Operation Banquet

Operation Banquet was a British Second World War plan to use every available aircraft against a German invasion in 1940 or 1941. After the Fall of France in June 1940, the British Government made urgent anti-invasion preparations as the Royal Air Force (RAF) engaged the German Luftwaffe in a struggle for air superiority. In May 1940, an Air Ministry meeting outlined ambitious plans to make use of various aircraft in the event of an invasion. The plan was called Operation Banquet and was divided into several operations that could be enacted independently. Banquet Light would see the formation of striking forces composed of De Havilland Tiger Moth biplanes and other light aircraft of Elementary Flying Training Schools. In Banquet 6 Group, Bomber Command decided to use the aircraft of 6 Group (the Group Pool units, not the later Royal Canadian Air Force) as conventional replacements in the front-line squadrons. The Banquet 22 Group would move certain 22 Group (Army Cooperation) aircraft into conventional Bomber Command squadrons in case of a landing. The use of slow aircraft for ground attack operations was not without precedent, Netherlands Fokker CXs, German Henschel Hs 123 and British Hawker Hector biplanes had operated on the continent without unsustainable losses.