Tuesday, May 06, 2008

RAF Squadrons

No.151 Squadron began the Second World War as a Hurricane squadron, participating the Battle of Britain, before becoming a night fighter squadron in November 1940, operating first in the defensive role and later as an intruder squadron.
No.157 Squadron was the first squadron to operation the Mosquito as a night fighter, after reforming in December 1941 for that purpose.
No.158 Squadron was formed during the great wartime expansion of Bomber Command, from the home echelon of No.104 Squadron and spent the entire war operationg with the main bomber force.
No.161 Squadron was a special duties squadron, formed in February 1942 from the King's Flight and part of No.138 Squadron to carry out a mix of supply drops and agent transportation missions
No. 166 Squadron went through two incarnations during the Second World War, first as a training unit and later as a bomber squadron operationg the Wellington and then Lancaster
No.169 Squadron went through two incarnations during the Second World War, first as tactical reconnaissance unit and then as a Mosquito equipped night fighter intruder unit supporting the bomber offensive.
No.171 Squadron went through two incarnations during the Second World War, operating as a reconnaissance unit for six months in 1942 and then as a bomber support squadron from September 1944
No.178 Squadron was a heavy bomber squadron that spent the entire Second World War operating in the Mediterranean.
No.185 Squadron began the war as a training squadron, before being reformed on Malta on 27 April 1941, where it took part in some of the fiercest air battles over the island, before going onto the offensive in Italy at the end of 1942.
No.187 Squadron was a short-lived transport squadron, formed in February 1945 to ferry troops to India in preparation for the planned invasions of Burma, Malaya and Japan.
No.190 Squadron went through two very different incarnations during the Second World War, spending 1943 operating with Coastal Command, before becoming a glider-towing squadron, taking part in the D-Day landings, Operation Market Garden and the crossing of the Rhine.
No.192 Squadron was formed on 4 January 1943 as a radar counter-measures squadron. It was essentially a research unit, involved in identifying the types of radar being used by the Germans.
No.199 Squadron was formed in 1942 as a standard bomber squadron, becoming a counter-measures squadron in May 1944 after its Stirlings were withdrawn from the main bomber offensive.
No.207 Squadron was reformed in November 1940 to operate the troubled Avro Manchester, and had to use that aircraft for sixteen months, before converting to the Lancaster. No.214 "Federated Malay States" Squadron spent the entire Second World War operating with Bomber Command, with the main bomber force from 1940 to early 1944 and then with No.100 Group

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