No. 216 Group RAF


No. 216 Group was a command of the Royal Air Force during World War II established on 21 May 1942. The group was renamed No. 216 Group on 9 September 1942 and placed under the command of Air Commodore Whitney Straight the following day.
No. 216 Group became a major sub-command of the Mediterranean Air Command that was created at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943. On 25 March 1943, No. 216 Group also became a sub-command of the newly created Transport Command, an umbrella organization of all British transport units worldwide under the command of Air Chief Marshal Sir Frederick Bowhill. The group was sometimes aided by British Overseas Airways Corporation in the receiving, preparing, and dispatching of aircraft reinforcements into the North African and Mediterranean Theater of Operations. The components of No. 216 Group at the time of the Allied invasion of Sicily on 10 July 1943 are indicated below.
No. 216 Group
Air Commodore Whitney Straight
Order of Battle, 10 July 1943
UnitsAircraftBase
17 Squadron SAAFJunkers 52n/a
28 Squadron SAAFAnsonn/a
No. 117 Squadron RAFHudsonRAF Castel Benito, Libya?
No. 173 Squadron RAFLodestar, Proctor,
Hurricane
n/a
No. 216 Squadron RAFC-47 Dakota
No. 230 Squadron RAFSunderland
No. 267 Squadron RAFHudson

No. 216 Group was disbanded on 26 October 1946.

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