No. 904 Expeditionary Air Wing

No. 904 Expeditionary Air Wing was a wing of the Royal Air Force. It was stationed at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan controlling RAF operations at the air base there. It was activated on 1 April 2006 as part of a modernisation package to make the RAF more deployable on an expeditionary basis. It used to report to No. 83 Expeditionary Air Group.

No.904 Expeditionary Air Wing
Active1 October 1944 (1944-10-01) – 30 November 1946 (1946-11-30) 1 April 2006 (2006-04-01) – December 2009
DisbandedDecember 2009
CountryUnited Kingdom
BranchRoyal Air Force
RoleExpeditionary operations
Part ofPart of No. 83 Expeditionary Air Group
Home stationKandahar Airfield, Afghanistan
Motto(s)Ex aere auxilium
(Latin for 'Help from the air')

History

In the Second World War, the wing existed for a brief period as 904 Tactical Wing. It was first formed on 1 October 1944 as a tactical wing and its four squadrons were equipped with Republic P-47 Thunderbolts and operated in tactical support of the Fourteenth Army in the liberation of Burma. In early 1945 the wing was withdrawn from Burma to prepare for supporting the invasion of Malaya scheduled for later in the year. However the end of the war intervened and the wing was re-roled. It was deployed to Java in the Netherlands East Indies in the aftermath of the war, commanded by David Lee.[1] Two of its Thunderbolt squadrons were replaced by a Douglas Dakota squadron and aircraft of the wing took part in the repatriation of Allied prisoners of the war and internees. Following completion of that task the wing was disbanded on 30 November 1946.

The wing was based at Kandahar Airfield and had a:[2]

References
  1. Air Chief Marshal Sir David Lee, Wings in the Sun, author's biography, and Obituary: Air Chief Marshal Sir David Lee Daily Telegraph, 19 February 2004.
  2. "904 Expeditionary Air Wing". RAF. Archived from the original on 4 October 2013. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
  3. "83 EAG Ops Update 22 Feb 2014". RAF. Retrieved 6 March 2014.
  4. "904 EAW Hercules Detachment". Royal Air Force (RAF). Retrieved 4 December 2013.
  5. "RAF Hercules Detachment Leaves Afghanistan". RAF. Retrieved 14 November 2014.
  6. "RAF Tornados leave Afghanistan for the last time". MoD. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
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