The Artillery Air Observation Post (AOP)

On 1 April 1918 the Royal Air Force (RAF) came into existence and the Army lost all of its aviation capability at a stroke. It was agreed that there would be Army Cooperation Squadrons, within the RAF, to assist with the specialist tasks such as observation and reconnaissance and artillery gunfire control. However, in the years following WWI, the RAF was reduced from nearly twenty thousand aeroplanes in 1918 to less that one thousand in 1935. Getting aviation support just at the moment it was required became a nonsense, and it was gradually ignored.

With the rush to re-arm and re-equip during the late 1930s, The Royal Artillery petitioned for and acquired their own integral aviation support. The RAF were reluctant to allow the Army to have its own aircraft and the Army did not have the technical means to support them anyway, so a compromise was the formation of the Air Observation Post (AOP) Squadrons. The Army commanded and controlled them and the RAF supplied and maintained, with RAF fitters working under Artillery Commanding Officers and pilots. This proved to be a highly successful arrangement and a series of new Squadrons were formed. They operated in all theatres throughout the war.

The Glider Pilot Regiment

After the Germans invaded Belgium and France, Prime Minister Winston Churchill realised that, to get back onto the European mainland, it would be necessary to create an Airborne Division. Training parachutists would be a lengthy process and building the means to carry them would be difficult, as there were no troop carrying aeroplane. The country's entire production effort was already building battleships, tanks, aeroplanes and artillery.

But, in 1941, it was decided that parachute training would go ahead. Elements of the furniture industry were seconded to the aeroplane manufacturers and directed towards building large wooden troop and vehicle carrying assault gliders that could be towed into battle behind bombers. The RAF was busy fighting the Battle of Britain so it was unable to provide aircrew. It was quickly appreciated that the aircrew of an assault glider needed to be infantry trained so that they could be of use immediately after landing, so it was decided to train soldiers as pilots and the Glider Pilot Regiment (GPR) was born.

The GPR played a major role in every Operation of World War II, and elements also took part in the Burma campaign. Two of their biggest operations are detailed on the next two pages, Operation Overlord, the invasion of mainland Europe, and Operation Market Garden, the attempt to capture the stratgically important bridges over the Rhine.

Army Air Corps

In 1942 an Army Air Corps (AAC) was created to administer this newly formed Airborne Division.