No. 216 Group RAF

No. 216 (Air Transport and Ferry) Group No. 216 (Ferry) Group
Active	21 May 1942 - 26 October 1946
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	Royal Air Force
Type	Royal Air Force group
Part of	RAF Middle East Command RAF Transport Command
Engagements	World War II
Commanders
Notable commanders	Air Commodore Whitney Straight

No. 216 (Ferry) Group was a command of the Royal Air Force (RAF) during World War II established on 21 May 1942. The group was renamed No. 216 (Air Transport and Ferry) Group on 9 September 1942 and placed under the command of Air Commodore Whitney Straight the following day.

No. 216 Group became a major sub-command of the Mediterranean Air Command that was created at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943. On 25 March 1943, No. 216 Group also became a sub-command of the newly created Transport Command, an umbrella organization of all British transport units worldwide under the command of Air Chief Marshal Sir Frederick Bowhill. The group was sometimes aided by British Overseas Airways Corporation in the receiving, preparing, and dispatching of aircraft reinforcements into the North African and Mediterranean Theater of Operations. The components of No. 216 Group at the time of the Allied invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky) on 10 July 1943 are indicated below.

No. 216 (Air Transport and Ferry) Group
Air Commodore Whitney Straight
Order of Battle, 10 July 1943

Units	Aircraft	Base
17 Squadron SAAF	Junkers 52	n/a
28 Squadron SAAF	Anson	n/a
No. 117 Squadron RAF	Hudson	RAF Castel Benito, Libya
No. 173 Squadron RAF	Lodestar, Proctor, Hurricane	n/a
No. 216 Squadron RAF	C-47 Dakota
No. 230 Squadron RAF	Sunderland
No. 267 Squadron RAF	Hudson

On 7 May 1944, No 115 (Transport) Wing RAF was established at Wadi Seidna in the Sudan by redesignating No 2 (Middle East) Ferry Control within 216 Group.

No. 216 (Air Transport and Ferry) Group was disbanded on 26 October 1946.

References

• Craven, Wesley F. and James L. Cate. The Army Air Forces in World War II, Volume 2, Chicago, Illinois: Chicago University Press, 1949 (Reprinted 1983, ISBN 0-912799-03-X).
• Richards, D. and H. Saunders, The Royal Air Force 1939-1945 (Volume 2, HMSO, 1953).
• Howe, George F., Northwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative in the West, Center of Military History, Washington, DC., 1991.
• Army Air Forces Historical Office Headquarters, Participation of the Ninth & Twelfth Air Forces in the Sicilian Campaign, Army Air Forces Historical Study No. 37, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, 1945.
• Royal Air Force Web.