Royal Air Force High Wycombe or more simply RAF High Wycombe is a Royal Air Force station, situated in the village of Walters Ash, near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England. It houses Headquarters Air Command, and was originally designed to house RAF Bomber Command in the late 1930s. The station is also the headquarters of the European Air Group and the United Kingdom Space Command.
Aerial view of RAF High Wycombe.
Supermarine Spitfire IIa, P7666, EB-Z, "Observer Corps", the personal mount of Olympic Hurdler and OC, 41 Squadron, Sqn Ldr Don Finlay, 1940–41, is the gate guardian at RAF High Wycombe.
RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the strategic bombing of Germany in World War II. From 1942 onward, the British bombing campaign against Germany became less restrictive and increasingly targeted industrial sites and the civilian manpower base essential for German war production. In total 364,514 operational sorties were flown, 1,030,500 tons of bombs were dropped and 8,325 aircraft lost in action. Bomber Command crews also suffered a high casualty rate: 55,573 were killed out of a total of 125,000 aircrew, a 44.4% death rate. A further 8,403 men were wounded in action, and 9,838 became prisoners of war.
Bomber Command badge
A photograph taken during a typical RAF night attack with Avro Lancasters far below
97 percent of Wesel was destroyed before it was taken by Allied troops.
Operations Room Conference, Bomber Command, October 1943
