No. 186 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 ...

was formed on 1 April 1918 at

East Retford East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

, providing night pilot training for home defence and on the Western front. On 31 December 1918 it was reformed as an operational shipboard unit aboard . In 1919, the squadron became a torpedo development unit, renumbering to become 210 Squadron on 1 February 1920. The Squadron reformed again, on 27 April 1943, at

RAF Drem 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 ...

as a fighter-bomber squadron, eventually receiving its first

Hurricanes A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

in August, after transferring to

RAF Ayr RAF Heathfield, sometimes known as RAF Ayr/Heathfield due to its proximity to Glasgow Prestwick Airport, which was also used by military flights, is a former Royal Air Force station. Like many other wartime airfields, its runways were of the t ...

, converting to

Typhoons A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere. This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for a ...

and later,

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 Griff ...

VBs. The squadron was renumbered as 130 squadron on 5 April 1944. Six months later, on 5 October 1944, The squadron was reformed as a Bomber Command Lancaster unit, based at

Tuddenham Tuddenham is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. In 2005 it had a population of 450. falling to 423 at the 2011 Census. RAF Tuddenham Between 1943 and 1963, RAF Tuddenham was a Royal Air F ...

, and flew its first bombing raid 13 days later. The squadron was disbanded on 17 July 1945. Official RAF History ''(retrieved 4 January 2016)''
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Notes

186 squadron 186 squadron {{RAF-stub