Real Fuerza Aérea británica

Origins

The Royal Air Force was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918 by merging the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). This made it the second independent air force in the world after the Finnish Air Force (established 6 March 1918).

The merger was initially recommended by a report issued on 17 August 1917 by the South African statesman and general Jan Smuts, with significant contributions from Lieutenant General David Henderson. The Smuts Report informed the creation of the Air Force (Constitution) Bill, which made provision for the creation of an independent Air Force. This was passed by Parliament on 23 November 1917, and received royal assent as the Air Force (Constitution) Act 1917 (7 & 8 Geo. 5. c. 51) on 29 November 1917. On 7 March 1918, King George V issued a royal decree naming the new service the 'Royal Air Force'. At the time of its formation, the RAF was the largest air force in the world. Its first headquarters were the former Hotel Cecil on the Strand in London.

After the war, the size of RAF was drastically cut, and its inter-war years were relatively quiet. The RAF was put in charge of British military activity in Iraq, and carried out minor actions in other parts of the British Empire, including establishing bases to protect Singapore and Malaya. The RAF's naval aviation branch, the Fleet Air Arm, was founded in 1924 but handed over to Admiralty control on 24 May 1939. In 1925, the RAF carried out its first independent operation, conducting a successful air campaign against rebelling Mahsud tribesmen during Pink's War.

The RAF was among the earliest and keenest advocates of the doctrine of strategic bombing, informed by Britain's experience of German air attacks in the First World War. Starting in the early 1920s, strategic bombing saw significant technical and tactical development in the RAF, and ultimately became Britain's main offensive airpower strategy during the Second World War.

Second World War

The Royal Air Force underwent rapid expansion prior to and during the Second World War. Under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan of December 1939, the air forces of British Commonwealth countries trained and formed "Article XV squadrons" for service with RAF formations. Many individual personnel from these countries, and exiles from occupied Europe, also served with RAF squadrons. By the end of the war the Royal Canadian Air Force had contributed more than 30 squadrons to serve in RAF formations, similarly, approximately a quarter of Bomber Command's personnel were Canadian. Additionally, the Royal Australian Air Force represented around nine per cent of all RAF personnel who served in the European and Mediterranean theatres.

During the Battle of Britain in 1940, the RAF defended the skies over Britain against the numerically superior German Luftwaffe. In what is perhaps the most prolonged and complicated air campaign in history, the Battle of Britain contributed significantly to the delay and subsequent indefinite postponement of Operation Sea Lion, Hitler's plans for an invasion of the UK. In the House of Commons on 20 August, prompted by the ongoing efforts of the RAF, Prime Minister Winston Churchill made a speech to the nation, where he said "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few".

The largest RAF effort during the war was the strategic bombing campaign against Germany by Bomber Command. While RAF bombing of Germany began almost immediately upon the outbreak of war at first it was ineffectual; it was only later, particularly under the leadership of Air Chief Marshal Harris, that these attacks became increasingly devastating, from early 1943 onward, as new technology and greater numbers of superior aircraft became available. The RAF adopted night-time area bombing on German cities such as Hamburg and Dresden. Night time area bombing constituted the great bulk of the RAF's bombing campaign, mainly due to Harris, but it also developed precision bombing techniques for specific operations, such as the infamous "Dambusters" raid by No. 617 Squadron, or the Amiens prison raid known as Operation Jericho.

Cold War era

Following victory in the Second World War, the RAF underwent significant re-organisation, as technological advances in air warfare saw the arrival of jet fighters and bombers. During the early stages of the Cold War, one of the first major operations undertaken by the RAF was the Berlin Airlift, codenamed Operation Plainfire. Between 26 June 1948 and the lifting of the Soviet blockade of the city on 12 May 1949, the RAF provided 17% of the total supplies delivered, using Avro Yorks, Douglas Dakotas flying to Gatow Airport and Short Sunderlands flying to Lake Havel.