The Mesopotamian Half-Flight (MHF), or Australian Half-Flight, was the first Australian Flying Corps (AFC) unit to see active service during World War I. Formed in April 1915 at the request of the Indian Government, the half-flight's personnel were sent to Mesopotamia where they were equipped with a small number of outdated and barely serviceable aircraft. They later operated in the Tigris Valley in support of British and Indian forces under the command of Major General Charles Townshend. The unit's operations came to an end in December 1915 and the following month the flight was subsumed into other units of the AFC which were being formed in Egypt. It was officially disbanded in October 1916.
Members of the Half Flight gather around a Short 827 seaplane
The Australian Flying Corps (AFC) was the branch of the Australian Army responsible for operating aircraft during World War I, and the forerunner of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). The AFC was established in 1912, though it was not until 1914 that it began flight training.
Captain Harry Cobby (centre), Lieutenant Roy King (fourth from right), and other officers of "A" Flight, No. 4 Squadron AFC, with their Sopwith Camels on the Western Front, June 1918
Members of the Half Flight gather around a Royal Naval Air Service Short 827
R.E.8s of No 3 Sqn AFC
Serny, France, November 1918. A score board recording the claims for enemy aircraft destroyed by No. 80 Wing RAF from July–November 1918, including Nos. 2 and 4 Squadron AFC.