No. 117 Squadron RAF

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

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.

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.^[1] 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
From	To	Aircraft	Variant
Oct 1918	Oct 1919	Airco DH.9	^[4]
Apr 1941	Nov 1941	Caproni Ca.148
Apr 1941	Nov 1941	Percival Proctor	I
Apr 1941	Nov 1941	Vickers Wellesley	I
Apr 1941	Nov 1941	Gloster Gladiator	I
Apr 1941	Nov 1941	Bristol Bombay	I
May 1941	Nov 1941	Savoia-Marchetti S.79	K
Nov 1941	May 1943	Lockheed Hudson	^[5]
Oct 1941	Apr 1942	Douglas DC-2	K
Mar 1942	May 1942	D.H. 86	B
May 1942	Sep 1942	Douglas DC-3
May 1942	Sep 1942	Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar	II
Jul 1942	Sep 1943	Lockheed Hudson	VI
Jun 1943	Dec 1945	Douglas Dakota	III
Jan 1945	Dec 1945	Douglas Dakota	IV
Jan 1945	Dec 1945	Stinson L-5 Sentinel	I

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to No. 117 Squadron RAF.

Royal Air Force flying squadrons

Currently active

Inactive

Australian Flying Corps (AFC) units attached
to the RAF during the First World War

67 (1 Sqn AFC)
68 (2 Sqn AFC)
69 (3 Sqn AFC)
71 (4 Sqn AFC)

Commonwealth air force units attached to
the RAF during the Second World War

Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF)	400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443

Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF)	450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 466 467

Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF)	485 486 487 488 489 490

Squadrons formed from non-Commonwealth
personnel during the Second World War

Argentine	164

Belgian	349 350

Czechoslovak	310 311 312 313

Dutch	320 321 322

French	326 327 328 329 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347

Greek	13 335 336

Norwegian	330 331 332 333 334

Polish	300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 315 316 317 318 663

United States	71 121 133

Yugoslav	351 352

Royal Auxiliary Air Force

Special Reserve	500 501 502 503 504

Auxiliary Air Force	600 601 602 603 604 605 606 607 608 609 610 611 612 613 614 615 616

Fleet Air Arm of the RAF (1924–1939)

Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force portal

Formations and units	Commands Groups Stations Wings Squadrons Flights Conversion units Operational Training units Schools / Training units Ferry units Glider units Misc units Regiment squadrons

Branches and components	RAF Regiment RAF Chaplains Branch RAF Intelligence RAF Legal Branch RAF Medical Services Princess Mary's RAF Nursing Service RAF Police Search and Rescue Force Mountain Rescue Service RAF Marine Branch

Reserve forces	Royal Auxiliary Air Force RAF Volunteer Reserve

Associated civil organizations	Air Training Corps RAF Association RAF Centre of Aviation Medicine RAF Football Association

Equipment	List of RAF aircraft List of RAF missiles

Personnel	Officer ranks Other ranks List of personnel

Appointments	Chief of Air Staff Assistant Chief of the Air Staff Air Member for Personnel Air Secretary Air Member for Materiel Commandant-General of the RAF Regiment Chief of the Air Staff's Warrant Officer

Symbols and uniform	Ensign Badge Roundels Uniform

History Timeline Future

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 1/31/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.