No. 1 Group RAF
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Number 1 Group of the Royal Air Force is one of the two groups in Strike Command.
The group is today referred to as the Air Combat Group, as it controls the RAF's combat fast-jet aircraft, including Joint Force Harrier, and has seven airfields in the UK plus RAF Unit Goose Bay in Canada, which is used extensively as an operational training base. The group is based alongside Strike Command at RAF High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.
The current Air Officer Commanding No. 1 Group is Air Vice-Marshal David Walker.
As of 1 August 2006, the following stations and squadrons are under the command of 1 Group:
- RAF Coningsby: 3(F), 6, 17(R), 29(R) and 41(F) Squadrons and the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.
- RAF Cottesmore: 1(F) and IV(AC) Squadrons and 800 Naval Air Squadron (Forming Joint Force Harrier).
- RAF Leeming: 25(F) and 100 Squadrons
- RAF Leuchars: 43(F), 56(R) and 111(F) Squadrons
- RAF Lossiemouth: 12, 14, 15(R) and 617 Squadrons
- RAF Marham: II(AC), IX(B), 13 and 31 Squadrons
- RAF Wittering: 20(R) Squadron
[edit] History
No. 1 Group was originally formed on 1 April 1918 in No. 1 Area. It was transferred to South-Eastern Area on 18 May 1918, Southern Area on 20 September 1919 and Inland Area on 1 April 1920.
The Group was renumbered as No. 6 Group on 19 May 1924 at Kenley, and was reformed on the same day at Kidbrooke. Two years later on 12 April 1926 the Group disappeared from the order of battle by being renumbered as No. 21 Group.
The next year the Group was reformed on 25 August 1937 by the renaming of Air Defence Group. This designation lasted until 1936 when it became No. 6 Group again. As in 1924 the Group was reformed the same day, this time as a bomber formation.
As war approached in 1939 the Group was redesignated the Advanced Air Striking Force and designated to command the British bomber forces to be sent to France. The Group re-emerged a few days later within Bomber Command on 12 September, but only lasted just over three months, being dropped on 22 December 1939.
It was reformed at RAF Bawtry on 22 June 1940 and has been continuously active in the RAF since. When Bomber Command was subsumed into the new Strike Command in 1 April 1968, No. 1 Group took on the old role of the command, holding the bomber and strike aircraft of Strike Command. In January 2000 the RAF was restructured and the Group took on its present role.
[edit] Air officers commanding
- 1 April 1918 unknown
- 29 February 1920 Group Captain H C T Dowding
- 27 February 1922 Group Captain E L Gerrard
- 1 January 1923 Air Commodore E L Gerrard
- 21 July 1924 Group Captain R Gordon
- 31 December 1924 Group Captain P L W Herbert
- 12 April 1926 - 25 August 1927 Group Disbanded
- 9 August 1927 Air Commodore E L Gerrard
- 11 November 1929 Air Commodore W F M Foster
- 2 January 1934 Air Commodore J E A Baldwin
- 12 August 1935 Air Commodore J C Quinnell
- 1 May 1936 Air Commodore O T Boyd
- 7 January 1937 Air Commodore S W Smith
- 17 February 1938 Air Vice-Marshal P H L Playfair
- 24 August 1939 - 12 September 1939 No. 1 Group Renamed Advanced Air Striking Force
- 3 September 1939 Air Vice-Marshal A C Wright
- 22 December 1939 - 22 June 1940 Group Disbanded
- 27 June 1940 Air Commodore J J Breen
- 27 November 1940 Air Vice-Marshal R D Oxland
- 24 February 1943 Air Vice-Marshal E A B Rice
- 12 February 1945 Air Vice-Marshal R S Blucke
- 15 January 1947 Air Vice-Marshal C E N Guest
- 24 January 1949 Air Vice-Marshal G H Mills
- 5 April 1951 Air Vice-Marshal D A Boyle
- 27 April 1953 Air Vice-Marshal J R Whitley
- 3 October 1956 Air Vice-Marshal G A Walker
- 14 June 1959 Air Vice-Marshal J G Davis
- 1 December 1961 Air Vice-Marshal P H Dunn
- 1 May 1964 Air Vice-Marshal D C Stapleton
- 1 June 1966 Air Vice-Marshal M H LeBas
- 23 December 1968 Air Vice-Marshal R L Wade
- 8 February 1971 Air Vice-Marshal B P T Horsley
- 3 March 1973 Air Vice-Marshal D G Evans
- 29 November 1975 Air Vice-Marshal P J Lageson
- 5 July 1978 Air Vice-Marshal D B Craig
- 11 April 1980 Air Vice-Marshal M W P Knight
- 18 December 1982 Air Vice-Marshal D Parry-Evans
- 17 September 1983 Air Commodore H S Carver
- dates unknown Air Vice-Marshal M G Simmons
- 1987 - 1989 Air Vice-Marshal C J Thomson
- 1989 - 1991 Air Vice-Marshal R A F Wilson
- 1991 - 1993 Air Vice-Marshal R E Johns
- 1993 - 1993 Air Vice-Marshal P T Squire
- 1993 - 1997 Air Vice-Marshal J R Day
- 1997 - 1998 Air Vice-Marshal G E Stirrup
- 1998 - 2000 Air Vice-Marshal J H Thompson
- 2000 - 2001 Air Vice-Marshal P V Harris
- 2001 - 2003 Air Vice-Marshal G L Torpy
- 2003 - 2005 Air Vice-Marshal C H Moran
- 2005 - present Air Vice-Marshal David Walker
