Australia's Article XV squadrons and the Empire Air Training Scheme

Empire Air Training Scheme

When war broke out in Europe in 1939, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) aircrews were among the first Australians to head overseas to Britain's aid. Between 1939 and 1945, they flew in both Australian and British squadrons with the Royal Air Force (RAF) in Coastal, Bomber and Sighter Commands. When war broke out in Europe in 1939, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) aircrews were among the first Australians to head overseas to Britain's aid. Between 1939 and 1945, they flew in both Australian and British squadrons with the Royal Air Force (RAF) in Coastal, Bomber and Sighter Commands.

The first RAAF aircrew in Britain was a party of RAAF members already there to take delivery of new Sunderland flying boats. They remained there when war broke out, becoming No. 10 Squadron RAAF, the only Australian squadron attached to the RAF.

By the end of 1940, the first Australians trained under a new British Empire training scheme started to arrive in Britain.

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Under the EATS, Australian recruits received elementary training at air bases around Australia, and many of them were then sent overseas for advanced training. Before the scheme ended in mid-1944, more than 10,000 Australians had received advanced training in Canada and 674 had been sent to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) before joining the RAF in Britain.

So that each Dominion's identity would not be lost in the EATS, a provision was made under the agreement to form complete Dominion Squadrons within the plan. Squadrons that were predominantly Australian aircrew were designated as RAAF squadrons, and 17 of these were eventually formed: 12 in Britain and 5 in the Middle East.

Many Australians also served in RAF squadrons, as did British and other Dominion personnel in RAAF squadrons.

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The Australian, New Zealand and Canadian squadrons raised under the EATS became known as Article XV squadrons. They took this name after the 1939 Air Training Agreement article, allowing each country to form their own national squadrons.

Australian airmen go to Canada to train under Empire Air Scheme [British Movietone]

Article XV squadrons

Australia raised 17 Article XV squadrons that served around the world:

• No. 450 Squadron
• No. 451 Squadron
• No. 452 Squadron
• No. 453 Squadron
• No. 454 Squadron
• No. 455 Squadron
• No. 456 Squadron
• No. 457 Squadron
• No. 458 Squadron
• No. 459 Squadron
• No. 460 Squadron
• No. 461 Squadron
• No. 462 Squadron
• No. 463 Squadron
• No. 464 Squadron
• No. 466 Squadron
• No. 467 Squadron

No. 465 Squadron was never formed.

Australian crews

The 27,899 Australian aircrew who had qualified under the EATS supplied approximately 9% of all aircrew who fought for the RAF in the Mediterranean and European theatres in the air war against Germany and Italy. They flew in operations over German and Italian cities, sank enemy ships and submarines, and shot down many enemy aircraft. RAAF bombers dropped many tonnes of bombs.

Australians served mainly as aircrew – pilots, engineers, navigators, wireless operators, observers and air gunners. Some also went as ground crew and carried out the maintenance and administrative tasks on the ground necessary to keep aircraft flying.

By the war's end, Australian airmen had flown all over the world in many types of aircraft, including:

• Gladiator biplane fighters in Libya
• Hampden torpedo-bombers over northern Russia
• Baltimore bombers over the islands of the Aegean
• Dakota transports over Poland
• Sunderland flying boats over the Atlantic
• Hudson bombers over the Atlantic
• Spitfires over France
• Tomahawk fighters over Syria
• Lancaster bombers over Germany
• Stirling bombers over Italy
• Beaufighters over the Norwegian fjords
• Mustang fighter-bombers over Italy.

Campaigns Australian airmen participated in included:

• the Battle of Britain in 1940
• the air war against the Germans and Italians in North Africa and the Middle East between 1940 and 1943
• the defence of Malta in 1942
• the Allied drive through Sicily and Italy between 1943 and 1945
• skies over the UK, Europe and Britain's sea lanes from 1939 until 1945.

Bomber Command

The most costly missions were with RAF Bomber Command, and Australian aircrews flew in virtually every major operation. Although their numbers amounted to less than 2% of Australia's World War II enlistments, the 3,486 men who were killed in Bomber Command accounted for almost 20% of all Australian combat deaths.

The squadron with the greatest losses – more than 1,000 men – was No. 460 Squadron RAAF, which operated Vickers Wellington and then Avro Lancaster bombers from England.

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Flight Sergeant Rawdon Middleton, from No. 149 Squadron RAF, was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for his courage. During a raid on Turin, Italy, on the night of 28 to 29 November 1942, a shell burst in the cockpit of his Stirling bomber. Although he was badly wounded, Middleton managed to fly the damaged aircraft back to England so his crew could bail out. He then flew out to sea and crashed the bomber to avoid hitting any houses. His body washed up near Dover 2 months later. He was buried in the churchyard of St John's, Beck Row, Mildenhall, Suffolk with full military honours. His Victoria Cross is in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

His devotion to duty in the face of overwhelming odds is unsurpassed in the annals of the Royal Air Force.

[From Victoria Cross citation, Flight Sergeant Rawdon Hume Middleton]

Learn more about RAF Bomber Command.

Fighter Command

RAF Fighter Command was a unit that flew fighter aircraft, mainly Spitfires, Hurricanes and Mustangs. It became famous during the 1940 Battle of Britain, when, along with the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy (RN), it successfully defended Britain from attacks by the German Luftwaffe.

No. 452 Squadron RAAF

The first RAAF squadron formed in England under the EATS, No. 452 Squadron RAAF, was a fighter squadron equipped with Spitfires. On 8 April 1941, the squadron began forming at RAF Station Kirton-in-Lindsey, Lincolnshire, England. The Australians received instruction from a RAF veteran of the Battle of Britain, Flight Lieutenant Bernard 'Paddy' Finucane.

In late July 1941, the squadron moved to Kenley airfield, just outside London, where it gained a reputation as one of the most successful in Fighter Command. In 4 months in 1941, No. 452 Squadron claimed more than 60 German planes during sweeps over France and the English Channel.

Nos. 456 and 457 Squadrons RAAF

In June 1941, Nos. 456 and 457 Squadrons RAAF were formed in England. No. 457 Squadron was used as an operational training unit, as well as flying patrols and convoy escort missions.

In 1942, both Nos. 452 and 457 Squadrons brought their Spitfires to Australia to assist in the defence of Darwin.

No. 453 Squadron RAAF

In the UK, No. 457 Squadron was effectively replaced by No. 453 Squadron RAAF in June 1942, its Spitfires flying fighter sweeps and bomber escorts. No. 453 Squadron was based at Drem, near Edinburgh, Scotland, and operated from airfields around Britain. After the D-Day landings in June 1944, the squadron was deployed to Europe to support the advancing Allied ground forces. But by September 1944, it was back in England mounting attacks against the German V-1 and V-2 missile launching sites in Holland. No. 453 Squadron was part of the Allied occupation forces and was the first Commonwealth squadron to be based in Berlin after the German surrender in May 1945. It was disbanded in January 1946.

No. 456 Squadron RAAF

Formed in the same month as No. 457 Squadron, No. 456 Squadron RAAF was equipped with Defiant night fighters, soon replaced with Beaufighters. In December 1942, it was re-equipped with Mosquitoes and began offensive missions over occupied Europe. The squadron's usual targets were rail and road transport. From the middle of 1943, they hunted the long-range German Ju88 fighters that were attacking Coastal Command aircraft. After the Normandy landings in 1944, the squadron flew numerous successful operations over France and also achieved success shooting down V-1 rockets. No. 456 Squadron disbanded in June 1945.

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Nos. 450 and 451 Squadrons RAAF

Two other Article XV fighter squadrons served in the Middle East: Nos. 450 and 451 Squadrons RAAF.

No. 450 Squadron, nicknamed the 'Desert Harassers', was formed in Australia in 1941. It served with No. 3 Squadron RAAF in the same wing of the Desert Air Force.

No. 451 Squadron operated 2 aircraft inside Tobruk towards the end of the siege, as well as later in Sardinia, Corsica and Italy after the Allied invasion of Italy in 1943. It also participated in the invasion of France and later on, together with No. 453 Squadron, fought with the Allied invading forces into Germany.

Learn more about RAF Fighter Command.

Coastal Command

RAF Coastal Command's main role was to protect Allied shipping convoys in the Atlantic from attacks by German U-boats. It focused on defending supply lines across the Atlantic and in the Mediterranean, Middle East and North African theatres. Coastal Command aircraft also conducted maritime reconnaissance flights, including monitoring German invasion preparations during the Battle of Britain, as well as several other roles.

They flew a variety of aircraft, including:

• Lockheed Hudson bomber
• A26 Short Sunderland flying boat.

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Coastal Command had bases in the UK, the Soviet Union, Iceland, and West and North Africa.

Three Australian squadrons – Nos. 10, 455 and 461 RAAF – were attached to Coastal Command.

Australians also served in Coastal Command as part of RAF squadrons.

During the war, Coastal Command destroyed over 200 U-boats, sank or damaged over 1 million tonnes of Axis shipping, and rescued over 10,000 people from the sea. The command lost around 2,000 aircraft, and nearly 6,000 Allied personnel lost their lives, including some 408 Australians.

Learn more RAF Coastal Command.

'The angry sky'

Airmen from all parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, as well as some from occupied Europe, were lost during RAF operations from Britain and north-west Europe in World War II and many have no known graves. They are commemorated at Runnymede, Surrey, England, on the Air Forces Memorial. The airmen served in Bomber, Fighter, Coastal, Transport, Flying Training and Maintenance Commands.

Of the 20,401 names listed on the memorial, 1,396 are Australian.

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This poem is engraved on a window of the memorial. It was written by a student, Paul H Scott, soon after the memorial's completion in October 1953.

The first rays of the dawning sun
Shall touch its pillars,
And as the day advances
And the light grows stronger,
You shall read the names
Engraved on the stone
Of those who sailed on the angry sky
And saw harbour no more.
No gravestone in yew-dark churchyard
Shall mark the resting place;
Their bones lie in the forgotten corners
Of earth and sea

But, that we may not lose their memory
With fading years, their monument stand here,
Here, at the heart of England, half-way between
Royal Windsor and Lordly London; looking down,
Here, where the trees troops down to Runnymede
Meadow of Magna Carta, field of freedom,
Never saw you so fitting a memorial,
Proof that the principles established here
Are still dear to the hearts of men.
Here now they stand, contrasted and alike,
The field of freedom's birth, and the memorial
To freedom's winning.

And, as the evening comes,
And mists, like quiet ghosts, rise from the river bed,
And climb the hill to wander through the cloisters,
We shall not forget them.
Above the mist
We shall see the memorial still, and over it
The crown and single star.
And we shall pray,
As the mists rise up and the air grows dark,
That we may wear
A brave a heart as they.