No 36 Squadron of the

Royal Flying Corps "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...

(later the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

) was formed at

Cramlington Cramlington is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, 6 miles (9 kilometres) north of Newcastle upon Tyne, and 10 miles (16 kilometres) north of its city centre. The name suggests a probable founding by the Danes or Anglo-Saxons. T ...

in 1916 and was disbanded for the last time in 1975.

History

First World War

No 36 Squadron

Royal Flying Corps "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...

was first formed on 18 March 1916 at Cramlington,

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

as a Home Defence squadron, defending the coastline between

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

and

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a maritime, mineral and tourist heritage. Its East Clif ...

against German

Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp ...

attacks.Halley 1980, p. 68. On 27 November 1916,

Second Lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

Ian Vernon Pyott, flying a

Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 The Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 was a British single-engine tractor two-seat biplane designed and developed at the Royal Aircraft Factory. Most of the roughly 3,500 built were constructed under contract by private companies, including establish ...

c destroyed Zeppelin L.34 over Hartlepool,Lewis 1959, p. 28.Bruce 1982, p. 359. for which he was awarded the

Distinguished Service Order The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typ ...

. Once Zeppelin attacks on the North of England stopped, the Squadron switched to training duties, becoming part of the

on 1 April 1918, disbanding on 13 June 1919."Royal Air Force Historic Squadrons: 36 Squadron"
. ''Royal Air Force''. Retrieved 30 October 2011.

Torpedo bombers

On 1 October 1928, No 36 Squadron was reformed by redesignating the Coast Defence Torpedo Flight, based at

Donibristle Donibristle ( sco, also Dunibirsle) was a house and estate in Fife, Scotland, on the coast of the Firth of Forth. Only the wings of the house remain, within the modern settlement of Dalgety Bay. They are now protected as a category A listed buil ...

in Scotland and flying

Hawker Horsley The Hawker Horsley was a British single-engined biplane bomber of the 1920s. It was the last all-wooden aircraft built by Hawker Aircraft, and served as a medium day bomber and torpedo bomber with Britain's Royal Air Force between 1926 and 1935 ...

s. It was sent to

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

to strengthen its defences against naval attack, with its aircraft reaching its destination on 17 December 1930.Thetford ''Aeroplane Monthly'' November 1993, p. 35. As well as practicing torpedo attacks and working with the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

, 36 Squadron was deployed to

Rangoon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

in response to a rebellion in

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

, carrying out bombing raids against the insurgents.Thetford ''Aeroplane Monthly'' November 1993, p. 36. The squadron was re-equipped with

Vickers Vildebeest The Vickers Vildebeest and the similar Vickers Vincent were two very large two- to three-seat single-engined British biplanes designed and built by Vickers and used as light bombers, torpedo bombers and in army cooperation roles. First flown i ...

s in July 1935, continuing as a torpedo bomber squadron operating from Singapore. The squadron's badge, awarded in February 1938, reflected its role on torpedoes, showing an "eagle wings elevated perched on a torpedo". Vildebeest Mk III

Second World War

36 Squadron, along with

No. 100 Squadron RAF Number 100 Squadron is a former Royal Air Force squadron. It last operated the British Aerospace Hawk T1, providing 'aggressor' aircraft for air combat training from RAF Leeming in North Yorkshire, UK. History First World War No. 100 was est ...

retained the obsolete

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

s when Japan invaded Malaya, and flew an unsuccessful attack against the Japanese cruiser ''Sendai'' during the

Battle of Kota Bharu The Battle of Kota Bharu began just after midnight on 8 December 1941 (local time) before the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was the first major battle of the Pacific War, and was fought between ground forces of the British Indian Army and the Emp ...

on 8 December 1941.Shores, Cull and Izawa 1992, pp. 80–84. It continued operating against the Japanese, its Vildebeests being supplemented by five ex-

Fleet Air Arm The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy and is responsible for the delivery of naval air power both from land and at sea. The Fleet Air Arm operates the F-35 Lightning II for maritime strike, the AW159 Wil ...

Fairey Albacore The Fairey Albacore is a single-engine biplane torpedo bomber designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Fairey Aviation. It was primarily operated by the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm (FAA) and was heavily used during the Second ...

s.Shores, Cull and Izawa 1992, p. 146. Where possible it operated by night, bombing Japanese-held airfields and troops. On 26 January 1942, Japanese forces landed at

Endau Endau is a small town in Mersing District, Johor, Malaysia. It lies on the northern tip of east Johor, on the border with Pahang. Name The town was named ''Endau'' after a peranakan Indian who resided in the area. In the 19th century it was known ...

, on the east coast of Malaya, 150 miles from Singapore. To oppose this landing, nine Vildebeests of No 100 Squadron and three of 36 Squadron, together with nine Australian

Lockheed Hudson The Lockheed Hudson is a light bomber and coastal reconnaissance aircraft built by the American Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. It was initially put into service by the Royal Air Force shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War and prim ...

s, set off at 1:00 pm (having flown against land targets the night before), and despite a fighter escort five Vildebeests were shot down. No 36 and 100 Squadrons repeated the attack two hours later with nine Vildebeests (with two from 100 SquadronShores, Cull and Izawa 1993, p. 29.) and three Albacores. This time the fighter escort was late, only finding the bomber force once it had been engaged by Japanese

Nakajima Ki-27 The was the main fighter aircraft used by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service up until 1940. Its Allied nickname was "Nate", although it was called "Abdul" in the "China Burma India" (CBI) theater by many post war sources; Allied Intelligen ...

fighters, with a further five Vildebeests and two Albacores shot down, and a further two more damaged so badly that they were written off.Mason 1994, p.202.Richards and Saunders 1954, p. 37.''Flight'' 28 October 1955, p. 676.Shores, Cull and Izawa 1993, pp. 30–39. These losses—which included the commanding officers of both Squadrons—could not be sustained, and the remnants of the two squadrons were evacuated to

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

on 31 January, being merged into a single unit. On 28 February, nine Videbeests attacked a Japanese convoy off

Rembang Rembang Regency ( id, Kabupaten Rembang) is a regency ( id, kabupaten) on the extreme northeast coast of Central Java Province, on the island of Java (bordering on the Java Sea) in Indonesia. The regency covers an area of 1,035.70 km2 on Java ...

in Northern Java, claiming eight ships sunk but losing another commanding officer. It ceased to exist on 7 March 1942 after its last two Vildebeests ditched off

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

while attempting to evacuate to

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

.Richards and Saunders 1954, p. 47.Thetford ''Aeroplane Monthly'' April 1995, pp. 38–39. No 36 Squadron reformed at

Thanjavur Thanjavur (), also Tanjore, Pletcher 2010, p. 195 is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is the 11th biggest city in Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is an important center of South Indian religion, art, and architecture. Most of the Gr ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

on 22 October 1942, although it did not receive any aircraft until December that year when it was equipped with

Vickers Wellington The Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engined, long-range medium bomber. It was designed during the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey. Led by Vickers-Armstrongs' chief designer Rex Pierson; a key feature of the aircraft is its g ...

bombers for anti-submarine patrols off

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

. It flew its first convoy escort mission on 13 January 1943.Rawlings 1982, p. 60. It moved to

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

in June 1943. One tactic used against German U-boats in the Mediterranean was known as "Swamp", the area around a sighting would be saturated with aircraft, keeping the submarine submerged and stopping it from charging its batteries. On 12 December 1943, the destroyer was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine while escorting the convoy KMS 34 off Algeria. In response, the area was saturated by ships and aircraft. During the hunt, ''U-593'' sank another destroyer, , before a Wellington of 36 Squadron detected the submarine on radar on the night of 12/13 December. While its attack was unsuccessful, its sighting report directed the destroyers and to the vicinity, where they sank ''U-593'' by depth charging, the first submarine sunk by the "Swamp" tactic. On the night of 7/8 January 1943, a 36 Squadron Wellington sighted off the coast of southern Spain, but was shot down when it attempted to attack the submarine. A second 36 Squadron Wellington responded to the sighting report and attacked ''U-343'', but was damaged by return fire from the submarine although it did manage to safely return to base. On the next night a third 36 Squadron aircraft found ''U-343'' and directed two Wellingtons from 179 Squadron to attack, one of was shot down by the submarine, which after yet further attacks by a

Catalina Catalina may refer to: Arts and media * ''The Catalina'', a 2012 American reality television show * ''Catalina'' (novel), a 1948 novel by W. Somerset Maugham * Catalina (''My Name Is Earl''), character from the NBC sitcom ''My Name Is Earl'' ...

flying boat of 202 Squadron finally managed to escape and reach its base at

Toulon Toulon (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Tolon , , ) is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, and the Provence province, Toulon is th ...

.Shores et al. 2018, pp. 486, 488. Another example of the "swamp" tactic took place on 14–17 May 1944, when Leigh Light equipped Wellingtons of 36 Squadron made several attacks on ''U-616'', which culminated in it being sunk by US Navy destroyers, while on 18 May a Wellington of No 36 Squadron sighted and attacked ''U-960'' before directing the destroyers USS ''Ludlow'' and ''Niblack'', which sank the U-boat.Blair 2000, pp. 524–526. It returned to

RAF Chivenor Royal Air Force Chivenor or RAF Chivenor was a Royal Air Force station located on the northern shore of the River Taw estuary, on the north coast of Devon, England. The nearest towns are Barnstaple and Braunton. Originally a civil airfield opene ...

in September 1944, continuing in the anti-submarine role. It disbanded at

RAF Benbecula Benbecula Airport ( gd, Port-adhair Bheinn na Faoghla) is located on the island of Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides, off the West Coast of Scotland. It is a small rural airport owned and maintained by Highlands and Islands Airports Limited. H ...

on 4 June 1945.

Post-war operations

On 1 October 1946, the squadron was reformed at Thorney Island by renumbering No. 248 Squadron, flying

de Havilland Mosquito The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito is a British twin-engined, shoulder-winged, multirole combat aircraft, introduced during the Second World War. Unusual in that its frame was constructed mostly of wood, it was nicknamed the "Wooden Wonder", or ...

s, being disbanded again on 15 October 1947. The squadron was again reformed on 1 July 1953 as a maritime reconnaissance unit at

RAF Topcliffe Royal Air Force Topcliffe or RAF Topcliffe is a Royal Air Force station in North Yorkshire, England. It was established as a RAF Bomber Command station in 1940. The British Army took over a large part of the site in 1974 and the airfield beca ...

, flying

Lockheed P-2 Neptune The Lockheed P-2 Neptune (designated P2V by the United States Navy prior to September 1962) is a maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft. It was developed for the US Navy by Lockheed to replace the Lockheed PV-1 Ventura and ...

s until 28 February 1957. The following year, on 1 September, the squadron re-emerged at

RAF Colerne Royal Air Force Colerne or more simply RAF Colerne is a former Royal Air Force station which was on the outskirts of the village of Colerne in Wiltshire, England, and was in use from 1939 to 1976. The site is now known as Azimghur Barracks and ...

as a transport squadron, flying the

Handley Page Hastings The Handley Page HP.67 Hastings is a retired British troop-carrier and freight transport aircraft designed and manufactured by aviation company Handley Page for the Royal Air Force (RAF). Upon its introduction to service during September 1948, ...

previously operated by

No. 511 Squadron RAF No. 511 Squadron was a Royal Air Force transport squadron, active during World War II, the Berlin Airlift and during the sixties and early seventies. It operated, during its three periods of existence, aircraft such as the C-47 Skytrain, Douglas ...

, and concentrating on tactical transport operations.Jackson 1989, pp. 49–51. In August 1967 the squadron relocated to

RAF Lyneham Royal Air Force Lyneham otherwise known as RAF Lyneham was a Royal Air Force station located northeast of Chippenham, Wiltshire, and southwest of Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The station was the home of all the Lockheed C-130 Hercules transpor ...

and the Hastings were replaced by

Lockheed C-130 Hercules The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally design ...

. It was disbanded again on 3 November 1975.

Aircraft operated

Source – ''The Squadrons of the Royal Air Force''Halley 1980, p. 69. unless stated *

Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.12 The Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.12 was a British single-seat aeroplane of The First World War designed at the Royal Aircraft Factory. It was essentially a single-seat version of the B.E.2. Intended for use as a long-range reconnaissance and bom ...

* Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2b *

Armstrong Whitworth F.K.8 The Armstrong Whitworth F.K.8 was a British two-seat general-purpose biplane built by Armstrong Whitworth during the First World War. The type served alongside the better known R.E.8 until the end of the war, at which point 694 F.K.8s remained ...

Bristol Scout The Bristol Scout was a single-seat rotary-engined biplane originally designed as a racing aircraft. Like similar fast, light aircraft of the period it was used by the RNAS and the RFC as a "scout", or fast reconnaissance type. It was one of t ...

Avro 504 The Avro 504 was a First World War biplane aircraft made by the Avro aircraft company and under licence by others. Production during the war totalled 8,970 and continued for almost 20 years, making it the most-produced aircraft of any kind tha ...

K *

Sopwith Pup The Sopwith Pup is a British single-seater biplane fighter aircraft built by the Sopwith Aviation Company. It entered service with the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Flying Corps in the autumn of 1916. With pleasant flying characteristi ...

* Bristol Fighter * Hawker Horsley I: 1928–1930 * Hawker Horsley III: 1930–1935 * Vickers Vildebeest III: 1935–1942 *

: 1941–1942 * Vickers Wellington Ic: 1942–1943 * Vickers Wellington VIII: 1943 * Vickers Wellington X: 1943 * Vickers Wellington XI: 1943 * Vickers Wellington XII: 1943 * Vickers Wellington XIII: 1943 * Vickers Wellington XIV: 1943–1945 * de Havilland Mosquito F.B.6: 1946–1947 *

: 1953–1957 *

: 1958–1967 *

: 1967–1975

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Blair, Clay. ''Hitler's U-Boat War : The Hunted 1942–1945''. New York:Modern Library, 2000. . * Bruce, J.M. ''The Aeroplanes of the Royal Flying Corps (Military Wing)''. London:Putnam, 1982. .
"D.S.O. for Zepp. Strafer"
''

Flight Flight or flying is the process by which an object moves through a space without contacting any planetary surface, either within an atmosphere (i.e. air flight or aviation) or through the vacuum of outer space (i.e. spaceflight). This can be a ...

'', 21 December 1916. p. 1112. * Halley, James J. ''The Squadrons of the Royal Air Force''. Tonbridge, UK:Air Britain (Historians), 1980. . * Jackson, Paul. "The Hastings...Last of a Transport Dynasty". ''

Air Enthusiast ''Air Enthusiast'' was a British, bi-monthly, aviation magazine, published by the Key Publishing group. Initially begun in 1974 as ''Air Enthusiast Quarterly'', the magazine was conceived as a historical adjunct to '' Air International'' maga ...

'', Forty, September–December 1989. Bromley, UK:Tri-Service Press. ISSN 0143-5450. pp. 1–7, 47–52. * Lewis, Peter. ''Squadron Histories:R.F.C, R.N.A.S and R.A.F. 1912–59''. London:Putnam, 1959. * Mason, Francis K. ''The British Bomber since 1914''. London:Putnam, 1994. .
"Memorandum by the Secretary of State for Air"
''Flight'', 11 March 1932. pp. 214–217. * Rawlings, John D. R. ''Coastal, Support and Special Squadrons of the RAF and Their Aircraft''. London: Jane's Publishing Company, 1982. . * Richards, Denis and Hilary St. G. Saunders. ''Royal Air Force 1939–1945: Volume II: The Fight Avails''. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1954. * Shores, Christopher, Brian Cull and Yasuho Izawa. ''Bloody Shambles: Volume One: The Drift to War to the Fall of Singapore''. London:Grub Street, 1992. . * Shores, Christopher, Brian Cull and Yasuho Izawa. ''Bloody Shambles: Volume Two: The Defence of Sumatra to the Fall of Burma''. London:Grub Street, 1993. . * Shores, Christopher; Massimello, Giovanni; Guest, Russell; Olynyk, Frank; Bock, Winfried and Andy Thomas. ''A History of the Mediterranean Air War 1940–1945: Volume Four: Sicily and Italy to the Fall of Rome: 14 May, 1943 – 5 June 1944''. London: Grub Street, 2018. . * Thetford, Owen. "By Day and By Night: Horsleys in Service". ''Aeroplane Monthly'', November 1993, Vol 21 No 11 Issue 247. London:IPC. ISSN 0143-7240. pp. 32–40. * Thetford, Owen. "By Day and By Night: Vildebeest in Service". ''Aeroplane Monthly'', April 1995, Vol 23 No 4 Issue 264. London:IPC. ISSN 0143-7240. pp. 36–42.

External links

''Air of Authority – A History of RAF Organisation''.
Royal Air Force 36 Squadron Association
{{RAF squadrons 036 Squadron 036 Squadron Military units and formations established in 1916 1916 establishments in the United Kingdom Military units and formations in British Malaya in World War II