Squadron Leader Spyros Dakopoulos and its initial personnel was mainly provided from the former 13th Naval Cooperation and 32nd Bomber Squadrons to be finally manned by volunteers recruited from the then large Greek resident communities in Egypt.[5] Its first mission was assigned on July 14, 1941.[6]
At December 1941 the Squadron was equipped with
Dekheila Airfield.[3] The following months it was reequipped with Blenheims Mk V, which were used primarily for maritime patrol missions.[2] Convoy escort and anti-submarine patrols were the main missions of the Squadron during 1942. In various occasions enemy submarines were spotted in the Eastern Mediterranean
and bombed.
Crew of the Squadron on the day of repatriation to Greece, welcomed by the Greek Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou.
From early 1943 the Squadron operated with Martin Baltimores. Apart from anti-submarine patrols and convoy escorts, the Squadron also executed reconnaissance and bombing missions in the occupied Greek islands. At November 12, the fortified German positions at the port of Souda, in Crete, were bombed. In general, the 13th Sqr based in the Middle East counted a total of 1,600 missions with over 4,550 flying hours.[7]
Italy and Greece
On May 14, 1944, the Squadron was transferred to southern Italy, where operations included bombing of enemy positions in Yugoslavia and Albania, as part of the Allied Balkan Air Force. During this period it executed a total of 1,400 operations that included bombing train stations, bridges, ammunition and fuel depots.[8]
On November 14, while the Axis troops were retreating from Greece, the aircraft of the Squadron landed in Hassani Airfield (later the
Spitfire fighters of the two other Greek Squadrons, 335th and 336th, which had also arrived in Greece, the 13th was engaged in bombing missions against the remaining German garrisons in the Aegean islands and Crete (April–May 1945).[9] The Squadron was disbanded on April 19, 1946.[1]
Βασίλειος Οικονόμου (Vasilios Oikonomou) (2004). Οι Μοίρες της Ερήμου (The Desert Squadrons) (in Greek). Athens: Πανελλήνιος Σύνδεσμος Βετεράνων Αεροπορίας (Panhellenic League of Air Force Veterans). pp. 26–50.
Δημήτριος Π. Καγκελάρης (Dimitrios P. Kagelaris) (2008). Ενας έφεδρος αρχισμηνίας πολυβολητής στην Ελληνική Βασιλική Αεροπορία, Περιοδικό Στρατιωτική Ιστορία (A reserve Master Sergeant machine gunner in the Greek Royal Airforce, Military History Magazine (in Greek). Athens: Εκδόσεις Περισκόπιο, Μέρμηγκας Γεώργιος, (Periscope Editions, Mermigas Georgios). pp. 62–68.
Hellenic Air Force flying squadrons
