No. 256 Squadron RAF was a flying 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 ...

which operated during the First 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. Initially equipped with Dh6 and

Kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern ...

aircraft, it operated Defiant Mk IIs, Beaufighters, and

Mosquitoes Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small Diptera, flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning "gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish ...

in the Second World War. In the 1950s it was equipped with the Meteor NF11 Night/All Weather Fighter and was assigned to No 125 Wing, RAF. Based in Germany as part of the

2nd 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 forc ...

, it initially flew from

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

in north Germany until that airfield was handed back to the German Air Force in 1958, after which the wing was re-located at RAF Geilenkirchen near Aachen.

First World War

The squadron was formed in June 1918 at RAF Elford (later RAF Seahouses), flying Dh6 aircraft. It parented No.s 495 (Light Bomber), 525, 526, 527 and 528 Special Duty Flights. The various flights were engaged in coastal patrols and outbased at other locations such as RAF Ashington, New Haggerston, Rennington, and Cairncross. A cadre of

Kangaroos Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

was detached to the airfield at Killingholme at the end of January 1919, but five months later, the whole squadron was disbanded.

Second World War

The squadron reformed at RAF Catterick as night-fighter unit, in November 1940, flying the

Boulton Paul Defiant The Boulton Paul Defiant is a British interceptor aircraft that served with the Royal Air Force (RAF) during World War II. The Defiant was designed and built by Boulton Paul Aircraft as a "turret fighter", without any fixed forward-firing guns ...

. It moved to RAF Pembrey in January 1941, but didn't stay long and the squadron moved to

RAF Colerne Royal Air Force Colerne or more simply RAF Colerne is a former Royal Air Force station which was on the outskirts of the village of Colerne in Wiltshire, England, and was in use from 1939 to 1976. The site is now known as Azimghur Barracks and ...

in February 1941, and then a month later moving to

RAF Squires Gate Blackpool Airport is an airport on the Fylde coast of Lancashire, England, in the Borough of Fylde, just outside the Borough of Blackpool. It was formerly known as Squires Gate Airport and Blackpool International Airport. Ownership of the ai ...

. In June 1942, the squadron relocated to RAF Woodvale and converted from the Defiant to Beaufighters. The squadron relocated to

RAF Ford HM Prison Ford (informally known as Ford Open Prison) is a Category D men's prison, located at Ford, in West Sussex, England, near Arundel and Littlehampton. The prison is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. Air Force and Navy use The ...

in Sussex in April 1943 and re-equipped with Mosquito NF.xii aircraft before returning to RAF Woodvale in August 1943. In September 1943, the squadron was moved to RAF Luqa in Malta for night-defence and convoy escort duties. In April 1944, most of the squadron moved to La Senia Airfield in Algeria, whilst a month later in May 1944, the squadron absorbed the Spitfires of the Gibraltar Defence Flight (formerly No. 1676 Flight), which became 'C' Flight within the squadron. During this time, the squadron ran intruder operations into Italy, eventually relocating to Foggia to enable these flights to be extended into the Balkans. Arriving at Foggia in September 1944, the squadron moved again to Forlì in February 1945 and at the end of the war, the squadron was at El Ballah in Egypt.

Post war

The squadron moved to

RAF Nicosia Royal Air Force Station Nicosia or RAF Nicosia was a Royal Air Force (RAF) station on the island of Cyprus, built in the 1930s. The station served as Headquarters Royal Air Force Cyprus from 8 June to 29 July 1941. The original principal air ...

in July 1946 and disbanded there in September of the same year. The squadron was reformed with

Gloster Meteor The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies of World War II, Allies' only jet aircraft to engage in combat operations during the Second World War. The Meteor's development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turb ...

aircraft in November 1952 at

in north western Germany; at this time it was assigned to No 125 Wing, RAF and formed part of the

. The squadron moved to RAF Geilenkirchen in January 1958, and was renumbered to No. 11 Squadron a year later whilst still operating from Geilenkirchen.

Squadron badge

The

badge A badge is a device or accessory, often containing the insignia of an organization, which is presented or displayed to indicate some feat of service, a special accomplishment, a symbol of authority granted by taking an oath (e.g., police and ...

for No. 256 Squadron was approved in 1948 and showed a ferret looking to the right in front of a blue anchor. The anchor relates to the coastal and convoy patrols in the First World War and the ferret represented the intruder operations in the Second World War. The squadron's motto was ''Addimus vim viribus'', Latin for ''(we add) strength to strength''.

References

Sources

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256 Year 256 ( CCLVI) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Claudius and Glabrio (or, less frequently, year 1009 ''Ab urbe condi ...