Founded by Royal Warrant in 1942, the Corps carries-out security tasks relating to the protection of assets and personnel dedicated to the delivery of air power.

The German invasion succeeded in major part because of the failure of the Allied land forces to recognise the strategic importance of the airfields, and hence to defend them adequately.

In consequence the RAF base at Maleme was taken largely intact by German paratroop and glider forces, albeit with heavy casualties.

[14] The Second World War campaign in north-eastern India and northern Burma was fought in jungle and mountains with few or non-existent roads and which facilitated the infiltration of enemy patrols behind front lines.

A training school and depot for the RAF Regiment was established at Secunderabad in October 1942, to retrain former ground defence airmen.

[16] During the Battle of Imphal all supplies and reinforcements had to be flown in between 29 March and 22 June 1944 with RAF Regiment units providing vital airfield defence.

[17] Following the failure of the Japanese Operation U-Go it was decided to pursue the shattered remnants of the Japanese 15th Army into Burma during the monsoon, in average rainfall of 10 in (254 mm) per day and rifle flights were sometimes attached to advancing Indian Army and British East African units, to gain experience in the jungle.

Only a roughly 1,076 sq yd (900 m2) box, shared with the army and some United States anti-aircraft artillery, could be held at night and the airfield had to be cleared of enemy each morning before flying could start.

In February 1945, Sergeant Pollards's B.6 gun detachment of 2809 Squadron RAF Regiment shot down another Me 262 over the airfield of Volkel.

2848 Field Squadron was the first RAF unit to arrive in West Berlin in 1945 to secure Luftwaffe Flugplatz Gatow.

[24] The unilateral declaration of independence by Rhodesia in November 1965 necessitated support to Zambia, which desperately needed air defence.

[25] At the eastern end of the Empire, flights from RAF Regiment squadrons based in Singapore deployed to Hong Kong in 1968 to help maintain security and confidence.

Detachments from the German Rapier Squadrons, particularly from RAF Gutersloh, deployed to San Carlos beach-head during the Falklands conflict to provide anti-aircraft cover.

[28] Also from the 1980s units such as 19 Squadron were equipped with Rapier and tasked with defending USAF airbases such as RAF Upper Heyford.

Leaving aside those injured, seriously or otherwise, five RAF Regiment gunners were killed in Iraq (one in a firefight, three, including a member of the RAuxAF, in a single mortar strike, and one in a road traffic incident)[32] and five were killed in Afghanistan (one due to hostile fire, four due to IEDs, including one 51 year old member of the RAuxAF, the oldest member of the British Armed Forces to die in Afghanistan[33]) with an additional man dying in an accident in Cyprus after leaving Afghanistan.

The army retained involvement through the continued use of the Royal Yeomanry to provide trained battlefield casualty replacements.

Not all personnel on an RAF Regiment squadron are trained gunners but can be involved in specialist support services such as administrators and drivers.

Formerly, all RAF Regiment personnel were men, as it was British government policy that women could not serve in close combat units.

Two RAF Regiment officers serving with the Aden Protectorate Levies at Dhala decided to amuse themselves by going out to shoot some of the hamadryas baboons (locally referred to as "rock apes").

When asked by a board of inquiry why he had fired at his friend the officer replied that his target had "looked just like a rock ape" in the half light.