No. 150 Squadron RAF was an aircraft 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 both World War I and World War II.Gunston (1978) In the early 1960s it was briefly reformed as a Strategic Missile squadron operating the

Thor Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred groves and trees, strength, the protection of humankind, hallowing, an ...

IRBM.

World War I

The squadron was founded in April 1918 at

Salonika Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...

, Greece with elements from both

No. 17 Squadron RAF Number 17 Squadron (sometimes written as No. XVII Squadron), currently No. 17 Test and Evaluation Squadron (TES), is a squadron of the Royal Air Force. It was reformed on 12 April 2013 at Edwards Air Force Base, California, as the Operational ...

and No. 47 Squadron RAF. It was equipped with Bristol M.1c, Royal Aircraft Factory SE.5a, and

Sopwith Camel The Sopwith Camel is a British First World War single-seat biplane fighter aircraft that was introduced on the Western Front in 1917. It was developed by the Sopwith Aviation Company as a successor to the Sopwith Pup and became one of the ...

aircraft during its World War I service. Ten aces served with the unit, including such notables as

Gerald Gordon Bell Captain Gerald Gordon Bell (11 June 1890 – unknown) was a Canadian First World War flying ace, officially credited with sixteen aerial victories while serving in the British Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force. World War I Bell was born ...

, Charles D. B. Green, Douglas Arthur Davies, Acheson Goulding, Frederick Dudley Travers, Franklin Saunders, Arthur Jarvis, George Gardiner, and

Leslie Hamilton Flying Officer Leslie Hamilton , was a British First World War flying ace credited with six aerial victories. He disappeared while attempting the first non-stop east–west flight across the Atlantic Ocean. His Fokker F.VIIa, named ''St. Rapha ...

.Shores, Franks & Guest (1990), p. 40

World War II

It reformed in 1938 equipped with

Fairey Battle The Fairey Battle is a British single-engine light bomber that was designed and manufactured by the Fairey Aviation Company. It was developed during the mid-1930s for the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a monoplane successor to the Hawker Hart and ...

light bombers, taking them to France as part of the

Advanced Air Striking Force The RAF Advanced Air Striking Force (AASF) comprised the light bombers of 1 Group RAF Bomber Command, which took part in the Battle of France during the Second World War. Before hostilities began, it had been agreed between the United Kingdom a ...

in September 1939. It received heavy losses in attempting to oppose the

German invasion of France France has been invaded on numerous occasions, by foreign powers or rival French governments; there have also been unimplemented invasion plans. * the 1746 War of the Austrian Succession, Austria-Italian forces supported by the British navy attemp ...

in May 1940, being evacuated back to England by 20 May.Melinsky (1971), p. 105. 150 Squadron Wellington crew Tunisia WWII IWM CNA 1271

It re-equipped with

Vickers Wellington The Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engined, long-range medium bomber. It was designed during the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey. Led by Vickers-Armstrongs' chief designer Rex Pierson; a key feature of the aircraft is its ...

s in October 1940,at

RAF Newton Royal Air Force station Newton or more simply RAF Newton is a former Royal Air Force station located east of Nottingham, Nottinghamshire and south west of Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, England. It was used briefly as a bomber base for s ...

. It moved to RAF Snaith in July 1941 becoming operational with Vickers Wellington 1Cs. It moved to the Mediterranean Theatre in December 1942, flying its Wellingtons from

Blida Blida ( ar, البليدة; Tamazight: Leblida) is a city in Algeria. It is the capital of Blida Province, and it is located about 45 km south-west of Algiers, the national capital. The name ''Blida'', i.e. ''bulaydah'', is a diminutive ...

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

against targets in

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

and

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

. It moved to Tunisia in May 1943, and to bases in Italy in December, disbanding in October 1944. The photograph of a desert briefing at Kairouan in Tunisia is captioned by the Imperial War Museum as being a briefing conducted by S/L Langlois RAAF, the then CO . In fact, the officer shown was almost certainly his successor, Squadron Leader W.Desmond Boxwell DFC, who was immortalised in "The Wimpy Song" celebrating the Desert Air Force and sung to a Bowdlerised version of Lily Marlene It reformed again in November 1944 at

RAF Fiskerton Royal Air Force Fiskerton or more simply RAF Fiskerton was a Royal Air Force station located north of the Lincolnshire village of Fiskerton, east of Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England. The airfield closed at the end of the war in 1945 being a sat ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

, equipped with the Avro Lancaster heavy bomber. It soon moved to

RAF Hemswell Royal Air Force Hemswell or more simply RAF Hemswell is a former Royal Air Force (RAF) station located east of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England. Located close to the village of Hemswell in Lincolnshire, England the disestablished airfield ...

, flying 827 operational sorties and dropping 3,827 tons of bombs while losing eight aircraft and 40 aircrew. It was involved in Operation Manna to drop food supplies to starving Dutch civilians at the end of the War in Europe, and after the end of hostilities, was used to repatriate

POWs A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...

from Europe back to the United Kingdom. It was disbanded again on 7 November 1945.

Cold war

The squadron was reformed – as No. 150 (SM) Squadron – on 8 January 1959 as one of 20 Strategic Missile (SM) squadrons associated with

Project Emily Project Emily was the deployment of American-built Thor intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) in the United Kingdom between 1959 and 1963. Royal Air Force (RAF) Bomber Command operated 60 Thor missiles, dispersed to 20 RAF air stations ...

. The squadron was equipped with three

Intermediate range ballistic missile An intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) is a ballistic missile with a range of 3,000–5,500 km (1,864–3,418 miles), between a medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) and an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Classifying ba ...

s, and based at

RAF Carnaby Royal Air Force Carnaby or more simply RAF Carnaby is a former Royal Air Force emergency landing strip that offered crippled bombers a safe place to land near the English coast during the Second World War. It was situated south-west of Bridlin ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

. In October 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the squadron was kept at full readiness, with the missiles aimed at strategic targets in the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. The squadron was disbanded on 9 April 1963, as the Thor Program in Britain was brought to a close.

Notable pilots

* Gordon Cochrane * Erin Jasper Walker

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * * *

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:No. 150 Squadron Raf 150 Military units and formations established in 1918 Military units and formations disestablished in 1963