British Military Aviation in 1940 - Part 1

Part 2

January
Fourteen Lockheed Hudsons and a Short Sunderland are fitted with the first maritime search radar sets, designated Air-to-Surface Vessel (ASV) Mark 1.

1 January
Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) coding is introduced to identify Bomber, Coastal and Fighter Command aircraft for the air defence system. VHF Radio Telephone installations are also completed eight selected sectors.

12-13 January
Armstrong Whitworth Whitleys of No.77 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command, operating from Villeneuve in France, drop leaflets over Prague and Vienna for the first time.

31 January
The first casualty list of the Second World War is released and lists 758 personnel killed, with 210 aircraft losses.

14 February
A Lockheed Hudson of RAF Coastal Command locates the German prison and re-supply ship Altmark in Norwegian territorial waters.

22 February
Squadron Leader Douglas Farquhar of No.602 Squadron takes the first British gun-camera film of the war, while attacking and destroying a Heinkel He111 over Coldingham in Berwickshire.

25 February
The first Royal Canadian Air Force unit arrives in the United Kingdom.

11 March
A Bristol Blenheim of No.82 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command, on patrol off Borkum surprises and sinks U-31 on the surface in the Schillig Roads. The attack is pressed home at such a low altitude that the Blenheim is damaged by the explosions and the pilot of the Blenheim, Squadron Leader Miles Villiers 'Paddy' Delap, is subsequently awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions. This is the first U-Boat of the war to be sunk by a Royal Air Force aircraft without the assistance of surface vessels.

The Type VIIIA U-boat U-31 is subsequently raised by the German Navy, only to be sunk again by the destroyer HMS Antelope in November 1940. Raised for a second time, the U-31 is finally scuttled in May 1945.

3 April
Air Marshal Sir Charles Portal succeeds Air Marshal Sir Edgar Ludlow-Hewitt as Air Officer Commanding in Chief of Bomber Command.

8 April
The Civilian Repair Organisation (CRO) is formed. This organisation is designed to utilise civilian resources for the rapid repair of damaged Royal Air Force aircraft, returning them to the front-line without the use of Royal Air Force engineering resources. Between 1940 and 1945, the CRO repaires a total of 80,666 aircraft.

8 April
A Short Sunderland of No.204 Squadron detects the German cruiser Hipper and escorting destroyers heading towards Trondheim in Norway. The warships are carrying part of a German force that has been assembled for the invasion of Norway.

9 April
German forces invade Norway and Denmark and Danish forces are ordered not to offer resistance.

11 April
Three Vickers Wellingtons of No.115 Squadron and two Bristol Blenheims of No.254 Squadron attack Stavanger/Sola airfield, in the first Royal Air Force attack on Norway and the first of sixteen attacks on this airfield over the following days.

13 April
RAF Bomber Command mounts the first Royal Air Force minelaying operation of the Second World War. Fifteen Handley Page Hampdens are despatched and of this force, fourteen lay sea mines off Denmark and one aircraft is lost. During the course of the Second World War, the Royal Air Force flies 19,917 minelaying sorties and the sea mines laid sink 638 vessels at a cost of 450 lost aircraft.

20 April
The training of air crews under the Empire Air Training Scheme begins. The scheme is later retitled the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.

22 April
HMS Glorious sails from Scapa Flow, carrying eighteen Gloster Gladiators of No.263 Squadron of the Royal Air Force. The squadron subsequently flies from the deck of the aircraft carrier on 24 April, landing on the frozen surface of Lake Lesjaskogin in Norway.

The squadron had been despatched to support Allied ground forces around Namsos and Andalsnes in Norway, with further assistance provided by aircraft from Glorious and the carrier HMS Ark Royal. No.263 Squadron ceases operations on 26 April after running out of fuel and serviceable aircraft. During the two days the squadron is operational, it makes 37 interceptions of Luftwaffe aircraft and claims six aircraft shot down and a number of others damaged.

24 April
The Air Council decides to establish a Royal Air Force Technical Branch.

29 April
The Empire Air Training Scheme begins in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

1 May
British forces are evacuated from Andalsnes and Namsos in Norway.

7 May
A Bristol Beaufort torpedo bomber of RAF Coastal Command drops the first 2,000 pound bomb to be delivered by the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. The target is an enemy cruiser near Nordeney, but the weapon missed the warship.

10 May
The German offensive in the west, Fall Gelb (Operation Yellow), opens at dawn with the invasion of Luxemburg, Belgium and the Netherlands, all three of which are neutral.

A coalition Government is formed, with Winston Churchill as both Prime Minister and Minister of Defence.

Eight Armstrong Whitworth Whitleys of No.77 and No.102 Squadrons attack enemy communications in Germany, west of the Rhine, in the first deliberate Royal Air Force raid on mainland Germany.

Part 2