I had some questions about Britan's Royal Air Force during WWII.
What was the command structure of the RAF like during WWII? Was it organized similar to other countries' air forces?
Was it controlled by the army, or it's own Military division?
EDIT: Found an answer Researching on my own; apparently it was the first Air force to be independent of other divisions, ie the U.S. Air Force was part of the army until after WWII. Source:World War II Reference Library. Ed. Barbara C. Bigelow, George Feldman, Christine Slovey, and Kelly King Howes. Vol. 1: Almanac. Detroit: UXL, 2000. p181-204. From Global Issues in Context.
Who were some major leaders During WWII?
Any Notable Pilots, or Aces?
Major leaders:
Charles Portal, head of Bomber Command in the first half of the war. Early proponent of the night-time area attacks on German cities.
Sir Arthur Harris, head of Bomber Command during the second half of the war. Known as "Bomber Harris," divisive and fierce advocate of area bombing/dehousing.
Hugh Dowding, head of RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain. Very astute resource and morale management during the battle, and also influenced the successful structure of the air defense system.
Noteable Pilots/Aces:
Adolph "Sailor" Malan: South African ace, one of the leading scorers in the Battle of Britain.
Douglas Bader: Another Battle of Britain group leader and ace. Notable for not having either of his legs, flying with prosthetics after they were lost in an air crash before the war.
Eric Lock: The highest scoring RAF ace in the Battle of Britain. Missing in 1941 after ditching in the Channel, most likely drowned.
Edgar "Cobber" Kain: New Zealander. The top-scoring RAF ace before the Battle of Britain. Killed while performing aerobatics in a Hurricane over his airfield in France just before transferring back to England for rest.
Plenty more I didn't list from both categories.
The RAF was organised from the top down into Commands, Groups, Wings and Squadrons.
Commands put all the units with one mission under one overall commander- so there was Fighter Command, Bomber Command, Coastal Command, Transport Command, Training Command and some others. There were also Commands such as Middle East Command which controlled all RAF units in a particular theatre.
Groups controlled all units of a command in a particular area; for example in the Battle of Britain No 11 Group of Fighter Command controlled the fighter units south of London, and No 12 those just to the north. A group would control several wings, maybe 12 squadrons in all. I think an RAF group would be equivalent to a USAAF wing.
Wings grouped two or more squadrons, usually based on the same airfield.
Squadrons were the basic fighting unit, 12 to 24 aircraft usually divided into 3 or 4 Flights.
There were all sorts of other units- Maintenance Units, Operational Conversion Units etc but that's the basic organisation of the fighting arms.
You'll notice that these unit titles are related to the RAF's ranks- Group Captain, Wing Commander, Squadron Leader, Flight Lieutenant. In 1918 maybe a Group Captain did command a group and a Squadron Leader a squadron, but by ww2 the commanders usually bore a higher rank- a group was commanded by an Air Commodore or higher (equivalent to a General).
Major leaders of the RAF:
Hugh Dowding -Famous for the Battle of Britain
Arthur Harris -Commander in Chief, Bomber Command. Had the nickname "Butcher" because he did not hesitate to risk the lives of his crews.
Wing Commander Guy Gibson, VC: In charge of the Dambuster's raid. Believed to have been shot down by an RAW Lancaster tail gunner returning from a raid
Leonard Cheshire, VC: Commanded the Dam buster Squadron later in the war. Won his VC for flying over 100 bombing missions. Later founded a charity for disabled children.
Wing Commander Don Bennett: Developed the Pathfinder principle which helped with improving the efficiency of night bombing.
Douglas Bader: Famous for having lost both his legs in a flying accident. Was shot down over France and captured. The RAF was allowed to fly a new set of prosthetics to him by the Luftwaffe.
Cyril Barton, VC: Won his VC for flying his badly damaged Halifax back to England despite flack damage and fighter attacks, and short a couple of crew who bailed out.
James Nicolson VC: Only Fighter Command VC of the entire war. Won his VC during the Battle of Britain for shooting down an Bf-110 while his hurricane was on fire. He suffered serious burns to his hands before he bailed out of his stricken aircraft.
Pilot Office Kevin Dundas, who is credited with shooting down Helmut Wick, seconds before he was shot down and killed himself.
That is all I have off of the top of my head. If I get some time tonight, I will come back and tackle the subject again.