RAF Coastal Command was a formation within the
Royal Air ForceThe Royal Air Force is the United Kingdom's air force, the oldest independent air force in the world. Formed on 1 April 1918, the RAF has taken a significant role in British military history ever since, playing a large part in World War II and in more recent conflicts.The RAF operates almost 1,109...
. The service came to prominence during the Second World War. It defended the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
from naval threats and countered them by air. Coastal Command was often referred to as the "Cinderella Service" as a result of the comments made by
A. V. Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of HillsboroughAlbert Victor Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Hillsborough, KG, CH, PC was a British Labour and Co-operative politician. He was three times First Lord of the Admiralty, including during the Second World War, and then Minister of Defence under Clement Attlee.-Background:Born in Weston-super-Mare...
, First Lord of the Admiralty.
Coastal Command did not gain the recognition received by
RAF Bomber CommandRAF Bomber Command was the organisation that controlled the RAF's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. During World War II, the command destroyed a significant proportion of Nazi Germany's industries and many German cities, and in the 1960s was at the peak of its postwar power with the V bombers and a...
or
RAF Fighter CommandFighter Command was one of three functional commands that dominated the public perception of the Royal Air Force for much of the mid-20th century...
as a decisive offensive or defensive force. Its primary task was to protect British naval supply lines and
convoyA convoy is a group of vehicles traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support, though it may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas.-Age of Sail:Naval convoys have been used for hundreds...
s from the
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
KriegsmarineThe Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy between 1935 and 1945, during the Nazi regime, superseding the Reichsmarine, and the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht.-Command structure:Adolf Hitler was the commander-in-chief...
s U-BoatU-boat is the anglicized version of the German word , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
force, known as the "Wolf packs". It also protected Allied shipping from the aerial threat posed by the LuftwaffeLuftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1933 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956.Schweizer Luftwaffe is also the name of the Swiss Air...
.
The main operations of Coastal Command were defensive, defending supplies lines in the various theatres of war, most notably the Mediterranean, Middle East and African theatres and Battle of the Atlantic. It also served in an offensive capacity. In the Mediterranean theatre and the
Baltic seaThe Baltic Sea is a brackish inland sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and the...
it carried out attacks on German shipping moving war materials from
ScandinaviaScandinavia is a geographical region in northern Europe that includes, and is named after, the Scanian Province. It consists of the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark...
to Germany.
The service saw action from the first day of hostilities until the last day of the Second World War. It flew over 240,000 operations, destroyed 212 U-boats and sank 478,000 tons of shipping. Coastal Command lost 1,777 aircraft, with 5,866 personnel killed in action. Whilst the latter figure for the number killed was given in the official History During 1940 - 1945 Coastal Command sank 366 German transport vessels and damged 134. The total tonnage sunk was 512,330 tons.
Origins
Prior to the formation of Coastal Command in 1936, the role of the command was carried out by the Coastal Area organization. Coastal Area existed from 1919 to 1936. Before that the role was carried out by
No. 10 Group RAFNo. 10 Group of the Royal Air Force was formed on 1 April 1918 in No. 2 Area. On 8 May of the next year it was transferred to South-Western Area. In 1919 it was transferred to Coastal Area where it remained until it was disbanded on 18 January 1932....
.
Equipment
In its early days, other arms of the RAF had priority and Coastal Command had to make do with mostly obsolescent planes and weapons. Coastal Command had 224 aircraft and only 24 of these were modern types suitable for all its roles; these 24 were 12
Lockheed HudsonThe Lockheed Hudson was an American-built light bomber and coastal reconnaissance aircraft built initially for the Royal Air Force shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War and primarily operated by the RAF thereafter...
s and 12
Short SunderlandThe Short S.25 Sunderland was a British flying boat patrol bomber developed for the Royal Air Force by Short Brothers. Based in part upon the S.23 Empire flying boat, the flagship of Imperial Airways, the S.25 was extensively re-engineered for military service...
s. The remaining 200 were mostly aging
Avro AnsonThe Avro Anson was a British twin-engine, multi-role aircraft that served with the Royal Air Force, Fleet Air Arm and numerous other air forces during the Second World War and afterwards. Named for British admiral George Anson, it was originally designed for maritime reconnaissance, but was soon...
s. Supplies of aircraft were so short, many units were in fact "on loan" from the
Royal NavyThe Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of HM Armed Forces . From the beginning of the 18th century until well into the 20th century, it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early...
's
Fleet Air ArmThe Fleet Air Arm is the branch of the Royal Navy responsible for the operation of aircraft. The Fleet Air Arm operates the AgustaWestland Merlin, Westland Sea King and Westland Lynx helicopters, as well as the Harrier GR7/GR9...
. The primary weapon was a small 100 lb
anti-submarineAnti-submarine warfare is a branch of naval warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, or other submarines to find, track and deter, damage or destroy enemy submarines....
(A/S)
bombA bomb is any of a range of explosive devices that typically rely on the exothermic chemical reaction of an explosive material to produce an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. The word comes from the Greek word βόμβος , an onomatopoetic term with approximately the same meaning as...
which required perfect accuracy, and did not have enough power to damage a
U-boatU-boat is the anglicized version of the German word , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
. Another problem with this weapon was its tendency to skip off the water and in one case hit and destroyed the plane that dropped it. Early operations were mostly ineffective, often ending with the U-boat the victor on the occasions they could be found by the aircraft. Even upon finding a submarine the chances of scoring a hit were still low because of flawed tactics employed. Aircraft were required to get on the stern of the U-boat and make a longitudinal 'along the track' attack. It took too long for the aircraft to get into position and gave the U-boat ample time to quickly dive and change course. There were also 250 lb and 500 lb anti-submarine bombs; both still required high accuracy and could be effectively carried only by the Sunderland flying boat.
In 1940, experiments were begun by the Admiralty on a 250 lb
depth chargeThe depth charge is an anti-submarine weapon intended to defeat its target by the shock of exploding near it. Most use explosives and a fuze set to go off at a predetermined depth. Some have been designed to use nuclear warheads...
, modified to be dropped from the air, for use by Fleet Air Arm and later Coastal Command. After a successful series of tests, the antisubmarine bomb was replaced with the depth charge in 1941 but due to shortages, A/S bombs were not completely removed from service until 1942. (Somewhat later, an
operations researchOperations research or Quantitative management, as termed in the USA, Canada, South Africa and Australia, and operational research, as termed in Europe, is an interdisciplinary branch of applied mathematics that uses methods such as mathematical modeling, statistics, and algorithms to arrive at...
group led by Professor
Patrick M. S. BlackettPatrick Maynard Stuart Blackett, Baron Blackett OM CH FRS was an English experimental physicist known for his work on cloud chambers, cosmic rays, and paleomagnetism. He also made a major contribution in World War II advising on military strategy and developing Operational Research...
discovered setting the depth charges to explode at a shallow depth, rather than the earlier deep setting, improved success; this required the development of a new firing pistol capable of working so shallow.) In the same year, a number of newer aircraft being introduced into
RAF Bomber CommandRAF Bomber Command was the organisation that controlled the RAF's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. During World War II, the command destroyed a significant proportion of Nazi Germany's industries and many German cities, and in the 1960s was at the peak of its postwar power with the V bombers and a...
allowed their older bomber designs to be sent to Coastal Command, including numbers of
Vickers WellingtonThe Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engine, long range medium bomber designed in the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey, by Vickers-Armstrongs' Chief Designer, R. K. Pierson. It was widely used as a night bomber in the early years of the Second World War, before being displaced as a...
s. These had much longer range, making them more effective. The introduction of the
Leigh LightThe Leigh Light was a British World War II era anti-submarine device used in the Second Battle of the Atlantic.It was a powerful searchlight of 24 inches diameter fitted to a number of the British Royal Air Force's Coastal Command patrol bombers to help them spot surfaced German U-boats at...
in 1942 allowed accurate night attacks, denying U-boats the freedom to recharge their batteries under cover of darkness.
The introduction of the
de Havilland MosquitoThe de Havilland Mosquito was a British combat aircraft that excelled in versatility during the Second World War. Originally conceived as an unarmed fast bomber, the Mosquito adapted to many other roles in during the air war in both the Pacific theatre of Operations and the European theatre,...
freed the
Bristol BeaufighterThe Bristol Type 156 Beaufighter, often referred to as simply the Beau, was a British long-range heavy fighter modification of the Bristol Aeroplane Company's earlier Beaufort torpedo bomber design...
for Coastal Command use. The Beaufighter became one of their most effective short-range aircraft, operating with rockets and depth charges against U-boats in the
Bay of BiscayThe Bay of Biscay or the Cantabrian Sea is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea...
. These planes were also used in attacks on other German shipping, even attacking the German flak boats.
Far more important to Coastal Command were the long range
VLR LiberatorThe Consolidated B-24 Liberator was an American heavy bomber, built by Consolidated Aircraft. It was produced in greater numbers than any other American combat aircraft of World War II and still holds the record as the most produced U.S. military aircraft. It was used by many Allied air forces and...
and Short Sunderland. Continued wrangling with Bomber Command meant it was into 1942 before even a few dozen VLRs were released and much later still before a lonely squadron was posted to Gander Newfoundland, covering the crucial
AtlanticThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres , it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek...
choke point and the
Mid-Atlantic gapThe Mid-Atlantic Gap was the gap in coverage by land-based Coastal Command antisubmarine aircraft during the Battle of the Atlantic in the Second World War. It is frequently known as The Black Pit, as well as the Atlantic Gap, Air Gap, Greenland Gap, or just "the Gap". This resulted in heavy...
and finally allowing Coastal Command to cover all the North Atlantic. In the middle of 1942, 45 B-17
Fortress IIAThe Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engine heavy bomber aircraft developed for the United States Army Air Corps , introduced in the 1930s. Competing against Douglas and Martin for a contract to build 200 bombers, the Boeing entry outperformed both competitors and more than met the Air Corps'...
s were transferred to the RAF. Likely because of the shortcomings of the Fortress I (B-17C), the RAF decided not to use the Fortress IIA (B-17E) as a daylight high-altitude bomber, the role for which it had been designed. Rather, they were transferred to the Coastal Command for anti-submarine patrol. By the start of 1943, the improvement in aircraft and tactics, and the introduction of electronic aids such as centimetric radar, vastly improved the effectiveness of the Command, and as the U-Boat kill rate rose, shipping losses plummeted. It was not so much the number sunk as the constant harassment that made the planes effective (in conjunction with
direction findingDirection finding refers to the establishment of the direction from which a received signal was transmitted. This can refer to radio or other forms of wireless communication...
), as submarines were unable to approach to contact in daylight or run in on the surface at night to attack, meaning many convoys were unmolested.
Formations
Coastal Command controlled many formations during WWII. At the start of the war it had four Groups under its control, one of which, No. 17 Group, was a formation dedicated to training aircrews. The other three had responsibility for different geographical sectors of the British coastline. No. 16 Group was responsible for the eastern half of the
English ChannelThe English Channel is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest, to only in the Strait of Dover...
and the southern half of the
North SeaThe North Sea is a marginal, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf. The Dover Strait and the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north connect it to the Atlantic Ocean. It is more than long and wide, with an area of around...
.
No. 18 GroupNo. 18 Group of the Royal Air Force was a group active from 1918 to 1919, and from 1938 to 1996.- 1919 - 1919 :The Group was initially formed on 1 April 1918 in No 4 Area. It was transferred to North-Eastern Area, 8 May 1918...
covered the remainder of the North Sea and areas to the north and west of
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, north of a line running north west from the
Mull of KintyreThe Mull of Kintyre is the most southwesterly section of the long Kintyre Peninsula in southwestern Scotland, approximately 10 miles from Campbeltown. The name is an Anglicisation of the Gaelic Maol Chinn Tìre...
. No. 15 Group covered the remainder of the coast of the United Kingdom, principally the South West approaches.
In February 1941, this geographical arrangement was altered with the activation of No. 19 Group. The boundary between No. 18 Group and No. 15 Group was shifted northwards so that it ran along a line heading north west from
Cape WrathCape Wrath is a cape in Sutherland, Highland, in northern Scotland. It is the most northwesterly point on the island of Great Britain....
and No. 19 Group was made responsible for the southern part of the area formerly under No. 15 Group. In the
Irish SeaThe Irish Sea also known as the Mann Sea or Manx Sea, separates the islands of Ireland and Britain. It is connected to the Atlantic Ocean in the south by St George's Channel, and in the north by the North Channel...
No. 19 Groups's remit ran south of a line approximately in the middle of
Cardigan BayCardigan Bay is a large inlet of the Irish Sea, indenting the west coast of Wales, between Bardsey Island, Gwynedd and Strumble Head, Pembrokeshire...
. In the eastern Atlantic, the boundary ran slightly north of that line.
Further important additions were made to Coastal Command's remit when squadrons based outside the UK were also placed under its control. In November 1940, No. 200 Group at
GibraltarGibraltar is a self-governing British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula and Europe at the entrance of the Mediterranean overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar. The territory covers and shares a land border with Spain to the north...
was transferred to the control of Coastal Command, from that of RAF Mediterranean. Apart from a brief period under the operational command of
Allied Forces HeadquartersAllied Force Headquarters was the headquarters that controlled all Allied operational forces in the Mediterranean Theatre of World War II from late 1942 to the end of the war....
during
Operation TorchOperation Torch was the British-American invasion of French North Africa in World War II during the North African Campaign, started 8 November 1942....
and its aftermath, RAF units in Gibraltar remained under Coastal Command control for the rest of the war. No. 200 Group was raised from Group level to Command level within Coastal Command in December 1941 as
RAF GibraltarRoyal Air Force Station Gibraltar, better known as RAF Gibraltar and formally as North Front, is a Royal Air Force station on Gibraltar. No military aircraft are currently stationed there, but there are regular visits...
, and remained a Command until again reduced to Group level in 1953 as AHQ Gibraltar. With the British occupation of
IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
, RAF units were also based there, and as their work was almost exclusively ASW, Coastal Command again assumed control. At first, No. 30 Wing RAF was the formation controlling units in Iceland. However, in July 1941, No. 30 Wing was raised to Command status as RAF Iceland. The final addition to the clutch of overseas units controlled by Coastal Command was No. 247 Group RAF. In mid-1943,
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
granted Britain basing rights in the
AzoresThe Azores is a Portuguese archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, about from Lisbon and about from the east coast of North America. The two westernmost Azorean islands actually lie on the North American plate...
, and ASW aircraft were duly sent there. As with Gibraltar and Iceland, Coastal Command was the controlling authority for the aircraft based there.
During the war Coastal Command flew over 240,000 operations, sunk 212 U-boats and destroyed 478,000 tons of shipping. 1,777 aircraft were lost, with 5,866 personnel killed in action. Whilst the latter figure for the number killed was given in the official History, the Coastal Command & Maritime Air Association gives 10,875 lives lost. It is possible that the former figure may not have included missing personnel, who were later assumed killed, nor those killed who were allied and dominion personnel serving with the RAF. According to Chaz Bowyer however, the discrepancy can be explained by the number of aircrew killed in action versus the total number of casualties of both air and groundcrew to all causes.
Four Coastal Command pilots received the
Victoria CrossThe Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration which is, or has been, awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories. It takes precedence over all other orders, decorations and medals...
during the war. Flying Officer
Kenneth CampbellKenneth Campbell VC was a Scottish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.-Details:...
, Flight Lieutenant David Hornell, and Pilot Officer Lloyd Trigg were killed in action while Flight Lieutenant
John CruickshankJohn Alexander Cruickshank, VC is a Scottish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.-Early life:...
survived.
Post-war
After WWII Coastal Command continued in its anti-submarine role. The
Avro ShackletonThe Avro Shackleton was a British long-range maritime patrol aircraft for use by the Royal Air Force. It was developed by Avro from the Avro Lincoln bomber with a new fuselage...
was a heavily modified
Avro LincolnThe Avro Type 694 Lincoln was a British four-engined heavy bomber, first flown on 9 June, 1944. It was the last piston-engined bomber in the Royal Air Force; 604 were built....
bomber. With the introduction of nuclear powered submarines, newer planes needed to have considerably more electronics on-board. In 1969 the special-purpose
Hawker-Siddeley NimrodThe Hawker Siddeley Nimrod is a maritime patrol aircraft developed in the United Kingdom. It is an extensive modification of the de Havilland Comet, the world's first jet airliner. It was originally designed by de Havilland's successor, Hawker Siddeley, now part of BAE Systems...
, based on the
de Havilland CometThe de Havilland Comet was the world's first commercial jet airliner to reach production. Developed and manufactured by de Havilland, it first flew in 1949 and was considered a landmark in British aeronautical design...
airliner, was introduced into RAF service for this role, and Coastal Command duties were passed onto general squadrons. The command itself ceased to exist on 28 November 1969, when it was subsumed into the new
RAF Strike CommandThe Royal Air Force's Strike Command was the military formation which controlled the majority of the United Kingdom's combat aircraft from 1968 until 1 April 2007. That day it was merged with Personnel and Training Command to form the single Air Command....
. Today there are three active Nimrod squadrons based at
RAF KinlossRAF Kinloss is a Royal Air Force station near Kinloss, on the Moray Firth in the north of Scotland. The station is home to all of the Nimrod MR2 fleet in the Royal Air Force.-WW2:...
, part of RAF Air Command.
Commanders in Chief
! style="text-align: left; background: #aacccc;"|Name
! style="text-align: left; background: #aacccc;"|From
! style="text-align: left; background: #aacccc;"|To
|-----
|
Air MarshalAir Marshal is a 3 star air officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force. The rank is also used by the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence and it is sometimes used as the English translation of an equivalent rank in countries...
Sir
Arthur LongmoreAir Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Murray Longmore GCB, DSO was an early naval aviator, before reaching high rank in the Royal Air Force.-Biography:...
| 14 July 1936
| 1 September 1936
|-----
| Air Marshal Sir
Philip Joubert de la FertéAir Chief Marshal Sir Philip Bennet Joubert de la Ferté KCB, CMG, DSO was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force during the 1930s and the Second World War....
| 1 September 1936
| 18 August 1937
|-----
| Air Marshal Sir
Frederick BowhillAir Chief Marshal Sir Frederick William Bowhill, GBE, KCB, CMG, DSO & Bar was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force before and during World War II.-Bibliography:...
| 18 August 1937
| 14 June 1941
|-----
|
Air Chief MarshalAir Chief Marshal is a senior air officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force...
Sir Philip Joubert de la FerteAir Chief Marshal Sir Philip Bennet Joubert de la Ferté KCB, CMG, DSO was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force during the 1930s and the Second World War....
| 14 June 1941
| 5 February 1943
|-----
| Air Marshal Sir
John SlessorMarshal of the Royal Air Force Sir John Cotesworth Slessor GCB, DSO, MC was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force . A pilot in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I, he held operational commands in World War II and served in the RAF's most senior post, Chief of the Air Staff, from 1950 to...
| 5 February 1943
| 20 January 1944
|-----
| Air Chief Marshal Sir William Sholto Douglas
| 20 January 1944
| 30 June 1945
|-----
| Air Marshal Sir
Leonard SlatterAir Marshal Sir Leonard Horatio Slatter KBE, CB, DSC & Bar, DFC, RAF was a naval aviator during World War I and a senior Royal Air Force commander during World War II. Slatter ended his career as the commander-in-chief of Coastal Command.-Early life and World War I:Slatter was born in Durban,...
| 30 June 1945
| 1 November 1948
|-----
| Air Marshal Sir
John BakerAir Chief Marshal Sir John Wakeling Baker GCB, MC, DFC, ADC, RAF was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force in the middle of the 20th century....
| 1 November 1948
| 1 January 1950
|-----
| Air Marshal Sir Charles Steele
| 1 January 1950
| 8 June 1951
|-----
| Air Marshal Sir Alick Stevens
| 8 June 1951
| 8 November 1953
|-----
| Air Marshal Sir John Boothman
| 15 November 1953
| 5 April 1956
|-----
| Air Marshal Sir Brian Reynolds
| 5 April 1956
| 1 June 1959
|-----
| Air Marshal Sir Edward Clifton
| 1 June 1959
| 10 August 1962
|-----
| Air Marshal Sir Anthony Selway
| 10 August 1962
| 22 January 1965
|-----
| Air Marshal Sir Paul Holder
| 22 January 1965
| 2 September 1968
|-----
| Air Marshal Sir John Lapsley
| 2 September 1968
| 28 November 1968
|}
Film
The work of Coastal Command was immortalised in a 1942 wartime propaganda documentary named
Coastal CommandCoastal Command is a 1942 British film made by the Crown Film Unit for the Ministry of Information. The movie, distributed by RKO, dramatised the work of RAF Coastal Command. It was made under the supervision of Ian Dalrymple, with the full cooperation of the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy...
with a score by
Ralph Vaughan WilliamsRalph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores...
.
See also
External links
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