No. 206 Squadron is a Test and Evaluation Squadron of the Royal Air Force. Until 2005 it was employed in the maritime patrol role with the Nimrod MR.2 at RAF Kinloss,

Moray Moray () gd, Moireibh or ') is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with a coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland. Between 1975 ...

. It was announced in December 2004 that 206 Squadron would disband on 1 April 2005, with half of its crews being redistributed to Nos. 120 and

201 Year 201 ( CCI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Fabianus and Arrius (or, less frequently, year 954 '' Ab urbe condi ...

Squadrons, also stationed at Kinloss. This was a part of the UK Defence Review called '' Delivering Security in a Changing World''; the Nimrod MR.2 fleet was reduced in number from 21 to 16 as a consequence.

History

Formation and early years

No. 206 Squadron was formed on 31 December 1916 as No. 6 Squadron,

Royal Naval Air Service The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps t ...

, a fighter unit operating

Nieuport 17 The Nieuport 17 C.1 (or Nieuport XVII C.1 in contemporary sources) was a French sesquiplane fighter designed and manufactured by the Nieuport company during World War I. An improvement over the Nieuport 11, it was a little larger than earlier N ...

s and later Sopwith Camels over the Western Front before disbanding on 27 August 1917.Lewis 1959, p. 71. The squadron was reformed on 1 January 1918 as a bomber and reconnaissance unit, operating

Airco DH9 The Airco DH.9 (from de Havilland 9) – also known after 1920 as the de Havilland DH.9 – was a British single-engined biplane bomber developed and deployed during the First World War. The DH.9 was a development of Airco's earlier successful ...

s. With the establishment of the RAF in 1918 the squadron was renumbered No. 206 Squadron, RAF, being used for photo-reconnaissance in support of the British Second Army and for bombing support during the Allies final offensive. Following the Armistice it was used to operate an air mail service for the British occupying army in Germany, before being deployed to

Helwan Helwan ( ar, حلوان ', , cop, ϩⲁⲗⲟⲩⲁⲛ, Halouan) is a city in Egypt and part of Greater Cairo, on the bank of the Nile, opposite the ruins of Memphis. Originally a southern suburb of Cairo, it served as the capital of the now de ...

, Egypt in June 1919. It was renumbered as 47 Squadron on 1 February 1920.Ashworth 1989, p. 192. Flying ace Major (later Group Captain) Ernest Norton served in the squadron during World War I.

Interbellum and World War II

The squadron was reformed at RAF Manston from a flight of No. 48 Squadron on 15 June 1936, with Avro Ansons as part of the new RAF Coastal Command.Halley 1973, p. 71. It moved to RAF Bircham Newton on 30 July that year.Halley 1973, p. 84. It initially operated as a training squadron, but later assigned to maritime patrols.Halley 1973, p. 72. On the outbreak of the Second World War, the Squadron entered into a routine of patrols with its Ansons from Bircham Newton with detachments at other bases around the United Kingdom, including RAF Carew Cheriton in South Wales and RAF Hooton Park on the Mersey. The squadron attacked German submarines on two occasions in September, with no effect (the anti-submarine bombs used by the RAF at the time were ineffective weapons - one friendly-fire incident in December 1939 resulted in a direct hit on the conning tower of the British submarine HMS ''Snapper'' with the sole damage being four broken light bulbs).Halley 1973, pp. 73–74. The squadron's Ansons also occasionally encountered German maritime reconnaissance aircraft. On 8 November, one shot down a Heinkel He 115

floatplane A floatplane is a type of seaplane with one or more slender floats mounted under the fuselage to provide buoyancy. By contrast, a flying boat uses its fuselage for buoyancy. Either type of seaplane may also have landing gear suitable for land, ...

. On the same day, a different Anson engaged and hit two Dornier Do 18, probably shooting one down.Halley 1973, p. 73. In March 1940, the squadron began to re-equip with the Lockheed Hudson, flying the first patrols using the new aircraft on 12 April.Halley 1973, p. 74. It converted to the Boeing Fortress Mk.II in July 1942, allowing long range patrols over the Atlantic, moving to the Azores during October 1943, before returning to the United Kingdom for re-equipping with the Consolidated Liberator Mk.VI, later augmented by the Liberators Mk.VIII.Ashworth 1989, pp. 192–193. The Squadron's Liberators were based at RAF St Eval until after D-Day, when the unit moved North to

RAF Leuchars Royal Air Force Leuchars or RAF Leuchars was a Royal Air Force (RAF) station located in Leuchars, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. Throughout the Cold War and beyond, the station was home to fighter aircraft which policed northern UK airspac ...

. A section was detached to West Africa for

anti-submarine An anti-submarine weapon (ASW) is any one of a number of devices that are intended to act against a submarine and its crew, to destroy (sink) the vessel or reduce its capability as a weapon of war. In its simplest sense, an anti-submarine weapo ...

and convoy patrols as

No. 200 Squadron RAF No. 200 Squadron of the Royal Air Force operated during the First and Second World War. The squadron was first formed in mid-1917 and during the First World War, it undertook a training role, before being disbanded in mid-1919. It was re-formed in ...

. Detachments also operated from bases such as RAF St Eval in Cornwall and RAF Aldergrove in County Antrim. The squadron was disbanded on 25 April 1946. 206 Squadron was a successful

unit, accounting for nine U-boats destroyed during the Second World War.

Post-war

The squadron was reformed on 17 November 1947, flying Avro York C.1 transport aircraft, but again disbanded on 31 August 1949. It was soon reformed on 1 December 1949, flying Douglas Dakotas, the military transport version of the well-known

Douglas DC-3 The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II. It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper version ...

airliner. This lasted only till 20 February 1950 however. Reformed yet again on 27 September 1952 as a maritime reconnaissance squadron, it was equipped with Avro Shackletons and based at RAF St Eval in Cornwall. The squadron moved to RAF Kinloss in Scotland in July 1965 and was re-equipped with the jet-powered Hawker-Siddeley Nimrod in November 1970. It continued to operate the Nimrod until disbanding on 1 April 2005.

Present

On 1 April 2009, the Heavy Aircraft Test & Evaluation Squadron at Boscombe Down ( Air Space Warfare Centre) gained the 206 Squadron numberplate, as 206 (Reserve) Squadron. Currently split between RAF Boscombe Down and RAF Brize Norton with 'B Flt' C130 specialists moved from RAF Lyneham in June 2011 to their new home at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire to continue the Hercules Test and Evaluation process.

Aircraft operated

References

Bibliography

* Ashworth, Chris. ''Encyclopedia of Modern Royal Air Force Squadrons''. Wellingborough, UK: Patrick Stevens Limited, 1989. . * Bowyer, Michael J.F and John D.R. Rawlings. ''Squadron Codes, 1937–56''. Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, UK: Patrick Stephens Ltd., 1979. . * Flintham, Vic and Andrew Thomas. ''Combat Codes: A Full Explanation and Listing of British, Commonwealth and Allied Air Force Unit Codes Since 1938''. Shrewsbury, Shropshire, UK: Airlife Publishing Ltd., 2003. . * Franks, Norman. ''Nieuport Aces of World War I''. Osprey Publishing, 2000. , . * Halley, James J. ''Famous Maritime Squadrons of the RAF, Volume 1''. Windsor, Berkshire, UK: Hylton Lacy Publishers Ltd., 1973. . * Halley, James J. ''The Squadrons of the Royal Air Force & Commonwealth, 1918–1988''. Tonbridge, Kent, UK: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd., 1988. . * Jefford, C.G. ''RAF Squadrons, a Comprehensive Record of the Movement and Equipment of all RAF Squadrons and their Antecedents since 1912''. Shrewsbury, Shropshire, UK: Airlife Publishing Ltd., 2001. . * Lewis, Peter. ''Squadron Histories: R.F.C, R.N.A.S and R.A.F., 1912–59''. London: Putnam, 1959. * Moyes, Philip J.R. ''Bomber Squadrons of the RAF and their Aircraft''. London: Macdonald and Jane's (Publishers) Ltd., 1964 (new edition 1976). . * Neistle, Axel. ''German U-Boat Losses during World War II'' (1998) Greenhill Books. * Rawlings, John D.R. ''Coastal, Support and Special Squadrons of the RAF and their Aircraft''. London: Jane's Publishing Company Ltd., 1982. . * Rawlings, John D.R. ''Fighter Squadrons of the RAF and their Aircraft''. London: Macdonald and Jane's (Publishers) Ltd., 1969 (new edition 1976, reprinted 1978). . * Westrop, Mike. ''History of no. 6 Squadron Royal Naval Air Service in World War I''. Atglen, Pennsylvania; Schiffer Publishing, 2006. .

External links

No. 206 Squadron

RAF Davidstow Moor
{{DEFAULTSORT:No. 206 Squadron Raf Military units and formations established in 1916 206 Squadron 06 Squadron Military units and formations of the United Kingdom in the Falklands War 1916 establishments in the United Kingdom