No. 213 Squadron was a squadron of 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 ...

. The squadron was formed on 1 April 1918 from No. 13 (Naval) Squadron of the

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 ...

.Halley 1988, p. 278. This RNAS squadron was itself formed on 15 January 1918 from the Seaplane Defence Flight which, since its creation in June 1917, had had the task of defending the seaplanes which flew out of Dunkirk.

History

World War I

Formed originally from the Seaplane Defence Flight, which was itself founded in June 1917 at Dunkirk, it was reorganized as No. 13 Squadron RNAS on 15 January 1918. As the SDF, it operated

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 ...

s. When the

merged with the

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

to form the Royal Air Force, it was renumbered as 213 Squadron.Shores, Franks & Guest 1990, p. 42. In this incarnation, it flew

Sopwith Baby The Sopwith Baby is a British single-seat floatplane that was operated by the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) from 1915. Development and design The Baby (also known as the Admiralty 8200 Type) was a development of the two-seat Sopwith Schneider. ...

floatplanes and transitioned to

Sopwith Camel The Sopwith Camel is a British First World War single-seat biplane fighter aircraft that was introduced on the Western Front in 1917. It was developed by the Sopwith Aviation Company as a successor to the Sopwith Pup and became one of the b ...

s. It was during this time that the squadron derived its

Hornet Hornets (insects in the genus ''Vespa'') are the largest of the eusocial wasps, and are similar in appearance to their close relatives yellowjackets. Some species can reach up to in length. They are distinguished from other vespine wasps by th ...

insignia and motto for the squadron badge, after overhearing a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language ...

General refer to the squadron's defence of his trenches, "Like angry hornets attacking the enemy aircraft". The Hornet became affectionately known as "Crabro,"

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

for hornet. The squadron's official motto became, "Irritatus Lacessit Crabro" (The Hornet Attacks When Roused). In March 1919 the squadron went back to the UK where it disbanded on 31 December 1919. During its wartime existence, the squadron had 14

flying aces A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ace is varied, but is usually co ...

serve with it, including such notables as; John Edmund Greene, Colin Brown, George Chisholm MacKay,

Leonard Slatter Air Marshal Sir Leonard Horatio Slatter, (8 December 1894 – 14 April 1961) was a naval aviator during the First World War and a senior Royal Air Force commander during the Second World War. Slatter ended his career as the Air Officer Commandi ...

, Maurice Cooper,

Miles Day Flight Commander Miles Jeffery Game Day , (1 December 1896 – 27 February 1918) was a World War I flying ace credited with five aerial victories, and also a war poet. Background and education Jeffery Day, as he was commonly known, was born in ...

Ronald Graham Ronald Lewis Graham (October 31, 1935July 6, 2020) was an American mathematician credited by the American Mathematical Society as "one of the principal architects of the rapid development worldwide of discrete mathematics in recent years". He ...

, John Paynter, John Pinder, and

George Stacey Hodson Air Vice Marshal George Stacey Hodson , (2 May 1899 – 1 October 1976) was an air officer of the British Royal Air Force who began his military career as a World War I flying ace credited with ten aerial victories. In the course of his 34 year ...

Second World War

The squadron was reformed on 8 March 1937 flying

Gloster Gauntlet The Gloster Gauntlet was a single-seat biplane fighter designed and produced by the British aeroplane manufacturer Gloster Aircraft in the 1930s. It was the last fighter to be operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) to have an open cockpit, and ...

IIs, converting to

Hawker Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by ...

s in January 1939 and flew throughout the war. It participated as part of the British Expeditionary Force; then at

Dunkirk Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

and finally in the Middle East as part of the

Desert Air Force The Desert Air Force (DAF), also known chronologically as Air Headquarters Western Desert, Air Headquarters Libya, the Western Desert Air Force, and the First Tactical Air Force (1TAF), was an Allied tactical air force created from No. 204 ...

. It also flew

Supermarine Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Grif ...

s and

North American Mustang The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang is an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II and the Korean War, among other conflicts. The Mustang was designed in April 1940 by a team headed by James H ...

Post-Second World War

After the war, the squadron remained in the Middle East, first flying

Hawker Tempest The Hawker Tempest is a British fighter aircraft that was primarily used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the Second World War. The Tempest, originally known as the ''Typhoon II'', was an improved derivative of the Hawker Typhoon, intended to ...

s and then

de Havilland Vampire The de Havilland Vampire is a British jet fighter which was developed and manufactured by the de Havilland, de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was the second jet fighter to be operated by the Royal Air Force, RAF, after the Gloster Meteor, and ...

s. It was stationed at Deversoir in the

Suez Canal Zone The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...

from October 1948 till its disbandment there on 30 September 1954.

With Bomber Command to RAF Germany

The squadron reformed once again on 1 September 1955 as an

English Electric Canberra The English Electric Canberra is a British first-generation, jet-powered medium bomber. It was developed by English Electric during the mid- to late 1940s in response to a 1944 Air Ministry requirement for a successor to the wartime de Havil ...

squadron, specialising in low level interdiction missions. It was the only squadron to fly the Canberra B(I).6 variant, still with the "Crabro" insignia adorning the tail fin, first from

RAF Ahlhorn Royal Air Force Ahlhorn or more simply RAF Ahlhorn, is a former Royal Air Force station located south east of the centre of Ahlhorn, Lower Saxony and north of Vechta, Lower Saxony, Germany Originally, it was a German airbase for Zeppelins. ...

and later from

RAF Bruggen Royal Air Force Brüggen, more commonly known as RAF Brüggen, in Germany was a major station of the Royal Air Force until 15 June 2001. It was situated next to the village of Elmpt, approximately west of Düsseldorf on the Dutch-German bo ...

, while a detachment was for a short time in 1956 stationed at

Valkenburg Naval Air Base Valkenburg Naval Air Base (Dutch: Vliegkamp Valkenburg) is a former air base located just south of Valkenburg, which is part of Katwijk and close to the city of Leiden, that was used by the Netherlands Naval Aviation Service until 2006, being th ...

in the Netherlands.Moyes 1976, p. 201. The squadron finally disbanded on 31 December 1969.

Aircraft operated

Commanding officers

References

;Bibliography * 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: Airlif Publishing Ltd., 2003. . * 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: Airlife Publishing, 1998 (second edition 2001). . * Leeson, Frank M. ''The Hornet Strikes: the Story of 213 Squadron Royal AIr Force''. Tonbridge, Kent, UK: AIr-Britain (Historians) Ltd., 1998. . * 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). . * 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). . *

External links

213 sqn association

{{DEFAULTSORT:No. 213 Squadron Raf 213 Squadron Military units and formations in Mandatory Palestine in World War II