#1082 Al Udeid Air Base, 83 Group
Purchased products will not feature the Squadron Prints watermark
Description
Squadron Prints Lithograph No. 1082 - Number 83 Group, Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar.
No. 83 (Composite) Group was formed on 1 April 1943 within the 2nd Tactical Air Force, designed to supply dedicated air power to Allied ground forces in Europe. By the eve of the D-Day landings, 83 Group had grown to a strength of 29 fighter, ground-attack and reconnaissance squadrons and four artillery observation squadrons, grouped into ten wings. At the time of Operation Market Garden it consisted of the Royal Canadian Air Force’s 39 Reconnaissance Wing, the 121, 122, 123 and 143 Wings flying Hawker Typhoon fighter-bombers, 125 Wing with Supermarine Spitfire fighters, and the Royal Canadian Air Force 126 and 127 Wings also flying Spitfires. It was absorbed into No. 84 Group RAF on 21 April 1946. No. 83 Group was re-formed on 9 July 1952 within the Second Tactical Air Force in Germany to control its southern area. By 1956, the group controlled five wings with a total of fourteen squadrons equipped Hawker Hunter day fighters, de Havilland Venom fighter-bombers, Supermarine Swift fighter-reconnaissance aircraft, Gloster Meteor night-fighters and English Electric Canberra interdiction and reconnaissance aircraft. It was disbanded again on 16 June 1958. On 1 April 2006, No. 83 Group was once again formed, this time at Al Udeid air base in Qatar, to provide command, control and support functions to all UK air power elements involved in operations across the Middle East and the Horn of Africa.