Air Force Department Fire Department cap badge.

2 part chrome metal cap badge with coloured enamel centre

Where they were based

AFDFS personnel and their civilian predecessors were stationed at RAF airfields across the UK and overseas, with a central training establishment at RAF Manston. Fire crews were sited according to airfield category, essentially every operational RAF station had a fire section.

What they did day to day

• Primary role was aircraft crash and rescue cover for flying operations, plus structural firefighting on station (hangars, stores, married quarters).

• Crews maintained specialist crash tenders (Crossley, Morris, later Mk9 and TACR trucks) fitted with foam and CO2 extinguishing systems.

• They also handled major non-aviation incidents, such as the huge 1987 Donnington Storage Depot fires.

• In 1977, RAF firemen were deployed nationwide during the national firefighters’ strike (Operation Burberry) to provide civilian cover and train Green Goddess crews.

The badge itself, with the Queen’s crown and the eagle centred in red and blue, is the standard cap badge style used by AFDFS personnel during that 1964 to 1990 period.