RAAF at War 1939 1945

The Royal Australian Air Force came of age as a fighting service in the 1939-45 War. When the war began the RAAF had a strength of 310 officers, 3,179 airmen and 246 aircraft (only 16 of them operational machines) .

At the height of the war the service had expanded to a strength of 20,000 officers, 144,000 airmen and 18,000 airwomen. Its members served in every theatre of operations.

At the outbreak of the war, the RAAF was organised into twelve squadrons. No. 10 Squadron already had a detachment in Britain to take delivery of Sunderland flying boats on order to the RAAF.

Australia offered the Squadron's services to Britain and as a result, No. 10 was to remain in Britain for the remainder of the war.

It was the first squadron of any Commonwealth country to go into action in the European theatre of Operations and it established a proud record in the eventful years that followed.

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RAAF ground staff push a torpedo along the tarmac towards a Hampden torpedo bomber on an English airfield during the 1939-45 War

To cope with the administrative responsibility of the war, the Government appointed Ministers for each of the armed services and Mr J. V. Fairbairn became the first Minister for Air on 13 November 1939, only to die in an air crash in Canberra the following year.

When war came Australia planned to send a force of six RAAF squadrons - four of bombers and two of fighters - to Britain. However on 31 October 1939 this plan was cancelled and the Air Board was instructed to plan Australia's contribution to the Empire Air Training Scheme.

The E.A.T.S. was designed to provide 50,000 trained aircrew every year as long as there was a need. The RAAF alone trained 27,387 aircrew in Australia as well as providing elementary training for an additional 10,351 pilots, navigators and wireless-air-gunners.

Under the scheme Australia formed seventeen squadrons in Britain and the Middle East as well as providing thousands more aircrew for

The Honourable J. V. Fairbairn, M.P., the first Minister of State for Air, who was killed in an aircraft accident on 13 August 1940

Royal Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force squadrons. One of the squadrons based in Britain later went to the Middle East and two others (Nos 452 and 457) were sent to Australia in 1942 to help stem the Japanese thrusts.

As well as commitments under the Empire Air Training Scheme with all its complications, the RAAF had to proceed with plans for the expansion of the home defence forces which now included rearming squadrons with modern aircraft.

Many Australian airmen were serving in the RAF when the began and in the Battle of Britain in 1940, ten Australians who took part were killed.

As the Empire Air Training Scheme got under way, freshly trained RAAF men began to arrive in Britain from Australia. In April 1941 the first RAAF fighter squadron was formed in Britain, No. 452, followed shortly afterwards by No. 457, both equipped with Spitfire aircraft.

RAAF fighter pilot ace, Flight Lieutenant (later Squadron Leader) Keith 'Bluey' Truscott, shows a group of fellow Australian pilots the D.F.C. he won as a Spitfire pilot in Britain.

Spitfire pilots, Squadron Leader E. A. R. Esau, D.F.C. (left) and Wing Commander D. G. Andrews, D.F.C., pictured in England after one of their many missions over Europe during the 1939-45 War

Flight Lieutenant P. Kingsford Smith, D.F.C., nephew of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, meets Pilot Officer J. A. Ulm, son of Mr. C. T. P. Ulm, another famous Australian flyer and Sir Charles's partner in many of his famous exploits. Flight Lieutenant Kingsford Smith and Pilot Officer Ulm spent part of the 1939-45 War in P.O.W. camps

Pilots of NO. 451 Squadron, RAAF, in England during the 1939-45 War