No. 60 Squadron RAF
No. 60 Squadron RAF | |
---|---|
Active |
|
Country | Latin for 'I strive through difficulties to the sky')[1] |
Aircraft | Airbus H135 Juno HT.1 |
Battle honours |
|
Commanders | |
Current commander | Squadron Leader Nick Summers (August 2020 – present) |
Insignia | |
Squadron badge heraldry | A markhor's head, commemorating many years of service in North-West India, the markhor being a mountain goat frequenting the Khyber Pass. Approved by King George VI in December 1937. |
Squadron codes | AD (Apr 1939 – Sep 1939) MU (Sep 1934 – Feb 1942, Aug 1943 – Oct 1946) A–Z (Wessex) |
Post-1950 squadron roundel |
No. 60 Squadron of the Royal Air Force was formed in 1916 at Gosport. It is currently part of No. 1 Flying Training School[2] based at RAF Shawbury in Shropshire flying the Airbus H135 Juno HT.1.
The squadron badge is a markhor's head and was approved by King George VI in December 1937. Chosen to commemorate many years of service in North-West India, the markhor being a mountain goat frequenting the Khyber Pass. The horns of a markhor were presented to the squadron in 1964.[3]
The squadron motto is Per ardua ad aethera tendo – 'I strive through difficulties to the sky'.
First World War service
Formed at
After suffering heavy losses during the
The squadron claimed 320 aerial victories. Twenty-six
- Albert Ball – Victoria Cross winner
- Alexander Beck
- James Belgrave
- Alan Duncan Bell-Irving
- William Avery Bishop – Canadian Victoria Cross winner[7]
- Air Commodore
- Robert L. Chidlaw-Roberts
- John Doyle
- Art Duncan
- Gordon Duncan
- William M. Fry
- John Griffith
- Harold A. Hamersley
- H. George Hegarty
- Spencer B. Horn
- William Molesworth
- Sydney Pope
- John William Rayner[8]
- Alfred William Saunders
- Alan Scott
- Frank O. Soden
- Robert Kenneth Whitney
The inter-war years
Reformed at
Second World War
Burma and Malaya
The squadron moved to
When the war against Japan broke out on 8 December 1941 No. 60 Squadron was ordered to attack Japanese shipping near
On 24 December 1941 the remnant of squadrons ground crew and a few of its air crew, having lost all their aircraft in action, sailed from Singapore on the SS Darvel to Burma. They arrived in Rangoon on 1 January 1942 and were joined on 7 January 1942 by No. 113 Squadron and a couple of No. 45 Squadron's Bristol Blenheim IVs. No. 60 Squadron's spare aircrew were assigned to No. 113 Squadron as needed. Because the three squadrons lacked both aircraft and supplies they were seldom able to put more than seven aircraft up at one time, meaning they tended to operate as one.[12] No. 60 Squadron's Blenheim aircrews manned No. 113 Squadron's planes for the first bombing raid on Bangkok and participated again in the second one later in January.[13]
India
The squadron had suffered heavily at the hands of the advancing Japanese forces and was declared non-operational and moved to
On 30 March 1943 an English-Argentinian from Estancia Dos Hermanos, Los Pinos, Richard (Ricardo) Campbell Lindsell, who had joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, was appointed squadron leader. Lindsell had been educated at Stowe School in England and had been based with No. 139 Squadron RAF.[15]
In May the squadron was stood down while replacement aircraft were sought. By August the decision had been made to re-equip the squadron with
In May 1945 the Hurricanes were replaced by Republic Thunderbolt fighters.[3]
Post Second World War
Shortly after the Japanese surrender, the squadron moved to
By the time
No. 60 Squadron's Pembrokes were modified versions of No. 81 Squadron RAF's C(PR).1 photo-reconnaissance Pembrokes. Their use as a Cold War surveillance aircraft was highly classified until the late 1990s. Pembrokes of No. 60 Squadron often flew along the air corridors between West Germany and Berlin, established during the 1948–49 Berlin Blockade during which the West mounted a massive year-long airlift of supplies to the beleaguered city. While they were widely used as transport aircraft by the RAF, their true function along that particular route was known only to a few within military and intelligence circles. These aircraft were employed for Operation Hallmark, a sensitive intelligence operation in which the Pembrokes were fitted with high-powered reconnaissance cameras to acquire imagery of Soviet and East German military installations and airfields below the tightly controlled air corridors. These were subsequently analyzed by photo intelligence and imagery experts, who recorded any changes in the Warsaw Pact forces facing the West. Alterations in the order of battle, appearance of new equipment and movement of military units were all items of great interest. At the time of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, it was Percival Pembrokes that provided Western analysts with some of the first indications as to where the Soviet ground forces had come from.[19][20]
From March 1987 Hawker Siddeley Andovers arrived replacing the squadron's Pembrokes.[21]
As with many other Germany-based units, the end of the Cold War saw many moves. No. 60 disbanded at Wildenrath on 1 April 1992, but reformed two months later on 1 June 1992 at RAF Benson in Oxfordshire with Westland Wessex HC.2 helicopters. This proved a short-lived stay and the squadron was disbanded on 31 March 1997 and the numberplate passed on to the RAF element of the Defence Helicopter Flying School (DHFS) at RAF Shawbury on 1 May 1997.[3] On 11 February 1997, the last two Westland Wessex's departed for RNAY Fleetlands.[22] As of 1 April 2018, the squadron began transitioning to the Juno helicopter as part of 9 Regiment Army Air Corps and DHFS in order to provide Advanced and Tactical Rotary Wing training to both pilots and crewmen, prior to their postings to Operational Conversion Units.[23]
See also
References
- Citations
- ISBN 0-7100-9339-X.
- ^ Smith, Rory. "RAF chief opens state-of-the-art helicopter training facilities in Shawbury". shropshirestar.com. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f "60(R) Squadron". Royal Air Force. 2016. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
- ISBN 0091143705.
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/72242. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ Shores, Franks & Guest (1990), p. 36.
- ^ "William Avery Bishop – Canadian fighter ace". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2016. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
- ^ Shores, Franks & Guest (1990), p. 314.
- ^ Bowman (2017), p. 121.
- ^ "Aircraft accident 8 December 1941 Bristol Blenheim Mk I L4913". Aviation Safety Network. 2016. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
- ^ "William E. Bowden, Flt Lt, RAF Squadron 60". Center for Research: Allied POWS Under the Japanese. 2013. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
- ^ Stevenson, Air-Vice-Marshal D. F. (1942). "Air Operations in Burma and Bay of Bengal, January 1st to May 22nd, 1942". 113 Squadron.com. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
- ^ Air fighting, Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 8, 10 January 1942, page 7.
- ^ "Tokyo Awards List Big Officer Loss; Vice Admiral, 2 Rear Admirals and 2 Major Generals Win Posthumous Honors; 55 Naval Fliers Named; Group Included Covers the Japanese Pacific Dead Up to Mid-February". The New York Times. 16 October 1942.
- ^ Bowman (2017), pp. 124–125.
- ^ Calcaterra, Pablo (2012). "Hobbycraft 1/48 Hurricane IIc". Modeling Madness.com. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
- ^ Conboy (2003), p. 161.
- ^ "Hunting Percival Pembroke C1". Royal Air Force Museum. Trustees of the Royal Air Force Museum. Retrieved 5 June 2017.
- ^ Wright, K. (March 2011). "The Photo Pembrokes". Classic Aircraft. 44 (3): 22–28.
- ^ Wright, Kevin (2016). "The Hunting Pembrokes". Red Stars Over Germany. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
- ^ March 1988, p. 74.
- ^ March 1998, p. 86.
- ^ "Juno and Jupiter helicopters arrive at RAF Shawbury". Flight Global. 5 April 2017. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
- Bibliography
- Bowman, Martin W. (2017). Bombers Fly East: WWII RAF Operations in the Middle and Far East. Pen & Sword. ISBN 978-1473863149.
- Conboy, Ken (2003). 'Kompassus' – Inside Indonesia's Special Forces. Jakarta: Equinox Publishing. ISBN 979-95898-8-6.
- March, Peter R. (1988). Royal Air Force Yearbook 1988. Fairford, UK: Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund.
- March, Peter R. (1998). Royal Air Force Yearbook 1998. Fairford, UK: Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund.
- Shores, Christopher F.; ISBN 978-0-948817-19-9.
Further reading
- Scott, Alan John Lance (1920). Sixty Squadron RAF: A history of the squadron from its formation. London: W. Heinemann.
- Young, A. J.; Warne, D. W. (1967). Sixty Squadron: 1916 Royal Flying Corps, Royal Air Force 1966 – A History of Fifty Years Service. Singapore: Eurasia Press.