| No. 52 Squadron RAF | |
|---|---|
| Active | 15 May 1916 (RFC), 1 April 1918 (RAF) – 23 Oct 1919 18 January 1937 – 8 April 1940 1 July 1941 – 31 March 1944 1 July 1944 –25 April 1966 1 Dec 1966 – 31 December 1969 |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Branch | Royal Air Force |
| Motto(s) | Latin:Sudore quam sanguine ("By sweat and blood")[1] |
| Battle honours | World War I •Western Front 1916–1918 •Ypres, 1917 •Messines, 1917 World War II • Mediterranean, 1943 • Sicily, 1943 • Pacific 1944–45 • Burma, 1945[2] |
| Insignia | |
| Squadron badge heraldry | A lion rampant guardant holding in the forepaws a flash of lightning. The personnel of this squadron were originally recruited from the district of Hounslow, Heston and Isleworth, so the lion has been introduced which appears in the arms of Heston and Isleworth and in those which were used by Hounslow Abbey. The flash of lightning refers to the marking used by this squadron during the First World War. |
| Squadron codes | MB Apr 1939 – Sep 1939 ZE Sep 1939 – Apr 1940 |
No. 52 Squadron was aRoyal Air Forcesquadron that saw service in bothWorld War I andWorld War II.
No. 52 Squadron of theRoyal Flying Corps was formed as a Corps Reconnaissance squadron atHounslow Heath Aerodrome on 15 May 1916. It moved to France in November that year, being the first squadron equipped with theRoyal Aircraft Factory R.E.8.[3] At first the squadron had little success with its R.E.8s, suffering many spinning accidents, and these losses affected morale so much that in January 1917 the squadron swapped its R.E.8s for theRoyal Aircraft Factory B.E.2s of34 Squadron.[4] It re-equipped again with R.E.8s in May, flying in support of theallied offensives at Ypres that summer. In March 1918 it suffered heavy losses flying ground attack sorties against theGerman Spring Offensive. The squadron became part of theRoyal Air Force when the Royal Flying Corps merged with theRoyal Naval Air Service on 1 April 1918, continuing in the Corps Reconnaissance role, for the rest of the war. It returned to the United Kingdom in February 1919, disbanding at Lopcombe Corner on 23 October 1919.[3][5]
No 52 Squadron reformed atRAF Abingdon on 18 January 1937 from a nucleus provided by15 Squadron. It was initially equipped withHawker Hind biplane light bombers, these being replaced byFairey Battlemonoplanes from November 1937.[5] In February 1939, the squadron was assigned the task of training crews for the other squadrons in its group, with its Battles being supplemented byAvro Anson to aid the training task. Following the outbreak of theSecond World War it continued in the training role, supporting the Battle equippedAdvanced Air Striking Force before being absorbed into No 12 Operational Training Unit on 8 April 1940.[6]
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The squadron reformed on 1 July 1941 atRAF Habbaniya in Iraq as a maintenance unit. Although it had no aircrew, it did have 21Hawker Audaxes on charge, which were occasionally flown by members of other units based at Habbaniya on reconnaissance missions.[3][5] In December that year the Audaxes were disposed of, while the Squadron moved toMosul in August 1942.[5]
No. 52 became a flying squadron again in October 1942, when it receivedBristol Blenheims, which were used for survey work over Iraq. Its Blenheims were supplemented withMartin Baltimores in January 1943. It moved to Egypt in February 1943, when it discarded its Blenheims to become a solely Baltimore equipped squadron. 24 Squadron moved to Tunisia in June 1943, where it became operational, flying maritime reconnaissance and Air-Sea-Rescue searches. The squadron moved to Italy in November that year, with detachments at Malta, and then moved again toGibraltar in February 1944, disbanding on 31 March 1944,[7] having operated withinRAF Coastal Command from 20 February 1944.[8]
On 1 July 1944,353 Squadron, a transport squadron equipped with a mix ofLockheed Hudsons andDouglas Dakotas based atDum Dum nearCalcutta, India, was split into two, with the Dakota equipped 'C' and 'D' Flights becoming 52 Squadron.[7] A major role of the new squadron was flyingair mail over theHimalaya Mountains to China, the so-called "Hump route". It was also used to operate a mail and general transport service throughout India andCeylon.[5][7]
The Squadron received a number ofLiberators in December 1944 for Hump operations, with a fewBeechcraft Expeditor light transports andde Havilland Tiger Moths modified asair ambulances in 1945. It continued its transport routes to China and throughout India following the end of the War, extending them to Malaya.[5][9] By the time flights over the Hump route to China finished in December 1945, the Squadron had flown 830 crossings of the Himalayas, carrying 3,277 passengers, 1,916,443 lb (871,100 kg) of cargo and 454,834 lb (20,380 kg) of mail for the loss of one aircraft.[10]
The squadron moved to Mingladon in Burma in October 1946, but transferred to Singapore in July 1947 following a coup.[2][9] From here it was soon involved in 'Operation Firedog'. Dakotas were replaced by Valettas in 1951 and based at RAAF Butterworth these continued to be used on a regular passenger run between Singapore and Butterworth until unreliability forced cessation of passenger carrying. The squadron continued to operate, notably from Kuching dropping supplies to the jungle troops, mainlyGurkhas, fighting the Indonesian troops in the confrontation war until disbanded on 25 April 1966. The squadron reformed, for the final time so far, on 1 December 1966 at Seletar. It was still employed on general transport duties but was now equipped with Andover aircraft, which it used until disbanding on 31 December 1969.
Tasks were found for the squadron with regular flights toRAAF Butterworth, a twice weekly flight toRAF Kuching,Seria (Anduki) andRAF Labuan, with the aircraft returning after a night stop. The latter flight was also utilised to ferry Gurkha troops to Singapore for onward flights toNepal. Training and liaison flight were undertaken around the region including Hong Kong, Saigon and Bangkok.
In 1968, the squadron was relocated toRAF Changi and was disbanded in January 1970.
