AFTER the Armistice the Bristol Fighter remained in squadron service with the RAF for a remarkably long time. Until the end of 1919 there were nine squadrons, mostly in Europe, but by February 1 1920 only No.12 Squadron remained operational. From then on, in slow time, further Bristol Fighter squadrons were formed in the United Kingdom, mostly for army co-operation and communications duties. Modest modifications were progressively made as the inter-war years passed, and the Bristols were obliged to operate in climates for which they were never designed, in primitive conditions, and with a lack of spares and maintenance facilities that should have been condemned as criminal Operational flying against dissident tribesmen was, nevertheless, pursued as assiduously as circumstances permitted by the DH9A and Bristol Fighter squadrons in India and Iraq. These tasks and actions were utterly different from the aerial combat of 1917-18 for which the Bristol had been created; and the old warrior, progressively burdened and disfigured by additional equipment, struggled gamely on. Its replacement by such types as the Atlas and Gordon began in 1930, but a further two years were to elapse before the RAF parted with its last Bristol Fighter.
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