Military unit
No. 40 Wing
formed part of the
Royal Air Force
(RAF)
Palestine Brigade
during
World War I
and immediately after. It was established in October 1917 as
40th (Army) Wing
,
Royal Flying Corps
(RFC), and become part of the RAF in April 1918, when the RFC merged with the
Royal Naval Air Service
. The wing played a major part in the
Battle of Megiddo
, the last great offensive against the
Ottoman Empire
, in September 1918. It was disbanded in April 1920.
History
[
edit
]
40th (Army) Wing RFC was formed on 5 October 1917,
[1]
under the control of the RFC's Palestine Brigade. Its primary roles were counter-air operations and attacks on enemy infrastructure. It also undertook extensive
photo-reconnaissance
work. Another formation under the Palestine Brigade,
5th (Corps) Wing
, performed air cooperation and
close air support
tasks.
[2]
40th Wing's first
Officer Commanding
was Lieutenant Colonel
Amyas Borton
;
[3]
he was succeeded by
Alexander Shekleton
in late 1917.
[4]
In June 1918, Lieutenant Colonel
Richard Williams
of the
Australian Flying Corps
(AFC) took command of the wing, with
No. 1 Squadron AFC
and three RFC squadrons?Nos.
111
,
144
, and
145
?at his disposal.
[5]
No. 145 Squadron was also commanded by an Australian, Captain
Roy Drummond
.
[6]
[7]
Based at
Ramleh
, the wing's inventory consisted of
Bristol F.2B
and
S.E.5
fighters
and
DH.9
light bombers
.
[5]
Wing officers seated in an olive grove in Ramleh
Augmented by a giant
Handley Page bomber
, No. 40 Wing took part in the
Battle of Megiddo
,
General Allenby's
final offensive in Palestine, where its units inflicted "wholesale destruction" on
Turkish
columns through sustained aerial assaults.
[8]
[9]
At
Wadi Fara
on 21 September 1918, the Palestine Brigade, including the 40th Wing's four squadrons, destroyed the bulk of the
Turkish Seventh Army
as it attempted to cross the
Jordan River
along an old Roman road leading from
Nablus
, an early demonstration of the effects of concentrated air attack on ground troops.
[10]
Williams wrote: "The Turkish Seventh Army ceased to exist and it must be noted that this was entirely the result of attack from the air." A detachment from No. 1 Squadron also aided Major
T. E. Lawrence
's Arab army north of
Amman
when it was harassed by German aircraft operating from
Deraa
.
[11]
While the wing's actions during the Battle of Megiddo "assured Allenby's victory" according to historian
Lawrence James
, the new method of waging war by inflicting "sickening slaughter" from the air provoked a strong reaction from Lieutenant General
Edward Bulfin
, commander of the British XXI Corps. He confronted Major General
Geoffrey Salmond
,
Air Officer Commanding
RAF Middle East, with the comment, "You are a butcher?you call that fighting?"
[9]
No. 40 Wing was based at RAF
Ismailia
in Egypt from 1919, and disbanded on 1 April 1920.
[1]
Order of battle
[
edit
]
DH.9s of 40th Wing, 1918
Prior to the
Battle of Megiddo
in September 1918, No. 40 Wing consisted of the following units and equipment:
[5]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
Citations
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Wing Nos 1?50
Archived
26 July 2008 at the
Wayback Machine
at
Air of Authority ? A History of RAF Organisation
Archived
26 December 2007 at the
Wayback Machine
. Retrieved on 28 February 2009.
- ^
Mordike,
RAF Air Power Review
, pp. 18?19.
- ^
Air Vice-Marshal A E Borton
at Air of Authority ? A History of RAF Organisation. Retrieved on 28 February 2009.
- ^
"111(F) Sqn History"
. Retrieved
8 March
2009
.
[
dead link
]
- ^
a
b
c
Mordike,
RAF Air Power Review
, pp. 28?9; 35.
- ^
Air Marshal Sir Peter Drummond
Archived
26 December 2007 at the
Wayback Machine
at Air of Authority ? A History of RAF Organisation. Retrieved on 28 February 2009.
- ^
Drummond, Sir Peter Roy Maxwell (1894?1945)
at
Australian Dictionary of Biography Online
. Retrieved 28 February 2009.
- ^
Stephens,
The Royal Australian Air Force
, pp. 13?4.
- ^
a
b
Mordike,
RAF Air Power Review
, pp. 33?6.
- ^
Coulthard-Clark,
The Encyclopaedia of Australia's Battles
, pp. 160?61.
- ^
Odgers,
100 Years of Australia at War
, pp. 84?5.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
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