No. 236 Squadron RAF

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No. 236 Squadron RAF
ActiveAugust 1918 - 15 May 1919
31 October 1939 โ€“ 25 May 1945
Country
Latin: Having watched, bring word)[1][2]
Insignia
Squadron Badge heraldryIn front of a fountain, a mailed fist grasping a winged sword.[3]
Squadron CodesFA (Oct 1939 - 1941)
ND (1941 - Aug 1943)
MB (Jul 1944 - May 1945)

No. 236 Squadron RAF was a Royal Air Force aircraft squadron, which served during the First World War in the anti-submarine role, and for most of Second World War employed on anti-shipping operations.

History

The squadron was formed on 20 August 1918 from No's 493, 515 & 516 Flights at Mullion, in Cornwall. Equipped with DH6s, it carried out anti-submarine patrols along the coast until the end of the war, disbanding on 15 May 1919.

Reformed as a fighter squadron at

Fighter Command and the following month moved to RAF Filton to fly defensive patrols over the English Channel; in July a move to Thorney Island
saw it back in Coastal Command, where it stayed for the rest of the war.

From August 1940 it operated from bases in the south-west of England, carrying out anti-shipping patrols over the Channel, and Irish Sea, having re-equipped with Beaufighters in October 1941.

On 12 June, a Beaufighter flown by a volunteer crew of Flight Lieutenant A. K. Gatward and Sergeant G. Fern made a solo sortie to Paris intending to disrupt a noon parade of German troops down the

Champs-Elysees. On arrival it was seen that there was no parade but dropped a French tricolore over the empty avenue and shot up the secondary target of the Gestapo headquarters in the Ministry of Marine on the Place de la Concorde before returning.[4]

It was transferred to RAF Wattisham in February 1942 and reduced to a cadre. It received new Beaufighters in March and resumed its previous duties, although these were now flown over the North Sea, with detachments in the south-west who undertook similar duties over the Bay of Biscay. In September 1942 the squadron moved to North Coates and in April 1943 became a part of the strike wing formed there, operating as such until the end of the war. The squadron disbanded on 25 May 1945.[5]

References

Notes

  1. ISBN 0-7100-9339-X
    .
  2. ^ "236 Sqn | RAF Heraldry Trust". rafht.co.uk. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  3. ^ "236 Squadron". Royal Air Force. 2015. Archived from the original on 21 November 2016. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
  4. ^ Royal Air Force 1939-1945: Volume II The Fight Avails p 143
  5. ^ Barrass, M. B. (2015). "Squadron Histories 236โ€“240". Air of Authority - A History of RAF Organisation. Retrieved 30 August 2015.

Bibliography

External links

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