No. 47 Squadron RAF Army support role. The Squadron moved to RAF Disforth in September 1948, where it became the first RAF Squadron to receive the Handley Page Hastings four-engined transport. The conversion process was rushed as the aircraft were needed to support the Berlin Airlift, with the Squadron moving to Schleswigland, near Kiel in West Germany on 1 November 1948. The aircraft was mainly used to carry coal, carrying out 3,000 trips to Berlin and carrying 22,000 tons of supplies. When the blockade ended the Squadron returned to the United Kingdom, moving to RAF Topcliffe on 22 August 1949, operating in support of
Senghenydd colliery disaster the area of the South Wales Coalfield; between 1851 and 1911 the population increased by 320,000. By 1913 the Welsh collieries were extracting 56.8 million long tons of coal (63.6 million short tons) a year, up from 8.5 million long tons (9.5 million short tons) in 1854; collieries in the region mined a fifth of all coal produced in the UK, and employed a fifth of its miners in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1913 Britain was responsible for 25 per cent of world coal production and 55 percent of all world coal exports. The South Wales Coalfield produced the sought-after