Number 41 Wing of the Royal Flying Corps

Royal Flying Corps

The Royal Flying Corps was the over-land air arm of the British military during most of the First World War. During the early part of the war, the RFC's responsibilities were centred on support of the British Army, via artillery co-operation and photographic reconnaissance...

 (RFC), later the Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

 (RAF), conducted strategic bombing

Strategic bombing

Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in a total war with the goal of defeating an enemy nation-state by destroying its economic ability and public will to wage war rather than destroying its land or naval forces...

 operations against Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

.

41 Wing was created on 11 October 1917 under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Cyril Newall

Cyril Newall, 1st Baron Newall

Marshal of the Royal Air Force Cyril Louis Norton Newall, 1st Baron Newall GCB OM GCMG CBE AM , was a British soldier and airman, who headed the Royal Air Force as the Chief of the Air Staff during the early part of the Second World War before serving as the sixth Governor-General of New Zealand...

. It was based at Ochey

Ochey

Ochey is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France....

 in France. Its initial composition was:

• No. 55 Squadron
  No. 55 Squadron RAF
  No. 55 Squadron is a squadron of the Royal Air Force. It was formed in 1916 at Castle Bromwich as a unit of the Royal Flying Corps. No. 55 Squadron was the last RAF Squadron to operationally fly the Handley Page Victor, in its Victor K.2 in-flight refuelling tanker role. It was subsequently a...
  
   flying DH4s
• No. 100 Squadron
  No. 100 Squadron RAF
  No. 100 Squadron of the Royal Air Force is based at RAF Leeming in North Yorkshire, UK, and operates the Hawker-Siddeley Hawk.-World War I:No. 100 was established on 23 February 1917 at Hingham in Norfolk as the Royal Flying Corps' first squadron formed specifically as a night bombing unit and...
  
   flying FE2b's
• No. 16 (Naval) Squadron
  No. 216 Squadron RAF
  No. 216 Squadron of the Royal Air Force operates the Lockheed Tristar K1, KC1 and C2 from RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire.- History :216 Squadron was formed at RAF Manston by re-numbering No. 16 Squadron RNAS when the RAF was established in 1918, hence it is always spoken of as 'two-sixteen Squadron'...
  
   flying 0/100s.

The wing was subsequently augmented with:

• No. 99 Squadron
  No. 99 Squadron RAF
  No. 99 Squadron of the Royal Air Force was a bomber squadron in both first and second world war. At present it operates the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III from RAF Brize Norton, the RAF's air transport hub. The squadron was the first RAF unit to receive the Avro Aldershot, Handley Page Hyderabad,...
  
   flying DH4s
• No. 104 Squadron
  No. 104 Squadron RAF
  No. 104 Squadron RAF was formed at Wyton on 4 September 1917 and was equipped with the DH 9. It then moved to Andover, prior to being posted to France in May 1918. The squadron later began re-equipping with the DH 10, however the armistice arrived before this was completed and the squadron returned...
  
   flying DH4s

Preparations for bombing missions started immediately and only six days later two flights of de Havilland aircraft conducted the Flying Corps' first long-range bombing mission. The Burbach

Burbach, Rhineland-Palatinate

Burbach is a municipality in the district of Bitburg-Prüm, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany....

 iron foundry was hit, as were other buildings and railway lines. A week later Handley Page aircraft of the 41st Wing conducted the first night-time long range operation. Bombing continued into November, until the onset of winter weather.

No. 41 Wing was officially elevated to brigade status on 28 December 1917 as the VIII Brigade of the RFC, although the VIII Brigade did not exercise practical command until 1 February 1918. The 41st Wing continued to exist as a subordinate formation of the VIII Brigade and it received a new commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel J E A Baldwin

Jack Baldwin (RAF officer)

Air Marshal Sir John Eustice Arthur Baldwin, KBE, CB, DSO, DL, RAF was a senior officer in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.-Early life:...

. Two months later on 1 April 1918, with the amalgamation of the RFC and the Royal Naval Air Service

Royal Naval Air Service

The Royal Naval Air Service or RNAS was the air arm of the Royal Navy until near the end of the First World War, when it merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps to form a new service , the Royal Air Force...

 (RNAS), it became part of the RAF. Following the creation of the RAF's Independent Air Force

Independent Air Force

The Independent Air Force , also known as the Independent Force or the Independent Bombing Force and later known as the Inter-Allied Independent Air Force, was a World War I strategic bombing force which was part of the British Royal Air Force and used to strike against German railways, aerodromes...

, it came under the Independent Air Force's command on 6 June 1918. Following the outbreak of war it was probably transferred back to the Royal Air Force in the Field and was disbanded on 15 February 1919.