No. 130 Squadron RAF
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No. 130 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
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 ...
and
Cold war The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...
fighter squadron, and later a strategic missile squadron.


History

The squadron was first formed on 1 March 1918 as part of the
Royal Flying Corps "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...
. Based at
RAF Wyton Royal Air Force Wyton or more simply RAF Wyton is a Royal Air Force station near St Ives, Cambridgeshire, England. The airfield is decommissioned and is now home to the Joint Forces Intelligence Group. History Flying station Wyton has b ...
it soon moved to
RAF Hucknall Hucknall, formerly Hucknall Torkard, is a market town in the Ashfield district of Nottinghamshire, England. It lies 7 miles north of Nottingham, 7 miles south-east of Kirkby-in-Ashfield, 9 miles from Mansfield and 10 miles south of Sutton-in- ...
as a training unit to convert pilots and observers on to the
Airco DH.9 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 ...
. With enough crews available for duties in France the squadron was disbanded on 4 July 1918. The squadron was formed again on 16 June 1941, as No. 130 (Punjab) Squadron following a donation of a squadron of
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 Gri ...
s by the state of
Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi Language, Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also Romanization, romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the I ...
. Based at Portreath it operated shipping patrols in the south west approaches to England. With the long summer nights it soon became active on fighter sweeps over northern France, it would fly to bases in the south-east of England in the morning to carry out operations and return to Cornwall at night. When winter approached it returned to coastal patrols until March 1943 when it moved North to Scotland. Having rested it was soon moved back to
RAF West Malling Royal Air Force West Malling or RAF West Malling is a former Royal Air Force station located south of West Malling, Kent and west of Maidstone, Kent, England. Originally used as a landing area during the First World War, It was disbanded on 13 February 1944 at
RAF Scorton Royal Air Force Scorton or more simply RAF Scorton is a former Royal Air Force satellite station located next to the village of Scorton in North Yorkshire, England. The base was opened in October 1939 as part of 13 Group RAF Fighter Command an ...
. To maintain the tradition of a Punjab squadron 186 Squadron at
RAF Lympne 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 re-numbered as No. 130 (Punjab) on 5 April 1944. As before, the squadron was equipped with Spitfires. It operated daily bomber escort sorties and, being close to the
English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" ( Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), ( Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Ka ...
, also took on a role in air-sea rescue, both searching for survivors and escorting rescue aircraft. For
Operation Overlord Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the Norm ...
(the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944) the squadron was equipped with the Spitfire V LF operating from a temporary airfield at
Horne, Surrey __NOTOC__ Horne is a rural village and civil parish in the District of Tandridge in Surrey, England. The parish includes the hamlet of Newchapel, where the British Wildlife Centre is situated. Eastern fields forming a narrow part of the par ...
as part of
Air Defence of Great Britain The Air Defence of Great Britain (ADGB) was a RAF command comprising substantial army and RAF elements responsible for the air defence of the British Isles. It lasted from 1925, following recommendations that the RAF take control of homeland air ...
, though under the operational control of
RAF Second Tactical Air Force The RAF Second Tactical Air Force (2TAF) was one of three tactical air forces within the Royal Air Force (RAF) during and after the Second World War. It was made up of squadrons and personnel from the RAF, other British Commonwealth air forces, ...
.Delve, p. 137. It provided cover for the Normandy beaches and shipping using the Mulberry harbours. In August 1944 the squadron moved to
RAF Tangmere RAF Tangmere was a Royal Air Force station located in Tangmere, England, famous for its role in the Battle of Britain, and one of several stations near Chichester, West Sussex. The famous Second World War aces Wing Commander Douglas Bader, a ...
and re-equipped with the more powerful Griffon-engined Spitfire XIV. The new Spitfires used the increased performance to operate '' Diver'' sorties: the interception of
V-1 flying bomb The V-1 flying bomb (german: Vergeltungswaffe 1 "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Reich Aviation Ministry () designation was Fi 103. It was also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb or doodlebug and in Germany ...
s. As the war progressed in mainland Europe the squadron started to operate ground-attack sorties over France and in October moved to Belgium to carry on the same role. It returned to England in May 1945. After it moved to
RAF Odiham RAF Odiham is a Royal Air Force station situated a little to the south of the village of Odiham in Hampshire, England. It is the home of the Royal Air Force's heavy lift helicopter, the Chinook, and of the King’s Helicopter Flight (TKHF) . ...
in 1946 it became part of one of the first Wings to operate the
de Havilland Vampire The de Havilland Vampire is a British jet fighter which was developed and manufactured by the de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was the second jet fighter to be operated by the RAF, after the Gloster Meteor, and the first to be powered by ...
jet fighter. On 31 January 1947 the squadron was disbanded when it was re-numbered as 72 Squadron. In 1953 the squadron was formed again with Vampires as part of the British forces in Germany to give air defence cover to the British sector equipped with the North American Sabre. The Sabres were an interim equipment until it could equip with the new
Hawker Hunter The Hawker Hunter is a transonic British jet-powered fighter aircraft that was developed by Hawker Aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was designed to take advantage of the newly developed Rolls-Ro ...
fighter in 1956. The squadron was disbanded at
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 ...
on 30 April 1957. The squadron reformed for the last time on 1 December 1959 at
RAF Polebrook Royal Air Force Station Polebrook or more simply RAF Polebrook is a former Royal Air Force station located east-south-east of Oundle, at Polebrook, Northamptonshire, England. The airfield was built on Rothschild estate land starting in Augus ...
as one of 20 Strategic Missile (SM) squadrons associated with Project Emily. The squadron was equipped with three
Thor Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred groves and trees, strength, the protection of humankind, hallowing, ...
Intermediate range ballistic missile An intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) is a ballistic missile with a range of 3,000–5,500 km (1,864–3,418 miles), between a medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) and an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Classifying ba ...
s. In October 1962, during the
Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis (of 1962) ( es, Crisis de Octubre) in Cuba, the Caribbean Crisis () in Russia, or the Missile Scare, was a 35-day (16 October – 20 November 1962) confrontation between the United S ...
, the squadron was kept at full readiness, with the missiles aimed at strategic targets in the
USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nati ...
. The squadron was disbanded with the termination of the Thor Program in the United Kingdom in August 1963.


Aircraft operated


Notes


References

* Ken Delve, ''D-Day: The Air Battle'', London: Arms & Armour Press, 1994, . * * {{DEFAULTSORT:130 Squadron Royal Flying Corps squadrons Royal Air Force aircraft squadrons 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 1963