The Air Historical Branch (AHB) is the historical archive and records service of the Royal Air Force. [1]
First established in 1919, the AHB was responsible for creating the Official History of British Air Operations in the First World War .
The branch moved from RAF Bentley Priory to RAF Northolt in 2008 after the closure of the former. [2] The Air Historical Branch is tasked with the maintenance and preservation of the history of the RAF. It is part of the Royal Air Force Centre for Air Power Studies and is headed by Sebastian Cox.
Date commenced | Date ended | Head | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1918 | 1920 | Captain C Fairbairn RAF | |
1920 | 1923 | H A Jones | |
1923 | 1933 | Captain J Morris | |
1933 | 1936 | H A Jones | |
Air Historical Branch disestablished from 1936 to 1941 | |||
1941 | 1958 | J C Nerney | [3] |
1958 | 1971 | Louis Jackets | |
1971 | 1978 | Group Captain Edward Haslam | [4] |
1978 | 1989 | Air Commodore Henry Probert | [5] |
1989 | 1996 | Group Captain Ian Madelin | [6] |
1996 | Sebastian Cox | [7] First civilian Head |
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 the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). Following the Allied victory over the Central Powers in 1918, the RAF emerged as the largest air force in the world at the time. Since its formation, the RAF has taken a significant role in British military history. In particular, it played a large part in the Second World War where it fought its most famous campaign, the Battle of Britain.
The RAF Second Tactical Air Force (2TAF) was one of three tactical air forces within the Royal Air Force (RAF) during and after the Second World War. It was made up of squadrons and personnel from the RAF, other British Commonwealth air forces, and exiles from German-occupied Europe. Renamed as British Air Forces of Occupation in 1945, 2TAF was recreated in 1951 and became Royal Air Force Germany in 1959.
RAF Northolt is a Royal Air Force station in South Ruislip, 2 nautical miles from Uxbridge in the London Borough of Hillingdon, western Greater London, England, approximately 6 mi (10 km) north of Heathrow Airport. The station handles many private civil flights in addition to Air Force flights. Northolt has one runway in operation, spanning 1,687 m × 46 m, with a grooved asphalt surface. This airport is used for government and VIP transport to and from London.
RAF Bentley Priory was a non-flying Royal Air Force station near Stanmore in the London Borough of Harrow. It was the headquarters of Fighter Command in the Battle of Britain and throughout the Second World War. During the war, two enemy bombs destroyed a wooden hut near the married quarters, a blast from a V-1 flying bomb broke a few windows, the windows in the Officers' Mess were shattered by a V-2 rocket, and a Vickers Wellington crashed outside the Sergeants' Mess.
RAF Uxbridge was a Royal Air Force (RAF) station in Uxbridge, within the London Borough of Hillingdon, occupying a 44.6-hectare (110-acre) site that originally belonged to the Hillingdon House estate. The British Government purchased the estate in 1915, three years before the founding of the RAF. Until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the station was open to the public.
Number 16 Squadron, nicknamed the Saints, is a flying squadron of the Royal Air Force providing Elementary Flying Training (EFT) with the Grob Tutor T.1 from RAF Wittering.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Brian Kevin Burridge, is a retired Royal Air Force officer. A former Nimrod pilot, Burridge was in overall command of British forces under Operation Telic during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The Royal Observer Corps (ROC) was a civil defence organisation intended for the visual detection, identification, tracking and reporting of aircraft over Great Britain. It operated in the United Kingdom between 29 October 1925 and 31 December 1995, when the Corps' civilian volunteers were stood down. 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. Civilian volunteers were trained and administered by a small cadre of professional full-time officers under the command of the Commandant Royal Observer Corps; latterly a serving RAF Air Commodore.
The history of the Royal Air Force, the air force of the United Kingdom, spans a century of British military aviation.
No. 640 Squadron RAF was a heavy bomber squadron of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.
The Royal Indian Air Force (RIAF) was the aerial force of British India and later the Dominion of India. Along with the Indian Army, and Royal Indian Navy, it was one of the Armed Forces of British Indian Empire.
No. 83 Expeditionary Air Group is a group within the Royal Air Force, currently based at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
Project MoDEL is a project run for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) by the ministry's Defence Infrastructure Organisation and VSM Estates, a joint venture established between Vinci PLC and St. Modwen Properties to bid for the contract. The project involves the consolidation and sale of surplus Ministry of Defence properties around Greater London into around £180m of new developments at RAF Northolt. A total of 80% of the existing buildings at RAF Northolt were demolished and replaced by the newly built facilities.
Air Commodore Alfred Drummond Warrington-Morris, was a senior officer in the Royal Air Force during the first half of the 20th century.
Air Commodore Peter Malam "Pete" Brothers, was a Royal Air Force fighter pilot and flying ace of World War II. Brothers was credited with 16 aerial victories, 10 of which he achieved during the Battle of Britain.
The Royal Air Force Search and Rescue Force was the Royal Air Force organisation which provided around-the-clock aeronautical search and rescue cover in the United Kingdom, Cyprus and the Falkland Islands, from 1986 until 2016.
Sebastian Cox OBE, is the Head of the Air Historical Branch (AHB) of the Royal Air Force, a specialist archive and history unit based at RAF Northolt, Middlesex, which seeks to maintain and preserve the historical memory of the RAF and to develop and encourage "an informed understanding of RAF and air power history by providing accurate and timely advice to Ministers, the RAF, other government departments and the general public". He has worked at the AHB since 1984 and been its Head since May 1996.
Air chief marshal Sir Walter Graemes Cheshire, was a senior Royal Air Force intelligence officer during World War II, and a senior commander in the 1950s and early 1960s.
At the end of the Cold War in 1989 the Royal Air Force structure was as follows:
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