No. 117 Squadron RAF

No. 117 Squadron RAF was a Royal Air Force Squadron formed to be a bomber unit in World War I and reformed as a transport and communications unit in World War II.

No. 117 Squadron RAF
Active1 Jan 1918 – 6 Oct 1919
30 Apr 1941 – 17 Dec 1945
Country United Kingdom
Branch Royal Air Force
Motto(s)"It shall be done"[1]
Insignia
Squadron HeraldryA terrestrial globe
Squadron CodesEX (Apr 1937 - Sep 1939)
LD (Jul 1943 - Sep 1943)

History

Formation and World War I

No. 117 Squadron Royal Flying Corps was formed as a bomber squadron on 31 January 1918 and was based at RAF Wyton where it was equipped with the DH9. The squadron became part of the Royal Air Force and was stationed in Ireland for a time before it was merged with No. 141 squadron on 6 October 1919.

Reformation in World War II

No. 117 reformed on 30 April 1941 at Khartoum, Sudan and incorporated the Khartoum Communications Flight which already had a captured Italian Caproni Ca.148 aircraft that had been impressed into service in 1940.[2] Needing a long range aircraft, four Bristol Bombays were borrowed from 216 Squadron and in May a flight of ex-Yugoslav Savoia-Marchetti S.79Ks were taken on charge.[2] When the squadron moved to Egypt in November 1941 to provide transport services, the communications aircraft were left in Khartoum and the Bombays were returned. From November 1941 the whole squadron was equipped with the Lockheed Hudson. In 1943 it was involved in Operation Husky as part of No. 216 Group RAF and switched to Dakotas based at RAF Castel Benito, Libya. In October 1943 the squadron moved to India and in 1944 it transported supplies for the Chindits who operated behind the Japanese lines.

Post War

The squadron was disbanded on 17 December 1945 shortly after the war with Japan ended.

Aircraft operated

Data from[3] unless otherwise specified

Aircraft operated by no. 117 Squadron RAF
FromToAircraftVariant
Oct 1918Oct 1919Airco DH.9[4]
Apr 1941Nov 1941Caproni Ca.148
Apr 1941Nov 1941Percival ProctorI
Apr 1941Nov 1941Vickers WellesleyI
Apr 1941Nov 1941Gloster GladiatorI
Apr 1941Nov 1941Bristol BombayI
May 1941Nov 1941Savoia-Marchetti S.79K
Nov 1941May 1943Lockheed Hudson[4]
Oct 1941Apr 1942Douglas DC-2K
Mar 1942May 1942D.H. 86B
May 1942Sep 1942Douglas DC-3
May 1942Sep 1942Lockheed Model 18 LodestarII
Jul 1942Sep 1943Lockheed HudsonVI
Jun 1943Dec 1945Douglas DakotaIII
Jan 1945Dec 1945Douglas DakotaIV
Jan 1945Dec 1945Stinson L-5 SentinelI

References
  1. Pine, L.G. (1983). A dictionary of mottoes (1 ed.). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. p. 116. ISBN 0-7100-9339-X.
  2. "RAF - Foreign Military Aircraft in WWII Service". www.raf.mod.uk. Archived from the original on 6 April 2015. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  3. "No. 117 Squadron (RAF) during the Second World War". www.historyofwar.org.
  4. "RAF - 117 Squadron". www.raf.mod.uk.
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