No. 263 (Fellowship of the Bellows) Squadron RAF
Official Squadronbadge of No. 263 Squadron RAF
Active	27 September 1918 – 16 May 1919 20 October 1939 – 28 August 1945 29 August 1945 – 1 July 1958 1 June 1959 – 30 June 1963
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	Royal Air Force
Part of	RAF Fighter Command
Nickname	"Fellowship of the Bellows"
Mottos	Latin:Ex ungue leonem ("One knows the lion by his claws")
Engagements	Italy (1918–19) Norway (1940)
Insignia
Squadron Badge heraldry	A lion rampant, holding in its forepaws a cross The lion represents the squadron's association with Scotland, the cross comes from the flag of Norway[1]
Squadron Codes	HE (Oct 1939 – May 1950)
Post-1950 squadron roundel

No 263 Squadron was aRoyal Air Forcefightersquadron formed inItaly towards the end of theFirst World War. After being disbanded in 1919 it was reformed in 1939 flying mainlystrike andheavyfighter aircraft until becomingNo 1 Squadron in 1958.

The squadron was formed inItaly on 27 September 1918 from flights of theRoyal Naval Air Service after that service's amalgamation with theRoyal Flying Corps to form the RAF. It flewSopwith Babies andFelixstowe F3s fromOtranto reconnoitring for submarines escaping from theAdriatic Sea into theMediterranean Sea. The squadron was disbanded on 16 May 1919.^[1][2]

The squadron reformed as a fighter squadron atRAF Filton nearBristol on 2 October 1939, taking over some ofNo. 605 Squadron'sbiplaneGloster Gladiator Mk.Is. It became operational towards the end of the year andscrambled for the first time on 12 January 1940. Around this time the squadron received 22 Gloster Gladiator Mk.IIs to replace the Mk.Is^[1][3] The Gladiator was obsolete by the time of the Second World War, being only slightly faster than theHeinkel He 111medium bomber used by the Luftwaffe.

Germanyinvaded Norway on 9 April 1940 and No. 263 Squadron was soon instructed to prepare for a move. On 20 April, the aircraft were flown, viaRAF Sealand, toScapa Flow,Scotland whereFleet Air Arm pilots landed them on the aircraft carrierHMS Glorious^[4] and 18 Gladiators sailed for Norway. On 24 April, after two days sailing, the squadron flew its aircraft off the carrier to a landing strip on the frozen lakeLesjaskogsvatnet inOppland in central southern Norway.

Unfortunately for the enterprise, the squadron was extremely short of ground staff and equipment and few of its Gladiators had been prepared for combat before theLuftwaffe struck with Heinkel He 111s shortly after daybreak on 25 April. By the end of 26 April, although No. 263 Squadron had managed to destroy two Heinkels, all of its aircraft had been destroyed or rendered unserviceable and by the end of the month the squadron was ordered home.

The re-equipped squadron returned to the far north of Norway on 21 May, flying fromBardufoss airfield, nearNarvik, reinforced byNo. 46 Squadron whose Hurricanes arrived a few days later, using an airstrip inSkånland Municipality. Due to unsuitable ground at Skånland, 46 Squadron moved so that both were operating from Bardufoss by 27 May.

The squadrons had been ordered to defend the fleet anchorage at Skånland and the military base atHarstad on the island ofHinnøya. Action was short but intense before the squadrons were instructed on 2 June to prepare for evacuation; 263 Squadron had flown 249 sorties and claimed 26 enemy aircraft destroyed. 263's ten surviving Gladiators were landed on HMSGlorious on 7 June.Glorious sailed but was intercepted by the GermanbattleshipsGneisenau andScharnhorst. The aircraft carrier was sunk and with it the aircraft from four squadrons. 263 Squadron lost its CO, S/Ldr John W Donaldson, F/Lt Alvin T Williams and P.O. Sidney Robert McNamara along with seven other pilots.^{[1][2][3][5][6]} Among the pilots who fought with the squadron in Norway and died onGlorious, was F.O. Grant Ede, DFC, one of manyBermudians to serve in the RAF during the war and the first Bermudian to die in the war.^[7][8][9]

TheWestland Whirlwind was the first cannon-armed fighter for the RAF, first flown in October 1938 and at the production stage by 1940. It was atwin enginedheavy fighter (also able to function as afighter bomber with 500-pound (230 kg) bombload). With four20mm Hispano cannon in the nose, it was more powerful than an eight-gunned fighter like the Spitfire or Hurricane. It was fast, matching the current Spitfire's maximum speed, but performed best at low altitude and was used for convoy escort and against small targets in theEnglish Channel and northernFrance. Only 114 were produced (compared with over 20,000 Spitfires).

No. 263 Squadron spent the next six months with13 Group nearEdinburgh. It assembled on 10 June 1940 atRAF Drem and after two weeks moved toRAF Grangemouth, where it spent three months before returning to Drem until November and then moving again south to be nearer its intended targets in northern France and the English Channel.

During its time inScotland, it had to sort out the final problems with theRolls-Royce Peregrine engines and Hispano cannon. To fill the gap the squadron was provided withHawker Hurricanes which were flown in action a few times. Production of the Peregrine by Rolls-Royce was slow and it was November before the squadron was fully equipped. The squadron transferred toRAF Exeter, commencingChameleon patrols against enemyE-boats stationed in the English Channel andWestern Approaches. The E-boats would rescue German bomber crews who had "ditched" in the sea. Here, on 12 January 1941, a section patrolling near theIsles of Scilly located aJunkers Ju 88 andPilot Officer (PO) Stein was credited with a probable kill.

As well as its fighter capability, the Whirlwind could operate as afighter-bomber. In September 1941 S/Ldr Thomas Pugh, the squadron's 21-year-old commander, suggested that the bombing capability should be investigated, however the idea was initially rejected.^[10] Finally, in August 1942 the squadron moved toRAF Colerne inWiltshire and bomb-racks were fitted to eight aircraft; initially two 250-pound (110 kg) bombs could be carried, and later this was increased to two 500-pound (230 kg) bombs.^[10]

No. 263 Squadron flew Whirlwinds until the end of 1943, with the three years operating the type being spent in the west of the country: two years in airfields aroundWiltshire,Dorset andGloucestershire, six months in southWales, and six months inDevon andCornwall. Apart from periods of training and "rest and recuperation," the squadron's operations involved: air-ground attacks on airfields, railways and roads in northern France; air-sea attacks on enemy shipping (E-boats andarmed trawlers); sea convoy escort; and bomber escort.^[1][2]

Like the Whirlwind, theHawker Typhoon 1B was a fighter bomber orstrike fighter. Although only powered by a single engine, theNapier Sabre, it was more powerful (2,260hp) than the twoPeregrine (885 hp each) Whirlwind engines. As well as four cannon it could be armed with two (later four) 500 lb (227 kg) bombs or eight"60lb" rockets. Like the Whirlwind it performed at its best at lower altitudes.

In December 1943, 263 Squadron became non-operational while aircrew and ground staff became familiar with the new plane. By the end of the month flying on the Whirlwind had shrunk to 22 hours and over 309 hours had been flown on the Typhoon. After two weeks Armament Practice Camp atRAF Fairwood Common, the squadron became operational again on 1 February 1944 and attacked for the first time on 3 February when three divebombing operations took place.

On 27 August 1944 the squadron andNo. 266 Squadron RAF Typhoons with Spitfire escort was mistakenly ordered to attack theRoyal Navy 1st Minesweeping Flotilla offCap d'Antifer,Le Havre, with the result thatHMS Britomart andHussar were sunk andSalamander was irreparably damaged, killing 117 sailors and wounding 153 more.^[11]

On 3 May 1945, three ships, theCap Arcona, theThielbek and theDeutschland, were sunk as a result of four attacks byHawker Typhoons ofNo. 83 Group RAF. AfterNo. 184 Squadron RAF andNo. 198 Squadron RAF it was 263 Squadron's, by then based inRAF Ahlhorn (Großenkneten) who were led bySquadron LeaderMarten T. S. Rumbold.

After disbandment on 28 August 1945,No. 616 Squadron RAF with theGloster Meteor jet fighters was renumbered as 263 squadron atRAF Acklington. After Meteors, 263 Squadron moved ontoHawker Hunters in 1955. The unit arrived atWattisham in October 1950, and transferred toRAF Stradishall in August 1957. It was disbanded there on 1 July 1958 and renumbered to becomeNo. 1 Squadron RAF. It was reformed for the last time on 1 June 1959 to operate theBristol Bloodhound surface-to-air missile atRAF Watton until disbanding on 30 June 1963.^[12]

• List of Royal Air Force aircraft squadrons

Wikimedia Commons has media related toNo. 263 Squadron RAF.

• History of 263 Squadron at raf.mod.uk
• History of No.'s 261–265 Squadrons at RAF Web
• No. 263 Squadron in art – painting of a No. 263 Squadron Westland Whirlwind
• No. 263 Squadron Video - Video of No. 263 Squadron Operating the Westland Whirlwind in 1943.

• Military units and formations established in 1918
• Royal Air Force aircraft squadrons
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• 1918 establishments in the United Kingdom

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