No. 89 Squadron RAF
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No. 89 Squadron was a Royal Air Force squadron.
The squadron motto was Dei Auxilio Telis Meis.
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[edit] History
Formed on 1 September 1917 as a training unit at Netheravon. The squadron was not used for operations and remained a training unit. It was disbanded on 4 July 1918.
The squadron was formed again on 25 September 1941 at RAF Colerne. The squadron was equipped with the Bristol Beaufighter a night fighters. The squadron moved out to Middle East to defend the Nile delta and Canal Zone.
On 3 March 1942 the squadron scored its first victory when it shot down a German Luftwaffe Heinkel He 111.
The squadron was active in the Mediterranean area and sent aircraft to Malta and Algiers and in 1943 sought targets over Crete and later Sicily. With the withdrawal further north of the German night fighter units the squadron moved to Ceylon. A further move in the summer of 1944 to Burma on intruder missions. The aircraft withdrew from operations to convert to the de Havilland Mosquito. Apart from leaflet dropping from Singapore there was little for the squadron to do and it was disbanded on 1 May 1946 when it was re-numbered as 22 Squadron.
With the expansion of Fighter Command in the mid-1950s the squadron was reformed on 15 September 1955 at RAF Stradishall equipped with the de Havilland Venom night fighter. Two years later these were replaced with the Gloster Javelin. It only flew for a year as an all-weather fighter squadron and was disbanded on 30 November 1957 when it was re-numbered as 85 Squadron.
[edit] Aircraft operated
- 1918 - Royal Aircraft Factory SE.5A
- 1941 - Bristol Beaufighter IF and VIF
- 1945 - de Havilland Mosquito VI and XIX
- 1946 - Supermarine Walrus
- 1956 - de Havilland Venom NF3
- 1957 - GLoster Javelin FAW2 and FAW6
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- G G Jefford, RAF Squadrons, second edition 2001, Airlife Publishing, UK, ISBN 1-84037-141-2.
