No. 123 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) an ...

was a British aircraft squadron in the

First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

and

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

s.Jefford 2001, p. 58Orbis 1985, p. 3898 It was disbanded for the last time on 20 June 1945.

History

First World War

The squadron was formed at

RAF Waddington Royal Air Force Waddington otherwise known as RAF Waddington is a Royal Air Force (RAF) station located beside the village of Waddington, south of Lincoln, Lincolnshire in England. The station is the RAF's Intelligence Surveillance Target ...

in Lincolnshire, England on 1 February 1918. On 1 March 1918 it moved to

RAF Duxford Duxford Aerodrome is located south of Cambridge, within the civil parish of Duxford, Cambridgeshire, England and nearly west of the village. The airfield is owned by the Imperial War Museum (IWM) and is the site of the Imperial War Mus ...

to begin training as an Airco DH.9 unit using various aircraft. However, it was too late to see action and was disbanded on 17 August 1918. The squadron was formed again on 20 November 1918 at

RAF Upper Heyford RAF Upper Heyford was a Royal Air Force station located north-west of Bicester near the village of Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire, England. In the Second World War the airfield was used by Bomber Command. During the Cold War, Upper Heyford was one ...

as a Canadian-manned unit, again using the DH.9. It moved to Shoreham in March 1919 and was renamed No. 2 Squadron, Canadian Air Force until it was disbanded in 1920.

Second World War

123 Squadron RAF Spitfires and pilots Castletown WWII IWM CH 4180

In May 1941 the squadron was formed again at

RAF Turnhouse Royal Air Force Turnhouse or more simply RAF Turnhouse is a former Royal Air Force Sector Station located in Edinburgh, Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of G ...

in Scotland with Supermarine Spitfires, assigned to provide escorts and shipping patrols along the Scottish east coast and the Forth Estuary. The squadron was also assigned operational training duty; it took on new pilots and exposed them to operational flying before sending them to squadrons in England. In April 1942 the squadron personnel, without their aircraft, were shipped to Egypt. They arrived in June, but did not acquire any aircraft until October when

Gloster Gladiator The Gloster Gladiator is a British biplane fighter. It was used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) (as the Sea Gladiator variant) and was exported to a number of other air forces during the late 1930s. Developed private ...

s were used for training. The squadron was moved to the Persian Gulf and was re-equipped with

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 b ...

s, assigned to protect Iranian oilfields against attack. Six months later the squadron moved into the Western Desert of Egypt to undertake convoy patrols, equipped again with

Spitfires 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 ...

. It participated in the ground-attack role in Crete as part of Operation Thesis. The squadron did manage to keep hold a number of Hurricanes into 1944 when it was moved again to India in the Chittagong area. It was a busy time for the squadron with ground-attack sorties and bomber escorts and in June 1944 it re-equipped with the

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Republic P-47 Thunderbolts, and continued in support of the Army operations and escorting Douglas Dakotas on supply missions behind Japanese lines. On 20 June 1945 the squadron disbanded when it was re-numbered as 81 Squadron.

Aircraft operated

Notes

References

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External links

Official squadron history
{{DEFAULTSORT:123 Squadron Raf 123 123 Military units and formations established in 1918 Aircraft squadrons of the Royal Air Force in World War II 1918 establishments in the United Kingdom Military units and formations disestablished in 1945