Egyptian Air Force

found this little nugget on a website about the Egyptian Air Force:

"During the world war-II the Egyptian air force had its first experience. When the British asked the Egyptian to provide long-range patrols over the Red Sea to monitor the Axes sea movements there and it also made some air defense missions against German and Italian air raids and the REAF scored one air kill against German Henkil He-III bomber."

Would any of you have some more information on this?

The Egyptian Air Force History

 

For the Royal Egyptian Air Force, we have from the History of the Armed Forces of Egypt, 1914-1945 Translated from the Arabic by Thomas Scheben) the following:

May 1940
1st Squadron (Ground Support): 15 Lysanders
2nd Squadron (Fighter): 18 Gladiators
4th Squadron (Bomber): 6 Audax
5th Squadron (Fighter): 18 Gladiators

May 1941
1st Squadron (Ground Support): 17 Lysanders
2nd Squadron (Fighter): 16 Gladiators
3rd Squadron (Target Towing): 1 Tiger Moth, 1 Anson Avro 652
4th Squadron (Bomber): 10 Audax
5th Squadron (Fighter): 17 Gladiators
Flying School: Several types

http://warandgame.blogspot.com/2007/12/egyptian-army-wwii.html

 

Cheers. IS there any info on the Iraqi, Omani and Yemeni Air Forces in WWII?

 

Found this about the Iraqi Air force on another forum,

Although Iraq is not generally thought of as an Axis ally (as is Italy, Rumania, Hungary, Finland etc.) the Luftwaffe did in fact fly in support of Iraq during their uprising against British rule in May, 1941. An interesting aspect of this campaign is that Luftwaffe aircraft carried Iraqi markings.

The following information is from Osprey Publications 'Iraq 1941 - The Battles for Basra, Habbaniya, Fallujah and Baghdad'. by Robert Lyman and Harold Gerrard.

The Iraqi Air Force Order of Battle as of May, 1941:

Sqn. 1 9 Hawker Nisr (Audax with a Pegasus engine) stationed at Mosul
Sqn. 2 7 General purpose aircraft including Vickers Vincent, De Havilland Dragon and Dragonfly at Mosul
Sqn. 4 7 Gladiators stationed at Rashid
Sqn. 5 4 Breda 65s stationed at Rashid
Sqn. 6 4 Savoia Marchetti SM 79Bs at Rashid
Sqn. 7 5 Northrup 8As at Rashid

Flying Training School 12 Tiger Moths at Rashid.

The Iraqi Air Force was no match for the RAF and was effectively destroyed within a few weeks of the start of the conflict due to air to air engagements and bombing attacks by Wellingtons.

Nevertheless, the RAF did suffer fairly high casualties due to anti-aircraft and ground fire during attacks on the Iraqi Army postions. From May 1 - 7, 1941 RAF aircraft operating from Habbaniya and Shaibah attacked Iraqi positions with Wellingtons, Oxfords and Audaxes. During the first 14 hours of the battle, the RAF lost 1/4 of the aircrew and 1/3 of the aircraft that had been engaged due to effective ground fire.

It is interesting to note that Iraqi Aircraft were almost exclusively of British and Italian manufacture which must have made air battles particularly interesting with respect to "enemy aircraft recognition".

Eight De Havilland DH 84Ms were delivered to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense in the 1930s. Although a number of these aircraft were written off due to accidents, a few did survive and were operational as late as August, 1943 and possibly beyond.

Iraqi Air Force - WWII - Luftwaffe Experten Message Board

 

"The birth of the Iraqi air force took place already in 1931, when under the guidance and leadership of the British the very first Iraqi air force wing was created from equipment supplied by the U.K., a second one followed in 1934. In order to reduce the reliance on Britain, Iraqi government formed a third air wing in 1937 composed of Italian-manufactured aircraft. In 1939 the air force was made up of two army-air cooperation squadrons, one bomber-transport squadron, one fighter squadron, one communications squadron, one flying training school, one apprentices training school, and one aeroplane depot. By 1940 the Iraqi air force contained six air wings (planes were primarily of British and U.S. origin). In 1941, following the pro-Axis coup, the Iraqi armed forces faced an Allied intervention by predominantly British Commonwealth troops (mainly East Indians and Transjordanians); despite heavy numerical superiority and some meager assistance from the Vichy French in Syria as well as from a few German transport planes that supplied Iraq with some badly needed war materiel, the Iraqi armed forces were quickly routed. The Iraqi air force lost about 20 aircraft in the course of the brief struggle (out of a total of 56 that Iraq possessed at that time"

The Armed Forces of WWII ( Near East ).

 

HMMM I hoped this helped LOL,

 

Well, at least I liked the info. Thank you kindly Sir

 

You are welcome Za . He was probably looking for someone to help with his homework LOL.

 

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During the world war-II the Egyptian air force had its first experience. When the British asked the Egyptian to provide long-range patrols over the Red Sea to monitor the Axes sea movements there and it also made some air defense missions against German and Italian air raids and the REAF scored one air kill against German Henkil He-III bomber. In late 1943 the RAF transferred 6 P-40 Tomahawk fighters to the REAF. After that, discussions were made on purchasing some of these fighters to replace Gloster Gladiators MK-Is, but this never happened and instead Gloster Gladiators were upgraded to MK-II version.

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The Egyptian Air Force History ( Part 1 ) | AVIATION FANS

 

Hi all. Is there any information about the early EAF pilots? One was named Mohammed (sp?) Seif Allah, and he was 27 in 1939. I am trying to find some info about him for my friend's family tree. He was certainly in the EAF at the outbreak of WW2, I have a document from March 1939 to that effect. But apart from his father's name, its about all I have managed to find out about him.

If anyone has any information, it would be very much appreciated, I just dont know where to look!

Thanks in anticipation

Chrissy