No. 681 Squadron RAF was a

photo-reconnaissance Aerial reconnaissance is reconnaissance for a military or strategic purpose that is conducted using reconnaissance aircraft. The role of reconnaissance can fulfil a variety of requirements including artillery spotting, the collection of imag ...

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 ...

during the

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 opposin ...

History

It was formed out of No. 3 PRU, at

Dum Dum Dum Dum is a city and a municipality of Kolkata district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a part of Kolkata urban area and also a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA). Etymology During the 19th ...

in India on 2 January 1943, as part of

RAF Far East Air Force The former Royal Air Force Far East Air Force, more simply known as RAF Far East Air Force, was the Command organisation that controlled all Royal Air Force assets in the east of Asia (Far East). It was originally formed as Air Command, South Ea ...

. Initially it was mostly equipped with Hurricane PR.Mk.II and Spitfire PR.Mk.IV fighters, but there was also a Dutch element in 'C' flight that operated North American Mitchells, which belonged to the former

Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force The Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force ( nl, Militaire Luchtvaart van het Koninklijk Nederlands-Indisch Leger, ML-KNIL) was the air arm of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) from 1939 until ...

. The squadron re-equipped with Mosquito PR.IXs in August 1943, and Spitfire PR.XIs in October. In November 1943 the twin-engined elements were used to form No. 684 Squadron RAF. 681 Squadron, which was now entirely equipped with the Spitfire PR.XI, moved to RAF Alipore,

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

in May 1944, where the squadron was under

No. 171 Wing RAF The numero sign or numero symbol, №, (also represented as Nº, No, No. or no.), is a typographic abbreviation of the word ''number''(''s'') indicating ordinal numeration, especially in names and titles. For example, using the numero sign, t ...

on 1 July 194

and Yangon International Airport, RAF Mingaladon,

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

in June 1945, receiving Spitfire PR.XIX photo-reconnaissance aircraft in August of that year. The squadron moved to

RAF Kai Tak RAF Kai Tak was a Royal Air Force (RAF) station in Hong Kong, based at Kai Tak Airport. It was opened in 1927 and used for seaplanes. The RAF flight operated a few land based aircraft as well as having spare aircraft for naval units. History ...

, Hong Kong, in September 1945, when the war formally ended. Detachments from the squadron however were still located and kept busy at a wide range of airfields across the South-East Asian theatre of war. The squadron was disbanded by renumbering it to

No. 34 Squadron RAF ("Wolf wishes, wolf flies") , dates=7 Jan 1916 – 25 Sept 19193 Dec 1935 – Feb 19421 Apr 1942 – 15 Oct 19451 Aug 1946 – 31 July 194711 Feb 1949 – 24 June 19521 Aug 1954 – 10 Jan 19581 Oct 1960 – 31 Dec 1967 , country= United ...

on 1 August 1946 at RAF Palam,

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

, (then) British India.

Aircraft operated

Squadron airfields

Commanding officers

References

Notes

Bibliography

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External links

Squadron Histories and more for Nos. 671–1435 Squadron on RAFweb

History of 681 Squadron

{{DEFAULTSORT:No. 681 Squadron Raf 681 Military units and formations established in 1943 Aircraft squadrons of the Royal Air Force in World War II Military units and formations disestablished in 1946 Reconnaissance units and formations of the Royal Air Force Military of Hong Kong under British rule