Catalogue description Air Ministry: Royal Air Force Delegation, Washington, Joint Staff Mission: Registered Files

Collaboration with the U.S.A. was initiated in the summer of 1940 when the Tizard Mission was sent to Washington. Staff talks were opened in the following January which resulted in joint recommendations for the exchange of military missions.

The R.A.F. Delegation (Rafdel) was the Air Staff component of the Joint Staff Mission. It reached Washington in June 1941 with Air Marshal A.T. Harris as the first Head of Delegation. The Director of Signals had preceded the rest of the Delegation in order to set up a radar school at Clinton, Ontario, and to make arrangements for communications with England.

Like the earlier missions, Rafdel had to exercise the utmost discretion in its activities as long as the U.S.A. remained neutral. The presence of the Heads of the Service Missions was known, but the full extent of the cooperation had to be concealed. Rafdel itself was officially known as "The Air Advisers to the British Supply Council in North America", the designation "R.A.F. Delegation" being used only in secret official communications and documents. Officers wore civilian dress until the entry of the U.S.A. into the war. The Joint Staff Mission achieved its proper status after the Prime Minister visited Washington in Dec. 1941 and the British and American Chiefs of Staff had held their first fully-publicised discussions. The Naval, Army and Air Force Delegations were publicly recognised as the essential mechanism of Allied military cooperation.

Rafdel also represented the Air Ministry's interests in the U.S.A., so that in addition to its role in air policy formation the Delegation was involved in such activities as the training of R.A.F. personnel in the U.S.A., the control of air routes development and, perhaps its most important function, the procurement and allocation of aircraft, spares and equipment.