Desert Air Force

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The Desert Air Force (DAF), later known as the First Tactical Air Force, was an Allied tactical air force formed during World War II. The DAF was formed in North Africa to provide close air support to the Eighth Army. It was made up of squadrons from the Royal Air Force (RAF), the South African Air Force (SAAF), the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). Many individual personnel from other Allied air forces also took part.

The DAF was always under-equipped numerically compared to UK-based RAF units, and had to make do with obsolete or inadequate aircraft types throughout its early existence. Initially equipped with aircraft such as the Gloster Gladiator biplane, Hawker Hurricane fighter and Bristol Blenheim bomber, other newer types were introduced in 1941.

The American made P-40 Tomahawk / Kittyhawk was originally the DAF's only adequate air superiority fighter, and was soon also modified to become a highly successful ground attack aircraft. Good Tomahawk and Kittyhawk pilots such as Australian Clive Caldwell could more than hold their own against Axis aircraft, with 46 British Commonwealth pilots reaching ace (five or more kills) in P-40s, including seven double aces.^[1] The Luftwaffe's Messerschmitt Bf-109s were always dangerous opponents however and could inflict severe losses on the P-40s when they were caught at a disadvantage, such as flying slowly at low level as they carried out their primary ground-attack operations.

Although the DAF fighters did have successes in air-to-air combat when conditions were right, Spitfires were finally allocated for the pure air superiority role to the DAF, becoming operational in August 1942.

In 1941 and 1942 the DAF revolutionised the concept of tactical air support and Army co-operation by using fighter-bombers controlled via RT by "Forward Air Controllers" (trained RAF officer observers attached to advancing Eighth Army units) and "cab ranks" of fighter-bombers awaiting the call-in to attack specific tactical targets. In this way the DAF provided vital and decisive air support to the Eighth Army until the end of the war, fighting through Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Sicily and mainland Italy. The concepts proved in the North African campaign were to be adopted with even greater success during the invasion of Europe in 1944.

The South African Air Force provided over a dozen squadrons to the DAF. This was their main theatre of operations, as the South African government had decided their military should not operate outside Africa.

The Australian contribution included No. 3 Squadron RAAF which arrived in North Africa on August 23, 1940 and served with the DAF until the closing stages of the war in Europe, when it was transferred to the Australian First Tactical Air Force in the Pacific. By that time 3 Sqn had the most substantial service record of any DAF squadron, including the greatest number of kills (217 claims). Many Australian pilots also flew with RAF squadrons in the early years of the war.

Personnel who served with the Desert Air Force were awarded the Africa Star campaign medal with a bronze rosette in the "bar" position on the ribbon.

The USAAF 79th Fighter Group arrived in North Africa in late 1942. It operated under the Desert Air Force and was controlled operationally by RAF No. 211 Group. (For U.S. administrative purposes, the 79th was under IX Fighter Command, part of the 9th Air Force.) By March 1943, the group comprised three squadrons: the 85th, 86th and 87th Fighter Squadrons. The 79th operated under DAF until it moved to Sicily, after the invasion in July 1943.