Military flying units in the south Midlands - page under development

World War 1 1914-1918

Training (Reserve) and Home Defence squadrons were established at Castle Bromwich and Lilbourne in Warwickshire.  Aircraft Parks received the newly built aircraft from the factories, at Castle Bromwich and also at Radford and later Whitley in Coventry.  List of flying units to follow...

Between the wars 1919-1939

The First World War airfields were joined by a few municipal airports and, during the Expansion Period, new military airfields were built at Bramcote and Ansty in Warwickshire.  List of flying units to follow...

The names of the people believed to have served in Warwickshire in the First World War and 1920s are now on-line - Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force.

Please contact us if you are related to somebody on the list, or know of a photograph of them. If original photographs or papers are still in the family, we can help to caption photographs and explain the codes and nicknames that were used at the time. We appreciate the opportunity to copy original material for the museum's archive.

RFC & RAF officers A-E
RFC & RAF officers F-L
RFC & RAF officers M-R
RFC & RAF officers S-Z

RFC & RAF other ranks A-E
RFC & RAF other ranks F-L
RFC & RAF other ranks M-R
RFC & RAF other ranks S-Z

World War 2 1939-1945

The Midlands was considered to be far enough away from enemy action to be used for training.  The need to defend Birmingham and Coventry at night and the involvement of the bomber operational training units in live raids led to a mixture of operational and non-operational flying.  The skies of Warwickshire and Worcestershire were often crowded with Tiger Moths and Oxfords of Training Command, Hurricanes and Beaufighers of Fighter Command and Whitleys and Wellingtons of Bomber Command.  The Bomber Command activity was on a mammoth scale, with flying round the clock from the numerous operational training units based locally.  List of flying units to follow...