Balkan Air Force

Balkan Air Force (BAF), small Allied inter-service headquarters formed at the Adriatic port of Bari in southern Italy in June 1944. It became the co-ordinating authority for air, land, sea, and special operations in and across the Adriatic, and for those mounted in the Aegean and Ionian seas.

The air component was formed from the eight squadrons and one flight of aircraft which since May 1942 had been dropping supplies to Yugoslav partisans and which, from late 1943, had been giving them direct air support. It was commanded operationally by Air Vice-Marshal W. Elliot, who was the BAF's first commander. The air component was additionally responsible for aircraft supplying Italian partisans and flying missions for SOE and the Office of Strategic Services in the Balkans, Poland, and south-east Europe. The BAF also co-ordinated the efforts of the naval forces under the Flag Officer, Taranto; Brigadier Maclean's mission attached to Tito's HQ; Force 399 which ran special operations in Yugoslavia and Albania; and Land Forces Adriatic.

Men from eight nations—Greece, co-belligerent Italy, Poland, South Africa, the UK, USA, USSR, and Yugoslavia—used as many as fifteen different types of aircraft. Between its inception and May 1945 the BAF flew 38,340 sorties and dropped 6,650 tons of bombs, delivered 16,440 tons of supplies, and flew 2,500 individuals into Yugoslavia and 19,000, mostly wounded, out. On 1 September 1944, a week after the Germans began withdrawing from the Aegean and Ionian islands, BAF mounted ‘Rat Week’ in which aircraft co-operated with Tito's partisans to stop for one week all German traffic through Yugoslavia and between garrisons within Yugoslavia.

Land Forces Adriatic, helped by Allied MTBs, operated from the Adriatic island of Vis, raiding German garrisons on other islands and attacking their supply convoys. Some units were part of the British expedition to Greece, and in the last phases of the war, when Land Forces comprised the Long Range Desert Group, the Special Boat Squadron (see Special Boat Section), and the Raiding Support Regiment. These harassed German garrisons during the Fourth Yugoslav Army's offensive up the coast towards Trieste, which began on 19 March 1945, and helped locate targets for Allied aircraft and warships. However, on 13 April Yugoslav partisans arrested members of the Special Boat Squadron, an early indication of the Cold War. Though they were quickly released, all British ground forces were withdrawn, but BAF aircraft, operating from Zadar, continued to support the Partisan offensive. Between 19 March and 3 May 1945 these flew 2,727 sorties, attacking the German withdrawal route from Sarajevo to Zagreb and supporting the Fourth Yugoslav Army advancing from Bihac to Fiume.