On the 22nd. January 1942 Lord Louis Mountbatten of Burma, when he was Commodore Combined Operations, recommended that a number of Servicing Commandos should be created within the R.A.F. In due course 12 units were formed in the United Kingdom, together with a further 3 units in the Middle East Command. They comprised a total of some 2,400 Officers, N.C.O's and other ranks, mostly volunteers, and all of them skilled aircraft tradesmen capable of working on al types of aircraft to keep them flying under all kinds of conditions.

These Commando Units were trained on similar lines to the Army and Royal Marine Commandos. Their prime purpose was to accompany the invasion forces, either to make captured airfields serviceable , or to make operational the new airstrips built by the Army Airfield Construction Units. On occasion three of four squadrons of aircraft were kept serviceable for several days until their own ground crews arrived to take over.

A Servicing Commando Unit comprised between 150 and 170 other ranks with two or three Technical Officers, one appointed as Commanding Officer. It would normally be equipped with about 15 three-ton trucks, a jeep for the Officers, and two or more motor cycles. Most of the time the men lived like nomads, sleeping under tents, or their own issued bivouac, moving often at short notice. Mobility was the order of the day. All the Units were involved in the major invasion landings, either going in with the initial invasion forces or giving active support in other ways in order to keep the aircraft flying.

Three small Units were also formed in India and trained on Commando lines; these were called Servicing Parties and each comprised one Technical Officer and 30 aircraft tradesmen. These Units were part of the R.A.F. Support Group that were assigned to help Major-General Wingate's Chindit forces that were involved in "Operation Thursday", where landing strips were constructed behind the Japanese front line in Burma; to service Allied and U.S.A.A.F. fighter and transporter aircraft. After the surrender of the Japanese Forces in August 1945, Units took over Japanese-held airfields, assisted the evacuation of Allied prisoners of war, and undertook other peace-keeping duties in Java, Thailand and French Indo-China.