Ops - Middle East

Air of Authority - A History of RAF Organisation

Operations - Middle East/North Africa/Southern Europe

This page gives brief details of major RAF operations or combined operations in which RAF units played a part.

Aden and Palestine - 1919-1939

Operation 'Alacrity' - Bomber Command detachments to the Middle East.

Operation 'Albert' - Canberra strikes against Egyptian Targets from Malta - October 1956

Operation 'Anvil'/'Dragoon' - The allied invasion of Southern France, 15 August 1944. Originally named 'Anvil', the name was changed to Dragoon

Operation 'Avalanche' - Allied Invasion of Italy, 9 September 1943

Operation 'Battle-Axe' - Operations to relieve the siege at Tobruk, June 1941.

Operation 'Baytown' - The 8th Army invasion of the toe of Italy, 3 September 1943.

Operation 'Bingham' - This involved the movement of air forces into the Zara area of Yugoslavia between 2 - 30 April 1944 in order to provide air support to Marshal |Tito.

Operation 'Bowler' - The attack on Axis shipping in Venice harbour, 21 March 1945

Operation 'Brassard' - The Allied invasion of Elba, 25 May 1944.

Chanak Crisis - 1922

Operation 'Compass' - Ground and Air operations carried out against Italian forces in North Africa between 9 December 1940 and 6 February 1941.

Operation Corkscrew - Allied invasion of Pantelleria, June 1943.

Operation 'Crusader' - Offensive operations in Cyrenaica, November 1941

Operation 'Desert Shield' -

Operation 'Desert Storm' -

Operation 'Dunn' -The evacuation by air of refugees from Slovenia, March 1945

Operation 'Goldflake' - Canberra detachments to Malta, October 1956

Operation ‘Granby’ - Air Operations during the first Gulf War, 1990-1991.

Greek Campaign - Italy invaded Greece on 28 October 1940 and forces, including RAF units, were dispatched from the Middle East. Due to Italian setbacks, Hitler sent German troops and aircraft. As a result of overwhelming German superiority and the failure of the Greeks to allocate suitable airfields to the RAF during the severe winter, British forces were forced to withdraw to Crete by the end of April 1941.

Operation 'Husky' - Allied invasion of Sicily, 10-17 July 1943

Operation 'Mallory Major' - Allied attacks against road and rail bridges in Northern Italy 12-15 July 1944.

Malta -

Palestine - 1918

Operation ‘Provide Comfort’ - Humanitarian aid drops to the Kurds in Northern Iraq from April 1991.

North African Campaign - This began on 10 June 1940, when Italy declared war on Britain. It was in this theatre that the RAF developed the highly successful tactical support role which it would later use in North-West Europe. During this campaign the RAF support the 8th Army in a number of ground offensives:-

Operation 'Strangle' - Allied air attacks against German lines of communication down the 'leg' of Italy, May - ? 1944

Operation ‘Sunburn’ or ‘Sunbeam’ – Maritime patrols searching for Jewish immigrant ships off Palestine, 1946

Operation ‘Sunray’ - Bomber Command detachments to the Suez Canal zone, October 1953.

Operation 'Sunspot' - Valiant tanker detachment to RAF Luqa, Malta from 1 September to 7 October 1960

Operation ‘Swift Sword’ - Oman, 1987.

Operation 'Torch' - The Anglo-American Invasion of Tunisia and Morroco, November 1942.

Operation ‘Vantage’ - Deployment to Kuwait during the "Kuwait Crisis", July 1961.

Operation ‘Warden’ - Policing the Northern Iraq No Fly Zone beginning April 1991.

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