| No. 115 Squadron RCAF | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Active | 1941-1944 |
| Disbanded | 23 August 1944 |
| Country |  Canada |
| Branch | .svg) Royal Canadian Air Force |
| Role | Bomber Reconnaissance |
| Nickname | Lynx |
| Motto | BEWARE |
| Battle honours | Pacific Coast 1942-44 |
No. 115 Squadron was aRoyal Canadian Air Force Canadian Home War Establishment (HWE) Squadron that operated duringWorld War II.
No. 115 Squadron flewanti-submarine patrols along the coasts ofBritish Columbia andSoutheast Alaska as part ofWestern Air Command.
On 7 July 1942,Flight Sergeant PMG W. E. Thomas and the crew ofBristol Bolingbrokemaritime patrol aircraft No. 9118 sighted a target breaking the surface and emitting white "smoke" in thePacific Ocean 130 kilometres (70 nmi; 81 mi) northwest of theQueen Charlotte Islands.[1] At first thinking it was awhale, they quickly concluded that they could see the underwater silhouette ofsubmarine at least 100 feet (30 m) in length and attacked, dropping a single 250-pound (113 kg)[2] or 500-pound (227 kg)[1] (sources disagree) bomb from an altitude of 500 feet (152 m) which landed just forward of the submarine'sconning tower.[1] They claimed to have damaged the submarine.[1] Based on the Bolingbroke's report, theUnited States Coast GuardcutterUSCGC McLane (WSC-146), the U.S. Coast Guard-crewedUnited States Navypatrol vesselUSS YP-251, and theRoyal Canadian NavyminesweeperHMCS Quatsino proceeded to the area on 9 July 1942 and began a search for the submarine, whichMcLane andYP-251 claimed to sink later that day.[1][3] The Bolingbroke crew shared credit withMcLane andYP-251 for the sinking, and in 1947 theJoint Army-Navy Assessment Committee identified their victim as theImperial Japanese Navy submarineRo-32.[4] In 1967, however, the U.S. Navy retracted this assessment becauseRo-32 had been inactive in Japan at the time of the sinking and was found afloat in Japan at the end of the war.[4] The submarine reportedly sunk on 9 July 1942 remains unidentified.[4][note 1]
No. 115 Squadron disbanded atTolfino, British Columbia, in August 1944.[5]
The squadron's two-letter squadron code wasBK from August 1939 to May 1942, thenUV until the RCAF HWE discontinued the use of squadron codes on 16 October 1942 "for security reasons".[6]
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1Aircraft administered and serviced by the RCAF but crewed by theRoyal Canadian Artillery. 2 Non-standard code as unit using OW added L. Letters normally denoted parent Command, aircraft type (LLiberator transport, DDakota etc), unit, and individual aircraft. 3 VC .svg) XXA where VC was the civil code used by the RCAF replacing CF-, XX was the unit code and A was the aircraft ID letter4 XX nnn where XX was the unit code and nnn was the last 3 digits of the serial number. Unit code was replaced with "RCAF" in 1958 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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