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No. 221 Squadron RAF

{{Short description|Disbanded flying squadron of the Royal Air Force}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2015}}

{{Use British English|date=August 2015}}

{{More footnotes needed|date=October 2013}}

{{Infobox military unit

|unit_name= No. 221 Squadron RAF

|image=Wellington No. 221 Sqn RAF over shot down Fw 200 crew 1941.jpg

|image_size=180px

|caption=A Vickers Wellington Mk.1C ("DF-S") of No. 221 Squadron based at Limavady, County Londonderry, guides an escort vessel to pick up the crew of a German Focke-Wulf Fw 200C Kondor in a dinghy, after they were shot down in the Atlantic by a Lockheed Hudson of No. 233 Squadron RAF, 1941

|dates= 1 April 1918 - 1 September 1919
21 November 1940 – 25 August 1945

|country= {{flag|United Kingdom}}

|branch= {{air force|United Kingdom}}

|role=Reconnaissance
Anti-Shipping

|size=Squadron

|motto=From sea to sea{{cite book|last1=Pine|first1=L G|title=A dictionary of mottoes|date=1983|publisher=Routledge and Kegan Paul|location=London|isbn=0-7100-9339-X|page=[https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofmott00tion/page/88 88]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofmott00tion/page/88}}

|aircraft_patrol=Vickers Wellington

}}

No. 221 Squadron was a Royal Air Force squadron that saw service in both the First and Second World Wars. Its motto was "From sea to sea".

History

The squadron was formed in Greece on 1 April 1918, from 'D' Squadron of No. 2 Wing RNAS. Initially engaged in anti-submarine warfare in the Aegean, it was sent to Russia in December 1918 to support White forces against the Bolsheviks. The unit was based at Petrovsk from January to 1 September 1919, when it was disbanded.{{cite book |title=RAF Operations 1918-1938 |last=Bowyer |first=Chaz |year=1988 |publisher=William Kimber |location=London |isbn=0-7183-0671-6 |pages=40, 41 }}

On 21 November 1940, No. 221 Squadron was reformed as part of Coastal Command. It flew Vickers Wellingtons on reconnaissance and anti-submarine patrols in the Atlantic, first out of England, then Northern Ireland and later Iceland. The squadron relocated to the Middle East in January 1942 and operated in the Mediterranean for the rest of the war, disbanding at Idku, Egypt on 21 August 1945.{{cite book |last1=Lake |first1=Alan |title=Flying Units of the RAF: The Ancestry, Formation and disbandment of all flying units from 1912. |date=1999 |publisher=Airlife Publishing Ltd. |location=England |isbn=1 84037 086 6 |pages=242–243 }}

See also

References

{{reflist}}

External links

{{Commons category|No. 221 Squadron RAF}}

  • [http://www.221Squadron.co.uk RAF Squadron website]
  • [http://www.raf.mod.uk/history_old/h221.html RAF Squadron history]
  • [http://www.rafweb.org/Sqn221-225.htm Air of Authority Squadron history]

{{RAF Squadrons}}

221

Category:Military units and formations established in 1918

Category:Military units and formations disestablished in 1945

Category:1918 establishments in Greece

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