No. 38 Group RAF
No 38 Group RAF is a group of the Royal Air Force. It was formed on 6 November 1943 from nine squadrons as part of Fighter Command. After the war it became part of RAF Transport Command but was disbanded on 31 January 1951. It re-formed on 1 January 1960, became part of RAF Air Support Command in 1967 and then, in 1972, the air support group within RAF Strike Command. It was temporarily disbanded from 18 Nov 1983 to 31 Oct 1992 and from 1 April 2000 to 1 July 2014. It subsequently became part of RAF Air Command, bringing together the Royal Air Force’s Engineering, Logistics, Communications and Medical Operations units. Air Officer Commanding No. 38 Group is also responsible for UK-based United States Visiting Forces units and for RAF personnel attached to other global armed forces.
History
The predecessor of 38 Group was No. 38 Wing RAF, initially formed on 15 January 1942 from 296 and 297 Squadrons and based at RAF Netheravon in Wiltshire under Group Captain Sir Nigel Norman. 295 Squadron was additionally formed at Netheravon on 3 August 1942. To these were added 570, 298, 299, 190, 196, 620 Squadrons to form No. 38 Group on 11 October 1943. At that time four squadrons were equipped with Albemarles, one with Halifaxes and four with Stirlings. A further Halifax unit, 644 Squadron, was added in February 1944.During 1943, changes of all aircraft types and operational bases were made. Nevertheless 295, 296 and 297 Squadrons were heavily involved that year in operations Beggar, Ladbroke and Fustian, during the invasion of Sicily. From February 1944 many sorties were made over mainland Europe in support of Special Operations Executive and detachments of the Special Air Service.
But by 5 June 1944 the group’s updated resources had been fully redeployed between RAF Brize Norton, RAF Fairford, RAF Harwell, RAF Keevil and RAF Tarrant Rushton in preparation for Operation Overlord, the invasion of Europe. From then to 16 June the Group was fully involved in operations Tonga and Mallard.
In September 1944 the group was called upon to ferry airborne troops for Operation Market Garden, the abortive attempt to capture the Rhine bridge at Arnhem. Following that operation there was further reorganisation; the Group Headquarters moved to Marks Hall, Essex in October 1944 and the squadrons were redeployed to RAF Earls Colne, RAF Rivenhall, RAF Great Dunmow, RAF Wethersfield and RAF Woodbridge. 190 Squadron remained temporarily at RAF Fairford. On 10 March 1945 161 Squadron at RAF Tempsford also came under 38 Group control.
On 24 March 1945 the squadrons were fully employed in delivering airborne troops to the far bank of the Rhine as part of Operation Varsity, an operation which proved costly in terms of aircrew lives lost.
After the war most 38 Group squadrons were either disbanded or relocated to the Far East and the HQ moved to RAF Upavon. 295 and 297 Squadrons merged and moved to Fairford. 38 Group became part of RAF Transport Command on 1 June 1945.
In 1972, Headquarters 38 Group moved from RAF Odiham, Hants, where it had been since 1960, to RAF Benson, Oxon. In 1983, 38 Group was subsumed within 1 Group and moved to RAF Upavon in Wiltshire.
From 2014, the reformed group has units at RAF Wittering, RAF Brize Norton, Royal Air Force High Wycombe and Royal Air Force Leeming. It appears that the reformed group now includes RAF A4 Force Elements, Tactical Medical Wing at Brize Norton, and Tactical Communications Wing RAF at RAF Leeming. On 1 April 2015 38 Gp assumed responsibility for the Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Service with its 3 teams at RAF Lossiemouth, RAF Leeming and RAF Valley where it is co located with the MRS HQ.
RAF Support to airborne operations– World War II
With the increasing use of paratroops and glider borne forces, the RAF began to use specialist personnel to act as the eyes and ears of the Air Force on the ground. These Airfield Activation teams saw action wherever ‘austere’ landing strips needed to be established.The first use of British Paratroops was Operation COLOSSUS in February 1941, where a small force was sent to attack an aqueduct in Italy. Later airborne assaults were on Bruneval in France, Operation TORCH in Tunisia and as part of the Allied invasion of Italy. These culminated in Operation OVERLORD, mounted in support of the Normandy D-Day landings.
The success of these operations was due to effective resupply drops and total air superiority, but a known difficulty for all of the airborne operations was the correlation and control of Close Air Support missions to avoid the possibility of incurring ‘friendly fire’ deaths.
Light Warning Units at Arnhem
Operation MARKET GARDEN was Field Marshal Montgomery’s bold plan to capture the vital bridges over the Dutch rivers at Arnhem in 1944. The plan required the deployment of two highly secret radar units so that Close Air Support could be given to the lightly equipped airborne units.RAF engineers and radar controllers attached to the 4th Parachute Battalion landed in Arnhem on 18 September. They were to control Close Air Support missions by Allied aircraft; if all had gone to plan, this was a task that could have changed the course of history. The 25 RAF personnel were part of two Light Warning Units, each equipped with the top secret Air Ministry Experimental Station which could be transported in two gliders.
The plan was to deploy these systems on the second phase of gliders reaching Holland on 17 and 18 September. The first was to land at Groesbeek to support the Brigade HQ, but Germans strafed the aircraft, mortally wounding the Unit’s Commanding Officer, and the glider landed at Nijmegen. Despite this, the 4 Horsa gliders containing the Light Warning Units took off from RAF Harwell in Oxfordshire just after 1200hrs on 18 September.
As the aircraft began their approach to the landing zones, one glider had to crash land when its tug aircraft was hit by flak and crashed. It landed near the town of Zetten, where the surviving crew destroyed the equipment and, despite having little infantry training, made their way to fight at Arnhem. A second glider was hit by the same concentration of flack and crashed, killing 6 members of the Light Warning Unit, plus the pilots. The remaining two gliders landed as planned at the landing zone 7 miles west of Arnhem, but the crews soon realised that without all of the equipment, the Air Ministry Experimental Station would not function. As they tried to improvise a solution, both gliders and equipment were destroyed by heavy German fire on the landing zone. The Light Warning Unit crews then accompanied the infantry-trained glider pilots into battle.
At the end of the week long battle, the remains of the now exhausted 1st Airborne Division were under siege in the Oosterbeek area and, with no signs of respite and little or no ammunition, decided to attempt a risky night time crossing of the Rhine in order to reach the British lines. Only four members of the Light Warning Units, including a US Army 1st Lieutenant, made this crossing successfully and escaped. Of the 25 Light Warning Unit personnel that were flown into Holland, 10 were killed and the remaining 11 captured.