Editing Royal Air Force (section)

===Second World War===
{{Further|Air warfare of World War II}}[[File:Spitfire P7350 (front) flies alongside Hurricane LF363 (back).jpg|thumb|right|A [[Supermarine Spitfire|Spitfire]] and [[Hawker Hurricane|Hurricane]], which both played major roles in the [[Battle of Britain]].]]

The Royal Air Force underwent rapid expansion prior to and during the Second World War. Under the [[British Commonwealth Air Training Plan]] of December 1939, the air forces of [[Commonwealth of Nations|British Commonwealth]] countries trained and formed "[[Article XV squadrons]]" for service with RAF formations. Many individual personnel from these countries, and exiles from [[occupied Europe]], also served with RAF squadrons. By the end of the war the [[Royal Canadian Air Force]] had contributed more than 30 squadrons to serve in RAF formations, similarly, approximately a quarter of [[RAF Bomber Command|Bomber Command's]] personnel were Canadian.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rcaf.com/archives/archives_features/history/waryears.php|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120911234607/http://www.rcaf.com/archives/archives_features/history/waryears.php|url-status=dead|title=RCAF.com : Archives : RCAF History : The War Years|date=21 May 2006|archive-date=11 September 2012|access-date=22 July 2017}}</ref> Additionally, the [[Royal Australian Air Force]] represented around nine per cent of all RAF personnel who served in the European and Mediterranean theatres.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ww2australia.gov.au/raaf/explore.html|title=Explore: 'The Angry Sky'|work=ww2australia.gov.au|access-date=29 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090711010358/http://ww2australia.gov.au/raaf/explore.html|archive-date=11 July 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref>

During the [[Battle of Britain]] in 1940, the RAF defended the skies over Britain against the numerically superior German {{Lang|de|[[Luftwaffe]]}}. In what is perhaps the most prolonged and complicated air campaign in history, the Battle of Britain contributed significantly to the delay and subsequent indefinite postponement of [[Operation Sea Lion]], [[Hitler]]'s plans for an invasion of the UK. In the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] on 20 August, prompted by the ongoing efforts of the RAF, Prime Minister [[Winston Churchill]] made a speech to the nation, where he said "[[Never was so much owed by so many to so few|Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few"]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/speeches/quotations/famous-quotations-and-stories |title=The Few |date=March 2009 |publisher=The Churchill Centre |access-date=29 April 2011 |quote="The gratitude of every home in our island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the world war by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120304083839/http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/speeches/quotations/famous-quotations-and-stories |archive-date=4 March 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:100 years of the RAF MOD 45163640.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Avro Lancaster]] heavy bomber was extensively used during the strategic bombing of Germany.]]
The largest RAF effort during the war was the [[strategic bombing]] campaign against Germany by Bomber Command. While RAF bombing of Germany began almost immediately upon the outbreak of war at first it was ineffectual; it was only later, particularly under the leadership of [[Air chief marshal|Air Chief Marshal]] [[Arthur Travers Harris|Harris]], that these attacks became increasingly devastating, from early 1943 onward, as new technology and greater numbers of superior aircraft became available.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Overy |first1=Richard |title=The Bombing War |date=2013 |publisher=Penguin |page=322}}</ref> The RAF adopted night-time [[area bombing]] on German cities such as [[Bombing of Hamburg in World War II|Hamburg]] and [[Bombing of Dresden|Dresden]]. Night time area bombing constituted the great bulk of the RAF's bombing campaign, mainly due to Harris, but it also developed precision bombing techniques for specific operations, such as the infamous [[Operation Chastise|"Dambusters" raid]] by [[No. 617 Squadron RAF|No. 617 Squadron]],<ref>[[Paul Brickhill]], ''The Dambusters''</ref> or the Amiens prison raid known as [[Operation Jericho]].<ref>{{cite web |publisher=RAF |title=Attack on Amiens Prison, 18th February 1944 |url=http://www.raf.mod.uk/history/amiens.html |year=2004 |access-date=1 January 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070101145837/http://www.raf.mod.uk/history/amiens.html |archive-date=1 January 2007}}</ref>