Editing RAF Coastal Command (section)

==Cold War==

===Beginnings===
[[File:Lockheed P2V-5 Neptune MR.1 51-15965 217 Sqn Ringway 25.08.53.jpg|thumb|250px|A Neptune MR1 of 217 Sqn Coastal Command RAF in 1953]]
The capitulation of Germany in May 1945 was followed by a rapid rundown of Coastal Command with the immediate disbandment of combat units and the transfer of aircraft to the [[RAF Transport Command]]. Commonwealth personnel were also sent home and the powerful [[Bristol Beaufighter]] and [[de Havilland Mosquito]] wings were reduced.<ref>Ashworth 1992, p. 196.</ref> The Command still maintained strong air-sea-rescue [[Air-sea rescue]] (ASR) and reconnaissance forces but its ASW was lopsided. With a few exceptions, only a handful of squadrons with ASW aircraft remained by January 1946.<ref>Ashworth 1992, p. 196-199.</ref>

While the Command retained a minimum peacetime force and the Air Ministry had every intention of maintaining it as such, the fleet was further reduced and suffered from procurement problems. The [[Short Shetland]] and [[Short Seaford]] were rejected as replacements for the [[Consolidated B-24 Liberator]]. A maritime version of the promising [[Avro Lincoln]] had yet to be ordered by the time the Lend-Lease programme ended in August 1945. The [[Short Sunderland]] was forced to continue as the main operational type until the end of 1946. Most of the aircraft that operated in the command were the Second World War types; the Spitfire, Lancaster, Mosquito and Beaufighter.<ref>Ashworth 1992, pp. 196–199.</ref>

The Command was kept busy in the late 1940s. Units were sent to the Middle East and [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] as part of an air policing policy, in co-operation with the [[Israeli Air Force]] and [[Egyptian Air Force]] to prevent conflict between the two countries owing to the formation of the state of Israel in 1948. While there, they undertook a major operation, [[Operation Bobcat]], to prevent illegal Jewish migrants coming into Palestine.<ref>Ashworth 1992, p. 200.</ref> In May 1948 the variety of aircraft was reduced despite increasing demand for operations. In May, [[Palestinian people|Palestinians]] began attacking British military installations throughout the region. In the largest British post-war action, [[Operation DAWN (1943)|Operation Dawn]] (13 to 14 May 1948) was launched with the support of Coastal Command.<ref name="Ashworth 1992, p. 202">Ashworth 1992, p. 202.</ref>

On 28 June 1948 Coastal Command was also involved in the [[Berlin Airlift]]. The [[Soviet Union]] attempted to cut off all aid to the city which was jointly occupied by the four major powers, the Soviets in the east, and the Americans, French and British in the west. The joint American-British operation continued for almost a year. Coastal Command aircraft were involved as flying boats were the only aircraft with internal anti-corrosion treatment allowing bulk salt to be transported. The Command's operations grew in intensity. By 13 July daily sorties had risen to 16. By October it was 214 sorties (other RAF Commands were also flying in supplies). The flying boats made their flight in using the [[Elbe river]], but these operations came to a close on 14 December 1948, when the hazard from uncharted sandbanks and wreckage which, in some cases had been deliberately placed there by the [[Soviets]] to prevent the [[Western Bloc|Western Allies]] from supplying the city, made operations impractical. Over 1,000 sorties had been made, and 4,500 tons of supplies were flown in and 1,113 people, mainly children, evacuated.<ref name="Ashworth 1992, p. 202"/>

===Soviet threat===

[[File:31 Shackleton mail drop Aug1970.jpg|thumb|left|[[Avro Shackleton]], the mainstay of Coastal Command in the 1950s.]]
[[NATO]], the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, began preparations for a military defence of Western Europe by incorporating most West European nations into a defence pact against alleged Soviet aggression in April 1951. This led to the militarisation of [[West Germany]] in 1955 and was met with the militarisation of [[East Germany]] soon after and its merger into the [[Warsaw Pact]] alliance with the [[Soviet Union]]. The purpose of Coastal Command was to help bolster the defence and guard against a potential Soviet naval threat in Atlantic and European waters. For Coastal Command the main concern was the Atlantic. On 1 March 1950 it had lost the photo reconnaissance units to [[RAF Bomber Command]]. The transfer was not complete when [[North Korea]] invaded [[South Korea]] beginning the [[Korean War]]. [[Handley Page Hastings]] were hastily modified and ready for operations but were not sent, owing to the need for ASW aircraft in the Eastern Atlantic.<ref name="Ashworth 1992, p. 204">Ashworth 1992, p. 204.</ref>

The [[Avro Shackleton]] was the main operational aircraft in the 1950s, replacing the wartime [[Consolidated B-24 Liberator|Liberator GRs]], along with the [[Lockheed P-2 Neptune|Neptune MR.1s]]. At the end of August 1951, [[No. 201 Squadron RAF]] became the first unit to complete training on the type.<ref name="Ashworth 1992, p. 204"/> In mid-1953 the [[order of battle]] consisted of eight Shackleton squadrons; one at [[Gibraltar]], four covering the South-Western Approaches in the Atlantic and three more covering the North-Western Approaches. This force numbered 64 aircraft. A further four Sunderland squadrons with 20 aircraft were split between the North-Western and South-Western Approaches. The Neptunes, numbering 32 aircraft in four squadrons, covered the North-Eastern and Eastern Approaches. The [[Helicopter]] also joined Coastal Command. [[Bristol Sycamore]]s entered service in 1953 and 16 aircraft were dispersed in Britain for ASW. In March the [[Avro Lancaster]] was finally phased out of Coastal Command service.<ref>Ashworth 1992, p. 204, 207.</ref>

The Command was too expensive to maintain and cost cuts were made during the 1950s which caused a reduction in strength. By mid-1957 the Command had been cut to 82 aircraft. By mid-1958 it had shrunk to just 67. The Shackletons dominated the core of this force, numbering 54 aircraft. The Neptune was cut from the service altogether, beginning on 31 August 1956.<ref>Ashworth 1992, p. 210.</ref> There was little operational action for the Command at this point. It airlifted [[British Army]] forces into [[Egypt]] during the [[Suez Crisis]] which was its major action during this period. The lack of funds and any active conventional military role saw the Command struggle to keep its front-line strength high.<ref>Ashworth 1992, p. 212.</ref> There was a brief alert in October 1962, during the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]], when all six squadrons it then possessed were put on high alert, but nothing came of the crisis, although the Shackleton squadrons at [[RAF Ballykelly]] were sent to Macrihanish as it was known that Ballykelly was on the Soviet IRBM target list.<ref>Ashworth 1992, p. 218.</ref>

In the early 1960s the [[Soviet Navy]] and Communist Bloc's fishing fleets began operating around the British Isles in increasing numbers. The British public began taking an interest in their operations as civilian fisherman began complaining about their presence. [[Operation Chacewater]] began, in which Coastal Command began monitoring their movements, in particular other vessels that loitered in areas covering the arrival and departure routes for [[Royal Navy]] [[nuclear submarine]] forces. Soon after, counter operations such as [[Operation Adjutant]] were carried out, which was aimed at searching for Soviet submarines.<ref>Ashworth 1992, p. 219.</ref> The main threat from the Soviets in the Atlantic came from the [[Soviet Northern Fleet]] and in early 1965 most of the Command's units were concentrated in [[No. 18 Group RAF]], based in [[Scotland]] to monitor their activities. No recorded confrontation took place between Coastal Command and Soviet naval forces during this time, although both the Shackletons from RAF Ballykelly and frigates from Londonderry would 'ping' the Soviet submarines carrying out surveillance off the mouth of Lough Foyle.<ref>Ashworth 1992, p. 220.</ref> In at least one instance, a Ballykelly-based Shackleton lost its radome when making a mock attack on the Russian sub.<ref>S/Ldr Allan Batstone</ref>

In 1969 the special-purpose [[Hawker-Siddeley Nimrod]], based on the [[de Havilland Comet]] airliner, was introduced into RAF service and Coastal Command duties were passed on to general squadrons. The Nimrod was a replacement for the Shackleton and it began to do so on 2 October 1969. Less than eight weeks later, Coastal Command was disbanded and ceased to exist on 27 November 1969, when it was subsumed into [[RAF Strike Command]].<ref name="Ashworth 1992, p. 222"/>