RAF Maintenance Command
The RAF Maintenance Command was the command for maintenance of the British Royal Air Force (RAF) between 1938 and 1973 and thus responsible for the maintenance and repair units.
history
The RAF Maintenance Command was formed on April 1, 1938 to create joint responsibility for the UK-based maintenance and servicing units.
Within the command, four groups were formed on January 1 and 3, 1939 in January 1939 with assigned responsibilities for equipment, aircraft, armament and fuel, as well as maintenance and recovery. Formed on January 3, 1939, No. 40 Group RAF was responsible for all RAF equipment, with the exception of bombs and explosives. For the supply of the air forces with fuel and ammunition the No. 42 Group RAF responsible. With the beginning of the Second World War and the Battle of Britain , in 1940 the technical, but not the administrative, control of No. 41 Group RAF as well as No. 43 Group RAF transferred to the Ministry of Aircraft Production . From October 7, 1940, operational control of the salvage of a unit of No. 43 (Maintenance) Group RAF , the so-called No. 43 Group RAF salvage with headquarters at the carmaker Morris Motors in Cowley. The administrative headquarters were later moved to Magdalen College at the University of Oxford . Maintenance units for the recovery were responsible for large areas of the country.
After the end of the war, responsibility for these groups was returned to the RAF Maintenance Command after the responsibilities of the Ministry of Aircraft Production were transferred to the Ministry of Supply . When the RAF began equipping units with the Blue Danube bomb, the first British nuclear weapon , in the 1950s, No. 40 Group RAF by escorted road convoys to the RAF Wittering Air Force Base , the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (AWRE ) on the RAF Aldermaston , the explosives and ordnance factories (ROF ) Burghfield and Chorley, and the Royal Arsenal in Woolley . In November 1960, the foundation stone for the construction of the new headquarters of the RAF Maintenance Command on the RAF Andover military airfield was laid by the then commanding general of the command, Air Marshal Douglas Jackman .
After the No. 42 Group RAF and the No. 43 Group RAF were dissolved, followed on July 21, 1961 by No. 41 Group RAF and most recently on July 28, 1961 No. 40 Group RAF . Thereafter, the command consisted essentially of maintenance units ( maintenance units ), which existed on individual air force bases. On August 31, 1973, the RAF Maintenance Command was renamed the RAF Support Command and assigned to No. 90 (Signals) Group RAF expanded.
Commander
The RAF Maintenance Command was subordinate to a Lieutenant General ( Air Marshal ) as Commanding General AOC-in-C ( Air Officer Commander-in-Chief ) according to today's NATO rank code OF-8 .
| Start of term of office | Rank | Official |
|---|---|---|
| March 31, 1938 | Air Marshal | John Bradley |
| October 5, 1942 | Air Marshal | Grahame Donald |
| April 9, 1947 | Air Marshal | Cyril Cooke |
| October 15, 1949 | Air Marshal | Thomas Warne-Browne |
| December 20, 1952 | Air Marshal | Leslie Harvey |
| January 16, 1956 | Air Marshal | Richard Jordan |
| May 5th 1958 | Air Marshal | Douglas Jackman |
| March 1, 1961 | Air Marshal | Leslie Dalton-Morris |
| 4th June 1963 | Air Marshal | Norman Coslett |
| 2nd July 1966 | Air Marshal | Kenneth Porter |
| April 13, 1970 | Air Marshal | John Samuel Rowlands |
| 2nd June 1973 | Air Marshal | Reginald Harland |
| August 31, 1973 | Resolution of the command |
Background literature
- Robin DS Higham: Unflinching Zeal: The Air Battles Over France and Britain, May-October 1940 , p. 131 f.
- C. Crowley: Aspects of Industrial Hygiene in Maintenance Command Royal Air Force , Royal Society of Medicine , 1951
- Eric G. Ayto: The Years Between: Memories of the London Blitz and RAF Maintenance Command During World War Two , Athena Press, ISBN 978-1-84748-105-4
Web links
- RAF Home Commands formed between 1936-1938 on Air of Authority - A History of RAF Organization
- RAF Home Commands formed between 1958 - 2002 on Air of Authority - A History of RAF Organization
Individual evidence
- ↑ . Seervice Aviation Air Force, Naval and Army Flying News: Smoke of Battle . In: Flight International of November 4, 1960