church.

Exercise Cambrian Patrol

In 2006 the event which ran from 27 October to 5 November 2006, attracted 95 teams from the British Army (regular and territorial) and Royal Air Force.

Finningley

The 2,741 metre long runway, currently the second longest in the north of England, was sufficiently large to take even Concorde, and in the period after the closure of the RAF airfield there were several campaigns to turn Finningley into a commercial airport for the unserved South Yorkshire region (as well as Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire).

Frank Lilley

On 9 November 1959, Lilley was one of four Scottish MPs on a British European Airways Viscount which was involved in a near miss with a Royal Air Force Pembroke transport.

George E. Stratemeyer

One of Stratemeyer's favorite cartoons showed him sitting at his desk surrounded by pictures of his eight bosses (Stillwell, Mountbatten, Gen. George C. Marshall, Chiang, Arnold, Royal Air Force Air Marshal Sir Richard Peirse, Major General Daniel I. Sultan, and FDR), all of whom could give him orders in one or another of his capacities.

German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin

Nine Royal Air Force Avro Lancaster heavy bombers from 106 Squadron were dispatched against her, each one carrying a single "Capital Ship" bomb, a 5,500 lb device with a shaped charge warhead intended for armored targets.

Harlescott

There was once a military supply depot here, RAF Harlescott, but this has closed and the nearest RAF base is now a few miles away at Shawbury.

Hinstock

From 1941 to 1947 there was a co-located Royal Air Force and Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm training station called HMS Godwit, which specialised in instrument and blind landing technologies.

Josef Priller

He made his first victory claims in May 1940 over Dunkirk versus Royal Air Force (RAF) fighters.

Killadeas

Near Killadeas, on Lower Lough Erne, is Gublusk Bay, a Royal Air Force base for Short Sunderland and PBY Catalina flying boats during World War II.

Leuchars

The town is now best known for the adjoining Royal Air Force base, RAF Leuchars, which was established in 1920, and is home to the Eurofighter Typhoon.

Max Wielen

Wielen is significant in that he was directly implicated in the Stalag Luft III murders, in which members of the RAF who were involved in the "Great Escape" were killed.

Newfoundland Ranger Force

Those members who had departed joined a variety of military forces, including the Newfoundland Heavy Artillery, the Royal Air Force, the Royal Canadian Air Force, the Royal Canadian Navy and the Royal Navy.

Nicholas Byron Cavadias

Specializing in the application of electronics to aviation, Cavadias began his career at TAE Greek National Airlines in 1946 as a radio engineer before becoming a ground radar specialist with the Royal Air Force in 1953.

Operation Horev

On the same day the Israeli Air Force shot down five RAF Spitfires on patrol in the area, killing two pilots and taking two more prisoner.

Operational instruments of the Royal Observer Corps

Composed mainly of civilian spare-time volunteers, ROC personnel wore a Royal Air Force (RAF) style uniform and latterly came under the administrative control of RAF Strike Command and the operational control of the Home Office.

RAF Beachy Head

RAF Station Beachy Head was a Royal Air Force (RAF) radar station and one of the many Chain Home Low radar stations, being situated near Beachy Head and Eastbourne in East Sussex, England.

RAF Dunholme Lodge

Royal Air Force Station Dunholme Lodge or more simply RAF Dunholme Lodge was a Royal Air Force station located between the parishes of Welton and Dunholme in Lincolnshire, England.

Shortstown

The village was originally built by Short Brothers for its workers, but evolved into a settlement for people working at the RAF Cardington base.

Shotgate

The Hurricane fighter recalls the incident on 31 May 1940, when RAF Pilot Officer William Henry Hodgson, a New Zealander, engaged hostile bombers and fighters over the River Thames in his Hawker Hurricane, but it was hit and caught fire.

Siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem

On May 10, the thirteen men left the church, and were greeted by Sherard Cowper-Coles, the British Ambassador to Israel, thirty members of the Royal Military Police, and a Royal Air Force doctor.

Steve Wheeler

His father was in the Royal Air Force, and due to constant travelling, Wheeler attended a number of schools across Europe, including St George's School in Gibraltar; Sandwick School in the Shetland Isles, Scotland; Wellington Grammar School in Telford, England; and the AFCENT International School in Brunssum, the Netherlands.

Ted Badcock

Immediately after the end of the Second World War, he played a series of games for New Zealand Services against a Lord's XI, Australian Imperial Forces, WR Hammond's XI, Sir PF Warner's XI, and the Royal Air Force, including a final first-class match in September 1945 against HDG Leveson-Gower's XI.

Theodore McEvoy

Air Chief Marshal Sir Theodore Neuman McEvoy KCB CBE RAF (21 November 1904 – 19 September 1991) was a senior Royal Air Force officer during World War II who held high command in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Union Airways

Union Airways were founded by Major Allister Miller, a World War I flying ace, who had recruited some 2000 South Africans for service in the Royal Air Force.

Warrenpoint

On 15 July 1944, two Royal Air Force aircraft (an Airspeed Oxford (LX 598) and a Miles Martinet (MS626) from No. 290 Squadron RAF) were taking part in a civil defence demonstration at Warrenpoint.