No. 193 Squadron RAF was a fighter 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 ...

during

World War II 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 opposing ...

History

No. 193 Squadron was formed at

RAF Harrowbeer Royal Air Force Harrowbeer or more simply RAF Harrowbeer is a former Royal Air Force station situated next to Yelverton in the parish of Buckland Monachorum, Devon, England Location RAF Harrowbeer was located approximately NNE of the city of ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

on 18 December 1942 as a fighter/ground attack unit. Although designated to operate the new

Hawker Typhoon The Hawker Typhoon is a British single-seat fighter-bomber, produced by Hawker Aircraft. It was intended to be a medium-high altitude interceptor, as a replacement for the Hawker Hurricane, but several design problems were encountered and i ...

, the squadron at first used the

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 ...

until the Typhoon was declared operational in April 1943. In November 1943 the squadron was used to attack the German

V-1 V1, V01 or V-1 can refer to version one (for anything) (e.g., see version control) V1, V01 or V-1 may also refer to: In aircraft * V-1 flying bomb, a World War II German weapon * V1 speed, the maximum speed at which an aircraft pilot may abort ...

launch sites. The squadron then moved base in the south of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

a number of times supporting the buildup for

invasion An invasion is a Offensive (military), military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitics, geopolitical Legal entity, entity aggressively enter territory (country subdivision), territory owned by another such entity, gen ...

. From 6 June 1944 the squadron was busy supporting the invasion force in the close-support fighter-bomber role. It was based on the Continent from 11 September 1944 as it continued to support the advancing armies in France, Belgium and Germany. The squadron disbanded on 31 August 1945 at

Hildesheim Hildesheim (; nds, Hilmessen, Hilmssen; la, Hildesia) is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany with 101,693 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim, about southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of the L ...

Trivia

Some of the squadron's Typhoon aircraft were paid for by the

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian branch of the Fellowship of the Bellows, which were a loosely organised international groups formed during

to collect funds for the purchase of aircraft for the

Aircraft operated

Rawlings 1978, p. 314.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Bowyer, Michael J.F. and John D.R. Rawlings. ''Squadron Codes, 1937–56''. Cambridge, 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: Airlife 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, Shropshire, UK: Airlife Publishing, 1988 (second edition 2001). . * Rawlings, John D.R. ''Fighter Squadrons of the RAF and their Aircraft''. London: Macdonald & Jane's (Publishers) Ltd., 1969 (2nd edition 1976, reprinted 1978). .

External links

Journals from a World War II pilot in 193 Squadron; 193 photos

{{DEFAULTSORT:No. 193 Squadron Raf 193 Squadron Military units and formations established in 1917 Fighter squadrons of the Royal Air Force in World War II Military units and formations disestablished in 1945 1917 establishments in the United Kingdom