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Air Formation Signals - The first H-Bomb test, Christmas Island 1958

The Corps Colours

During the First World War, the Royal Engineer Signal Service provided all ground communications, other than wireless, for the Air Forces in overseas theatres, but in the period between the wars it became clear that the communication needs of the Royal Air Force would be considerable and that special training would be required. The Royal Corps of Signals was formed in 1920, and in 1924 the War Office agreed to create independent Royal Signals units specifically to meet these Royal Air Force commitments. In 1937 these became Air Formation Signals, and by the outbreak of the Second World War two regiment sized units had been formed and trained.

These two units were among the first to go to France with the BEF on the outbreak of war and by the end of the war over 21,000 members of the Royal Corps of Signals were engaged in providing and maintaining land line communications and a dispatch rider letter service for the RAF in Europe and in the Near and Far East. Post 17

During the period from the end of the Second World War to the present day the role of the Air Formation Signals has not changed dramatically, but the key technology has. The motor cycle dispatch rider has given way to multi-channel radio, Manual telephone exchanges have been replaced by electro-mechanical and fully electronic switches. Copper cables had frequently been replaced by fibre optic and the circuits carried now include data as well as speech and telegraph.

Air Formation Signals are to be found wherever the Royal Air Force serves, or exercises, overseas and the cover illustration shows Air Formation Signallers at work on Christmas Island during the nuclear weapons tests in 1957-58. The Valiant aircraft XD818 that dropped the first British H-Bomb on 15th May 1957 is now in the RAF Museum at Hendon, fully restored in its anti-flash colours. The nuclear test programme was dubbed 'Operation Grapple' and the cancellation stamp shows the Grapple logo - a Cormorant(a bird equally at home on land or in the air) holding a Grapple(the four prongs representing the Navy, Army, Air Force and Atomic Warfare Research Establishment).

The "Red Beaufighter" badge was first adopted by the Air Formation Signallers in North Africa and the Far East, where the Beaufighter was especially effective, and is still worn by Air Support Signallers who carry on the traditions of Air Formation Signals.