RAF units disbanding in Europe before the end of the war

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Hello,

I remember reading that starting from fall 1944 British Army had serious manpower problems due to the length of war and was obliged to disband several divisions (I checked today and found only two: the 59th Infantry Division at the end of summer 1944 after the Normandy battle and the 1st Armoured Division in Italy in January 1945).

But I just discovered today that RAF started to disband squadrons before Germant's surrender. For example, 168 Sqn (a Mustang unit) on 28 February 1945, 257 Sqn (a Typhoon one) on 8 March, 174 Sqn (Typhoon) on 8 April.

I am wondering if it was just the anticipated start of the post-war downsizing of RAF, or if manpower shortages (or another shortage) explained that. I will be interesed to know if someone has something on these disbanding in wartime documents or published books. Thanks in advance

There was also a wave of disbandement of RAF fighter squadron in Italy in fall 1944 but this is probably linked to Luftwaffe fighters leaving this theater, and AFAIK the RAF squadrons were recreated (I mean the numbers were reused) in the next days or weeks as transport squadrons (RAF building a huge transport capacity for the end of war and months just after it). Still the new squadrons with the same number were created far from Italy, so I guess the pilots and ground crews of the disbanded units in Italy were probably distributed to other units in their area for the main part.