The North-West Frontier (present-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) was a region of the British Indian Empire. It remains the western frontier of present-day Pakistan, extending from the Pamir Knot in the north to the Koh-i-Malik Siah in the west, and separating the modern Pakistani frontier regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Baluchistan from neighbouring Afghanistan in the west. The borderline between is officially known as the Durand Line and divides Pashtun inhabitants of these provinces from Pashtuns in eastern Afghanistan.

The two main gateways on the North West Frontier are the Khyber and Bolan Passes. Since ancient times, the Indian subcontinent has been repeatedly invaded through these northwestern routes. With the expansion of the Russian Empire into Central Asia in the twentieth century, stability of the Frontier and control of Afghanistan became cornerstones of defensive strategy for British India.

Between 1849 and 1947 the military history of the frontier was a succession of punitive expeditions against offending Pashtun (or Pathan) tribes, punctuated by three wars against Afghanistan. Many British officers who went on to distinguished command in the First and Second World Wars learnt their soldiering on the North-West Frontier, which they called “the Grim”.

Although Afganistan remained neutral during WWI the local tribes were continually aggressive. 31 Sqn was the only air component in operational support of the Army providing artillery spotting and armed reconnaisance.

The North African campaign of the Second World War took place in North Africa from 10th June 40 to 13th May 43. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts (Western Desert campaign, also known as the Desert War) Fighting in North Africa started with the Italian declaration of war. On 14th June. Battles for control of Libya and Egypt followed, with advances and retreats until the Second Battle of El Alamein in October 42 when the Eighth Army 9 defeated the German–Italian Panzerarmee Afrika and forced its remnants into Tunisia. After Operation Torch, the Anglo-American landings in North-West Africa in November 42 and fighting against Vichy France forces (which then changed sides), the Allies trapped about 250,000 German and Italian personnel in northern Tunisia, forcing their surrender in May 43.

Our participation started In June ‘41 when the Sqn detachment in Iraq moved to Habbaniya under the command of Wg Cdr Ubee AFC and commenced operations in the Syrian theatre of war throughout June and July. Its principal task was the evacuation of casualties, and many sorties were made to the Middle East.

In late October ‘41, eight DC2s now led by Wg Cdr Jenkins, detached from Lahore to Bilbeis in the Canal Zone. Operations were in support of the army in the Western Desert carrying in supplies and evacuating casualties10 .

Our involvement in this campaign ended in Feb ‘42 when the Middle East detachment returned to India and the entire Squadron was located at Akyab of the coast of the Arakan where they conducted operations supporting the First Arakan campaign in Burma, until Akyab airfield was overrun by the Japanese.

In March ‘41, the Regent of Iraq, Prince ‘Abd al-Ilah, learned of a plot to arrest him and fled Baghdad for RAF Habbaniya. From Habbaniya he was flown to Basra and given refuge on the gunboat HMS Cockchafer. On 1st April, Rashid Ali and the Golden Square (four senior military commanders) seized power in a coup d’état. The Golden Square deposed Prime Minister Taha al-Hashimi and Rashid Ali again became Prime Minister of Iraq. The Golden Square also arrested pro-British citizens and politicians, but many managed to escape through Transjordan.

The Golden Square intended to refuse further concessions to Britain, retain diplomatic links with Fascist Italy, and exile prominent pro-British politicians. They thought Britain was weak and would negotiate with them. Ali asked Germany for military assistance in the event of war with Britain. Ali also tried to restrict British rights under Article 5 of the 1930 treaty when he insisted that newly arrived British troops be quickly transported through Iraq and to Palestine.

In the following days, the new Iraqi government moved substantial ground forces, including an infantry brigade, an artillery brigade, and 12 armoured cars as well as tanks to the plateau overlooking RAF Habbaniya, the large RAF base beside the River Euphrates 50 miles west of Baghdad. Upon arrival, the Iraqis demanded that the British not move any troops nor aircraft in or out of the base. The British responded by first demanding that the Iraqis leave the area and then, following the expiry of an ultimatum given in the early hours of 2nd May, launched an attack. The base had a force of 96 lightly-armed aircraft, most of which were either purpose-built trainers or obsolete combat aircraft converted to training use. They also had an understrength battalion from the King’s Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster), six companies of Assyrian Levies (troops raised by the British), 18 armoured cars and a company of RAF personnel, giving a total strength of 2,200 troops to defend the base. The Royal Iraqi Air Force, despite having aircraft that included numerous modern British, Italian and US built machines, failed to defeat the RAF.

Our contribution to this battle started with the entire squadron moving to Karachi. From Karachi A and B flights commanded by Sqn Ldr Burnside DFC and Sqn Ldr Burberry carried out two return flights to Shaiba between the 2nd and 9th of April carrying personnel of the Second Battalion Kings Regiment. The route followed Karachi-Jiwani-Sharjah-Bahrain-Shaibah and the average flying time per crew over the eight days was 92 hours.

During April the time was spent converting B flight to DC2 aircraft and on the 16th of April both flights, that is A Flight still with Valencias and B Flight with four DC2s carried out further reinforcements of Shaibah where they remained as a detachment, four more DC-2s been taken over from civilian pilots there.

The detachment move to Basra on the 19th of April and continued to fly men stores and equipment to Habbaniya daily. About the 29th of April the Germans began using ME110s and HE111s base it in Hinaidi and Mosul so all flying had to be carried out at night during this time. Many evacuees and casualties were flown out of Habbaniya and ferrying men and material was continued through the month of May although one DC2 was knocked out during a strafe of Habbaniya by an ME110. The detachment carried out over 1800 hours of flying during the month using 6 Valencias and 6 DC2s.

With British forces having air superiority, the Iraqi army was forced back to Fallujah and the RAF attacked the Iraqi Air Force bases at Mosul and Rashid. Habbaniya had essentially lifted the siege with its own resources.

This battle honour covers the general campaign in Burma during the work up to the Japanese invasion of South East Asia in 42. Our involvement started in early 41 with A Flight moving 27 Sqn personnel to Singapore and B Flight moving 60 Sqn personnel to Rangoon. At the same time the Sqn HQ moved to Lahore.

From April to August 41 we were out of theatre providing support for Habbaniya during the Iraqi Coup. We then returned to India employed on VIP flights before being sent again to the Middle East once again for the support of the Army in Egypt as mentioned above. So in effect, we spent very little time in India in 41. At the end of 41 and Japan had entered the war we had 2 DC2s in Lahore which were in fact the only transport aircraft available in the command! They were employed ferrying urgent supplies and evacuees between Calcutta and Rangoon, until one DC2 was destroyed during a Japanese air raid at Mingaladon airfield

Feb/Mar 42 saw the entire Sqn at Akyab reinforcing Burma and evacuating casualties. These operations continued until Akyab was rendered untenable and the Squadron moved to Calcutta, continuing to support the Army as it retreated north. By May 42 there were no airfields available in Burma for use by the Allies

After the Fall of Myitkyina airfield in May 42 the only allied outpost in Burma was Fort Hertz. It was here that we started dropping supplies by air on the 9th May and continued for the rest of the month. In early June it was however decided the Fort was untenable and we flew in to a very confined space and evacuated 23 personnel. Fort Hertz was seen as a vital staging post for the support of the American flights across “The Hump” to China. In August Fort Hertz was developed as a relief landing ground and personnel and materiel was flown in. Thereafter the garrison was entirely dependent on resupply by air from the Sqn’s detachment at Dinjan. Also in June we received the first two Dakotas, specifically designed for troop carrying and supply dropping. Resupply flights from Dinjan and Tezpur continued for the rest of the year.

Early in 43 the first Wingate expedition was launched and during March and April was resupplied by air by 31 Sqn from Agartala assisted by the Hudsons of 194 Sqn. This resupply operation was running in parallel with supply drops to Fort Hertz, Sumprabum and the Chin Hills. The remainder of 43 saw us continuing to provide resupply to the Army in North Burma. In addition we had several flights supporting the Americans flying over “The Hump” to Kunming in China.

Operations by fighter, bomber and transport squadrons in support of the first and second Arakan campaigns (November 1942 to February 1943, and November 1943 to March 1944).

Operations in support of the besieged forces at Imphal (March to July 1944). There are no Battle honours for Imphal or Kohima, instead they are covered collectively as Manipur which is the Indian State in which Imphal is located and Kohima is just outside in Nagaland.

In 1945 the squadron continued to support the 14th Army units. Operating from Hathazari record breaking totals of supplies dropped for their march from Mektala to Rangoon were reached and 3,938 flying hours were completed during April 45. Most of the loads were rations, stores and a large amount of ammunition. The two main areas of dropping and loading operations were Mektala and Mytche in Central Burma.

In June the Sqn moved to Kyaukpa in Ramree Island and missions included landing men and materials in the central plains of Burma. We also had a detachment at Toungoo to supply the fighters of Force 136 throughout the length of Shaw Hills. During August the Sqn was tasked with moving to Tilda to training for parachute landings to recapture Singapore. However this was stopped in mid August as the Japanese were talking of surrender and so the Sqn ended up back at Akyab. This was officially the end of the Burma 44-45 Campaign. The sqn ended the year moving to Kalang and then finally Batavia.

On the 2nd of August ‘90 Sadam Hussain led Iraq into the illegal occupation of Kuwait. An International coalition was mobilised to force Iraq to withdraw. As part of this 31 Sqn deployed to Dhahran in Saudi Arabia on 27th of Dec 1990 as the lead Sqn of a multi squadron detachment of Tornado GR1 and GR1A, under the overall command of OC 31, Wing Commander Jerry Witts. His actions in command of the Squadron earned him the DSO. The squadron operated over Iraq and Kuwait during Operation Granby which was the UK element of Operation Desert Storm.

The Squadron participated in Operation Engadine - NATO operations to stop the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo by Serbia. We used TIALD pods and Paveway II and III against targets in Serbia and Kosovo between April and June ‘99. We were operating in the European Theatre for the first time, with all the involved complexity. The first part of the Operation was carried out from Brüggen involving 8 hr round trips with AAR in extremely poor weather conditions. The length of the sorties was due to routing a long way round to avoid overflying neutral countries. Serbia had a sophisticated air defence system and crews had an extremely challenging time avoiding AAA, SAM3 and 6. Moreover, employing weapons not designed for multi-carriage, medium altitude, long distance sorties in bad weather proved to be extremely challenging for the Sqn. For the latter part of this operation, to reduce transit times, 31 and IX(B) were temporarily based in Solenzara15 , Corsica, using Paveway III and ALARM 16 for the last four weeks of the operation. Fortunately, despite the difficulties we did not lose any aircraft.

In 03, we formed the core of the Ali Al Salem Air Combat Wing in Kuwait; an amalgamated Composite squadron of Nos. II (AC), 9, 31 and 617 Squadron crews under the overall command of OC 31, Wing Commander Paddy Teakle. His actions in command of the air wing earned him the DSO. From Ali Al Salem Air Base, the squadron operated over Iraq during Operation Resonate South and then into Operation TELIC. Our specialist roles at the time were interdiction followed by SEAD, however things developed with Recce and Close Air Support also employed during the war. The wing also used new weapon systems with the first use of Storm Shadow and ALARM II together with extensive use of the RAPTOR recce pod. All proving that the Tornado and its crews were indeed a Multi Role Combat Aircraft System!