No. 83 Expeditionary Air Group is a group within the Royal Air Force, currently based at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
Originally formed in 1943, during the Second World War it formed part of the 2nd Tactical Air Force (2TAF) and was known as No. 83 (Composite) Group. It provided support to Allied forces during the liberation of Europe. After being disbanded in 1946 it was re-established as No. 83 Group in 1952 to lead the 2TAF's units in Germany, until it disbanded again in 1958.
On 1 April 2006 it was reformed as No. 83 Expeditionary Air Group Headquarters, to lead UK air operations in the Middle East. Activities include Operations Kipion (the UK's maritime presence in the Middle East) and Operation Shader (the UK's part of the military intervention against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)).
History
No. 83 (Composite) Group
No. 83 (Composite) Group was formed on 1 April 1943 within the Second Tactical Air Force of the Royal Air Force. By the eve of the D-Day landings in June 1944, No. 83 Group had grown to a strength of twenty-nine fighter, ground-attack and reconnaissance squadrons and four artillery observation squadrons, grouped into ten wings.
At the time of D-Day, the group consisted of:
No. 39 Reconnaissance Wing RCAF
Hawker Typhoon fighter-bombers
No. 121 (Rocket Projectile) Wing RAF at Holmsley South
No. 124 (Rocket Projectile) Wing RAF at Hurn
No. 129 (Fighter Bomber) Wing RAF at Westhampnett
No. 143 (RCAF) (Fighter) Wing RAF at Hurn
Supermarine Spitfire fighters
No. 125 (Fighter) Wing RAF at Ford
No. 126 (RCAF) (Fighter) Wing RAF at Tangmere
No. 127 (RCAF) (Fighter) Wing RAF at Tangmere
No. 144 (RCAF) (Fighter) Wing RAF at Ford
North American Mustangs
No. 122 (Rocket Projectile) Wing RAF at Funtington
Other group units can be seen at [1] and included No. 83 Group Support Unit RAF, which was located at RAF Redhill on D-Day.
The Group headquarters was at RAF Eindhoven from 1 October 1944 to 10 April 1945. The group was absorbed into No. 84 Group RAF on 21 April 1946.
No. 83 Group
No. 83 Group was re-formed on 9 July 1952 within the Second Tactical Air Force in Germany to control its southern area. By 1956, the group controlled five wings with a total of fourteen squadrons equipped with Hawker Hunter day fighters, de Havilland Venom fighter-bombers, Supermarine Swift fighter-reconnaissance aircraft, Gloster Meteor night-fighters and English Electric Canberra interdiction and reconnaissance aircraft. It was disbanded again on 16 June 1958.
During April 1953 the group controlled:
RAF Wahn
No. 83 Group Communications Flight
No. 68 Squadron RAF - Meteor
No. 87 Squadron RAF - Meteor
RAF Celle
No. 16 Squadron RAF - Vampire & Meteor
No. 94 Squadron RAF - Vampire & Meteor
No. 145 Squadron RAF - Vampire & Meteor
RAF Wildenrath
No. 3 Squadron RAF - Vampire & Meteor
No. 67 Squadron RAF - Vampire & Meteor
No. 71 Squadron RAF - Vampire & Meteor
Sabre Conversion Flight - Sabre
On 1 July 1956, No. 83 Group directed wings at RAF Bruggen, RAF Celle, RAF Geilenkirchen, RAF Wahn, and RAF Wildenrath.
Current operations
No. 83 Group was re-formed on 1 April 2006 from the UK Air Component Headquarters in the Middle East. It comprised No. 901 Expeditionary Air Wing in the Middle East and Bahrain and No. 902 Expeditionary Air Wing at Seeb in Oman. Since that time it has controlled a varying number of Expeditionary Air Wings. No. 83 Group is based at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
The Air Officer Commanding No. 83 Group was the Air Component Commander in the Middle East. They were responsible to the Permanent Joint Headquarters for the command and control of all RAF units engaged in Operations Kipion and Shader.
No. 83 Group is currently in charge of:
901 Expeditionary Air Wing
Provides support to No. 83 EAG and home to Joint Force Communication and Information Systems (Middle East).
902 Expeditionary Air Wing
RAFO Musannah.
903 Expeditionary Air Wing
RAF Akrotiri - Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4, Airbus A400M Atlas and Airbus Voyager.
906 Expeditionary Air Wing
Al Minhad Air Base.
Commanders
1943 to 1946
Air Vice Marshal W F Dickson, 4 April 1943 – 25 March 1944
AVM H Broadhurst, 25 March 1944 – 1 September 1945
AVM T C Traill, 9 September 1945 – 21 April 1946
1952 to 1958
Air Commodore R B Lees, 8 September 1952 – 22 August 1955.
AVM H A V Hogan, 22 August 1955 – 16 June 1958.
2006 to present
Air Commodore B M North, 1 April 2006 – 13 September 2006
Air Commodore C A Bairsto, 13 September 2006 – 12 January 2007
Air Commodore P Oborn, 12 January 2007 – 10 July 2007
Air Commodore M J Harwood, 10 July 2007 – 16 August 2008
Air Commodore A S Barmby, 16 August 2008 – 22 May 2009
Air Commodore S D Atha, 22 May 2009 – 31 January 2010
Air Commodore K B McCann, 31 January 2010 – 6 January 2011
Air Commodore A D Stevenson, 6 January 2011 – 15 December 2011
Air Commodore S D Forward, 15 December 2011 – 21 December 2012
Air Commodore P J Beach, 21 December 2012 – 14 December 2013
Air Commodore A Gillespie, 14 December 2013 – 1 December 2014
Air Commodore M Sampson, 1 December 2014 – 23 October 2016
Air Commodore John J Stringer, 23 October 2016 – 22 October 2017
Air Commodore R J Dennis, 22 October 2017 – 21 October 2018
Air Commodore Justin Reuter, 21 October 2018 – 20 October 2019
Air Commodore Tim Jones, 20 October 2019 – September 2020
Air Commodore Simon Strasdin, September 2020 – September 2021
Air Commodore Mark J Farrell, September 2021 – September 2022
Air Commodore N S Thomas, September 2022 –
Group Captain Diggle, ? – November 2023
Group Captain Bishop, November 2023 – (CO of 83 EAG and Deputy Air Component Commander, Middle East).
References
Citations
Bibliography
Delve, K. (1994). The Source Book of the RAF. Shrewsbury, UK: Airlife Publishing. ISBN 1-85310-451-5.
Falconer, J (1998). RAF Fighter Airfields of World War 2. UK: Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 0-7110-2175-9.
External links
Official website
Air of Authority – A History of RAF Organisation, Groups 70 – 106, accessed 1 June 2008